061 / 75 · Smaller Meals and Sweet Finishes
Chocolate Cherry Cottage Cheese Pots
4 chilled pots, about 250 g each · Active 15 min · Cook 0 min · Total 45 min
Print recipe · PDFCocoa turns blended cottage cheese into a dark, spoonable cream, while chopped fresh cherries keep the finish bright. These are small chilled meals or desserts, rather than a replacement for a full dinner. The dairy is blended until completely smooth before the fruit is layered through the pots. Four lidded containers make the batch easy to divide before a busy training week.
Give the blender enough to work with
Start with the milk in a narrow blending jug, then add cottage cheese and the remaining cream ingredients. The small amount of milk helps the blade catch the curds without turning the mixture into a drink. Blend, stop, scrape the sides and blend again. A full-size blender may struggle with this quantity; a compact processor or immersion blender in a tall jug is often easier. Check a little cream on a spoon before portioning. Visible white curds mean it needs more blending, not more cocoa.
Cherries should remain fruit
Weigh the cherries after removing their stones. Chop most into small pieces so a spoonful contains both chocolate cream and fruit, then reserve a few halved cherries for the top. Keeping the fruit in the middle leaves a clean dark surface that shows the red fruit well. Use ripe cherries with a gentle give when pressed; very firm, underripe fruit can make this combination seem sharper than intended. The measured syrup is split between fruit and cream so the cherry juices do not disappear into an overly sweet chocolate layer.
A useful pot is a measured pot
Divide all the cream and all the cherries among four containers rather than filling one large tub and guessing at portions later. The nutrition estimate belongs to one complete pot. If you want a larger meal, choose something alongside it and account for that separately. A short refrigerator rest lets the cocoa hydrate and thickens the cream slightly. There is no setting agent here, so expect a soft spoon dessert rather than a sliceable pudding.
Ingredients
- 2 cups low-fat cottage cheese, 2% milk fat (450 g)
- 1/4 cup 2% milk (60 ml/60 g)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (20 g)
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (40 g), divided
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml/5 g)
- A small pinch fine salt (0.4 g)
- About 2 cups fresh cherries, pitted, then weighed (320 g)
Set out
Compact food processor or immersion blender with tall jug, Kitchen scale, Cherry pitter or small knife, Four lidded 10 fl oz/300 ml containers, Rubber spatula
Allergens
Milk. Check labels and substitutions.
Make it
- Rinse the cherries, remove every stone and weigh 320 g of edible fruit. Halve 8 cherries for the tops and roughly chop the rest. Toss all the fruit with 1 teaspoon/7 g of the maple syrup.
- Put milk, cottage cheese, cocoa, the remaining 33 g maple syrup, vanilla and salt in a compact processor or tall blending jug. Blend for 1–2 minutes, stopping to scrape down, until no curds remain.
- Divide half the chocolate cream among the four containers. Divide the chopped cherries and their juices over it, then add the remaining cream. Finish with the reserved cherry halves, dividing the fruit equally.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. Each serving is one whole pot.
Prepare a definite smaller meal
Label the four pots before putting them away. Having a separate portion ready can be useful when a workout and dinner are far apart; choose the amount and timing that suit your own appetite, without treating this recipe as a prescribed training snack.
A useful detail
The cherry weight excludes stones and stems. Use plain cottage cheese with 2% milk fat for the stated base recipe and nutrition estimate.
Another way
- Replace the 320 g cherries with the same edible weight of hulled ripe strawberries, chopped into small pieces.
- For a mocha version, blend 1 teaspoon/2 g instant coffee into the milk before adding the other cream ingredients. This changes the flavor and introduces caffeine.
Keep it well
Keep covered at 40°F/4°C or below and use within 2 days. For a trip to the gym or work, use an insulated bag with two cold sources and refrigerate on arrival. Freezing changes the dairy texture and is not recommended.