Ingredients You Will Need
- Two cups of low fat cottage cheese
- Three large eggs at room temperature
- Half a cup of pure maple syrup or honey
- Two teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
- One fourth cup of fresh lemon juice
- Two tablespoons of fresh lemon zest
- Two cups of oat flour or almond flour
- One scoop of vanilla protein powder
- One tablespoon of baking powder
- Half a teaspoon of sea salt
- One tablespoon of poppy seeds for extra crunch
Step by Step Method
First you need to get your oven ready by preheating it to three hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit. While the oven is warming up you should prepare your loaf pan by lining it with parchment paper or spraying it with a little bit of nonstick cooking oil so the cake comes out easily later. Take your cottage cheese and put it into a blender or a food processor because you want to blend it until it is completely smooth and creamy like a thick sauce. Add the eggs and the maple syrup and the vanilla extract into the blender with the cheese and pulse it a few times until everything is well combined. Now pour this wet mixture into a large mixing bowl and stir in the lemon juice and the freshly grated lemon zest until the smell of citrus fills the air.
In a separate smaller bowl you should whisk together your dry ingredients which are the flour and the protein powder and the baking powder and the salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and use a spatula to fold them together gently so you do not overwork the batter. If you are using poppy seeds you can fold them in at this stage to give the cake those beautiful little black dots and a nice texture. Once the batter is smooth and there are no large clumps of flour left you can pour it into your prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top with your spoon. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake it for about forty five to fifty five minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.
When the cake is done baking you must let it sit in the pan for at least ten minutes before you try to move it because it needs time to set. After ten minutes you can lift the cake out using the parchment paper and place it on a wire rack to cool down completely to room temperature. Cooling is a very important step because the cottage cheese needs to firm up to give you that perfect sliceable texture that we all love. Once it is cool you can slice it into ten even pieces and enjoy it right away or store it in the fridge for a chilled treat. You will notice that the cake gets even better the next day as the lemon flavors have more time to soak into the crumb.
