Cottage cheese is integral to Indian vegetarian cuisine. Palak paneer, kadai paneer and paneer tikka are to foodies what Lata Mangeshkar songs are to film buffs. Over the past few months, cottage cheese has been trending on platforms like TikTok and Instagram for being creamy, protein-rich and extremely versatile.
Ice cream has always been a popular subject of food trends on social media. For example, in March, combining fruit roll-ups, like aam papad, with ice cream became a popular sweet treat for it added a chewy texture. It comes as no surprise that the dessert is the focus of another food trend, this time starring the Internet’s current favourite ingredient, cottage cheese.
Cottage cheese ice cream started to go viral in April, when it was made by US-based food content creator Lainie Kates (@lainiecooks on Instagram). On the social media platform, the reel garnered over 60 lakh views and eight thousand likes as of July. The ice cream involves blending soft cottage cheese with honey, adding toppings and flavourings and then freezing it. In her caption, Kates described the dessert as the “creamiest ice cream that tastes like straight up cheesecake ice cream but is actually good for you.”
Soon, food bloggers across the internet were attempting their own versions of this sweet treat, with flavours like strawberry cheesecake by US-based food blogger Maxine Sharf @maxiskitchen and blueberry which was made by US-based content creator, Monique Volz @ambitiouskitchen, with each reel getting around 8 lakh views.
Cottage cheese made the headlines again in July, when content creator Tiffany Elizabeth (@tiffanyymagee) filmed herself dipping carrots, celery stalks, turnips, and sausages into a mustard and cottage cheese sauce. Her reel on Instagram has more than 80 thousand views. With this trend, content creators are also experimenting by making cottage cheese bread, cookie dough, or simply putting it on toast as a spread.
In this video, Maxine Sharf from @maxiskitchen shows how to make strawberry cheesecake ice cream using cottage cheese and uses maple syrup as a sweetener. While she uses graham crackers to add a crunch, digestive biscuits can also be used.