These scrumptious, low carb, keto, fluffy pancakes are high protein, with 6 simple ingredients and made quickly in a blender! 15 grams of protein and just 4 g net carbs for two protein pancakes!
Keto-Friendly Cottage Cheese Pancakes
The main ingredient to these low carb pancakes is cottage cheese! These keto pancakes have an amazing fluffy texture and provide extra protein that typical pancakes don't provide making them a really great option for a healthy breakfast for the family.
If you're following a keto diet, low carb diet or you're changing your eating habits to reduce your added sugar and carb intake, this is the pancake recipe for you!
Carbs in Regular Pancakes
Typical pancakes made with white flour or whole wheat flour have 26.5 grams carb count, with 199 calories for 2 plain pancakes (4 inches diameter) from the Cronometer app.
Our original recipe has 7 total carbs for 2 pancakes with 15 grams protein and 4 g net carbs.
All the rest of the Nutritional value for our keto pancakes is at the bottom of this blog post in the recipe card.
Best Cottage Cheese
Full-fat cottage cheese is the best to use for this keto pancake recipe and will provide better texture overall.
It doesn't matter if you use small curd or large curd cottage cheese because I recommend blending the ingredients in a blender to get the best results on a hot griddle.
I do not recommend fat-free cottage cheese as it won't be satisfying or provide that nice fluffy texture.
The specific brands I like are the Green Valley Lactose Free Full Fat Cottage cheese since my daughter and I have a lactose intolerance, this works better for us without stomach issues.
The Good Culture brand is also great if you don't have a lactose intolerance.
Can I Swap Almond Flour?
If you have a nut allergy you can swap out the almond flour used in this recipe for Low Carb Cottage Cheese Pancakes, with sunflower seed flour in the same amount.
I don't recommend swapping almond flour with all purpose flour because it is a white refined flour which is high in carbs and will spike your blood sugar and cause sugar cravings.
You could swap almond flour with gluten-free flour, which is definitely better than all purpose flour but again it is high carb often containing ingredients like potato flour, or rice flour.
Can I Swap Cottage Cottage?
Yes you can swap cottage cheese and Greek yogurt as they are very similar, but cottage cheese does have more protein and a little bit less carbs.
I'd recommend full fat and plain Greek yogurt, no fruit or sweeteners included.
4% Cottage cheese in one half cup has 103 calories and 11.7 g protein and 3.5 carbs.
One half cup of plain Greek yogurt has 103 calories and 10 g protein and 3.9 carbs.
Can I Add Protein Powder?
I think you could add protein powder to these cottage cheese almond flour pancakes but I would probably reduce the amount of almond flour to ¾ cup instead.
Can I replace Almond Flour with Coconut Flour?
No I don't recommend swapping almond flour with coconut flour because coconut flour is more dense and requires more eggs and liquids. For example, 1 cup almond flour is about eual to just ¼ cup coconut flour.
Low Carb Sweeteners
There are so many options for sugar free sweeteners on the market shelves today, many more options than when i first went sugar free back on 2006. I started using stevia back then and eventually went with erythritol as well.
I steered clear from artificial sweeteners as I found they cause me to have strong sugar cravings, but once I switched to natural sweeteners my cravings went away.
Today I also use Allulose and Monk fruit sweetener. I think adding the right amount of sweetness is important for serving these pancakes to children, especially if you want them to enjoy this new way of eating, if you're trying to get them on board.
You can really use any sweeteners for these pancakes, or you can leave it out as well, it's up to you. Here's my Sweetener Guide & Conversion chart.
Low Carb Keto Pancake Toppings
Fresh Blueberries, raspberries or strawberries
Homemade Sugar Free Whipped Cream
How to Store Leftover Pancakes
Once cooked and cooled, store leftover pancakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Reheat in the microwave with a little butter on top of the pancakes for 30 seconds to 1 minute or reheat in a hot non-stick skillet for 2-3 minutes to warm on each side.
Healthy Pancake Recipes
Low Carb Keto Sheet Pan Pancakes
Low Carb Keto Ricotta Vanilla Pancakes
Low Carb Keto Gingerbread Pancakes
Best Keto Low Carb Cottage Cheese Pancakes
Low Carb Keto Cottage Cheese Pancakes
Ingredients
- ½ cup cottage cheese full fat
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup almond flour or see notes above
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon Swerve granular or or see notes above
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 teaspoon avocado oil or butter, for frying or coconut oil
Instructions
- Add the cottage cheese, eggs, almond flour, baking powder, sweetener and vanilla to a blender or food processor. You could alternatively add ingredients to a large mixing bowl and use an immersion blender to blend. Process until smooth and combined. Try not to over blend as this will make the pancake texture dense.
- Allow the mix to stand for 5 minutes to firm up the smooth pancake batter.
- Add a little avocado oil or butter to a non-stick pan. Heat on a medium heat. Once hot, add the batter, about ¼ cup per pancake. Cook for 2 - 3 mins per side until golden brown on both sides and crisp edges. The whole batch of batter makes 8 pancakes.
- Serve with optional low carb drizzle of maple syrup and fresh berries or other favourite toppings.
- Note: the batter can be made the day before and kept in the fridge if you need and cooked the next day.
- Storage; Airtight container in the fridge for 2 - 3 days or can be frozen for 2 months.
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
KC
Easy, quick, nice texture, & tastes great. I followed the instructions exactly, then added Lily’s chocolate chips. My hubby, who “hates cottage cheese”, devoured them… then even had another after I told him what was in it. Thank you, Brenda, for yet another winner. I SO appreciate all your work testing and perfecting recipes so we don’t have to.
Brenda Bennett
So happy to hear that, thank you!
Jeanette Slabaugh
I am diabetic, so I limit sugar and try to increase protein. I made your sugar free, high protein pancakes today and they were quick, easy and my husband loved them!
Brenda Bennett
So happy you and hubby liked them!
Jane Halleran
Another terrific recipe! My husband being diabetic was very pleased to enjoy these pancakes. He said more than once they were like “ real pancakes “!
One thing I changed about the recipe is that I blended all the ingredients except the almond flour first then blending in the flour. I learned this technique from a blender banana muffin recipe. May not be necessary though. I used Lakanto monkfruit maple flavored syrup for the topping. Thanks for sharing all your great recipes!
Linnie
I made these yesterday, using cinnamon, coconut oil, and 2 small blueberries per thin pancake. It was too thick for my (cheap!) blender, so I added 1/4 cup of cashew milk.
Wow! So delicious! And no grittiness, either. This will be my go-to from now on.
Thank you for all your delicious recipes!
Brenda Bennett
Thank you so much for sharing!
Kyra Winkelman
Looking for something different for breakfast? The answer is Cottage cheese pancakes from sugarfreemom.com. So delicious!
Mary
Can this recipe be made into waffles? I enjoyed the pancakes, but don't always have the time to stand and watch and flip pancakes.
Brenda Bennett
Yes they can be.
Susan Lee
These are best alternative pancakes I’ve ever made and I’ve tried so many but will make these again! Very good
Brenda
Thank you so much!
Chrissy Novak
Best texture I've had so close to the real thing. No gritty or almondy taste. I thought I was eating regular pancakes again!
Brenda
Amazing! Glad to hear, thank you!
Lynn Williams
I really enjoyed these pancakes. A great recipe. I added a little cinnamon to the batter which I it felt was a great addition because I love the cinnamon flavor .