This cottage cheese pancakes recipe is the best genius trick! It makes a protein packed pancake that tastes like French toast.

Cottage cheese pancakes? Yes, this pancakes recipe is the best kept secret on the internet! This protein-packed pancake uses half the flour as a regular pancake recipe, relying on eggs and cottage cheese instead. It’s tender, fluffy, and vanilla-scented: in fact, it tastes like French toast! This is our go-to pancake recipe for entertaining (really!). Ready to give it a try?

Ingredients in this cottage cheese pancakes recipe

We didn’t invent the idea of cottage cheese pancakes: it’s been swirling around on the internet for a while (undetected by us). But we did create this riff on the theme, which results in a big batch of fluffy, ample-sized pancakes. You’ll need only 7 ingredients for this recipe:

Small curd cottage cheese (see notes below)
Eggs
All purpose flour
Maple syrup
Vanilla
Baking powder and salt

Look for small curd cottage cheese

The most important part of the ingredients in cottage cheese pancakes? Find small curd cottage cheese. This type of cottage cheese has smaller curds (as the name implies). Why it’s important? Small curds allow the cheese to mostly melt into the pancake texture when cooked, so there aren’t many visible white flecks when you cut into it. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Some brands labeled as “small curd” have fairly large curds. The size varies based on brand. One small curd brand we bought was exactly the same curd size as another brand that was not labeled small curd. Experiment and find a brand that works for you!
That said, the recipe works with any size of curd (except large). Don’t sweat it too much! Avoid anything marked large curd, but you can really use whatever you have on hand. You just may end up with some white flecks: which are not bad! They’re still just as delicious.

Makes for protein filled pancakes

What we like about this cottage cheese pancakes recipe? It uses half the normal amount of all-purpose flour in a traditional pancakes recipe. We’re not anti-flour, but we do like a pancake that fills us up with protein so we’re not hungry 1 hour later. Here’s a little breakdown:

1 Cottage Cheese Pancake has over 7 grams protein! A serving size of two of these is approximately 30% of your daily protein intake.
1 Standard Pancake has approximately 4 grams protein. So the cottage cheese pancake has nearly double the protein!

Want more recipes with this healthy cheese? Go to 12 Genius Cottage Cheese Recipes to Try Now.

Toppings for cottage cheese pancakes

There are so many ways to top your cottage cheese pancakes! Typically when we serve pancakes we try to offset the sweet with a little nut butter for protein. Because these are high protein pancakes, there’s no need: top them with whatever you like! Here are some ideas:

Pure maple syrup and powdered sugar: this plays up the French toast vibe
Fresh berries like raspberries, blackberries or blueberries
Sliced bananas
Crushed nuts like pecans, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts or slivered almonds
Nut butter like peanut, almond, pecan, pistachio, or walnut butter

More pancake recipes

There are so many riffs on pancake recipes, and we love trying them all. Here are some of our top healthy pancake recipes:

Grab Classic Pancakes, Classic Buttermilk Pancakes or Blueberry Pancakes
Mix up our favorite Mini Pancakes, Whole Wheat Pancakes or Cornmeal Pancakes
Try Best-Ever Oatmeal Pancakes or Banana Oatmeal Pancakes made with oats (no flour!)
Go for Fluffy Almond Flour Pancakes, made with almond flour
Opt for Go-To Vegan Pancakes, with no dairy
Try Peanut Butter Pancakes, with an extra dose of nut butter

Best-Ever Oatmeal Pancakes

Fluffy Almond Flour Pancakes

Go-To Vegan Pancakes

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

This cottage cheese pancakes recipe is…

Vegetarian.