The photo appears to show small, flourless/low-flour blueberry muffins made with oats, eggs and cottage cheese, blended into a batter and baked in a mini-muffin pan. Several similar recipes use this same combination of oats, cottage cheese, eggs and blueberries; the recipe below is a balanced version designed to closely reproduce the look and texture in your photo.
Yield
24 mini muffins
Prep: 10–15 minutes
Bake: 12–16 minutes
Total: about 30 minutes
Oven: 350°F / 175°C
Texture: soft, moist, slightly chewy
Flavor: lightly sweet, creamy and blueberry-forward
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
1 cup (225 g) cottage cheese, full-fat or low-fat
2 large eggs, preferably room temperature
2 tablespoons (30 ml) maple syrup or honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons (28 g) melted butter or neutral oil
Dry ingredients
1½ cups (135 g) old-fashioned rolled oats
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
Blueberries
1 cup (150 g) fresh blueberries
Optional: 1 teaspoon oat flour for coating the berries
The combination of blended cottage cheese and oats is commonly used to produce moist muffins without requiring much or any conventional flour.
Full Step-by-Step Recipe
1. Prepare the oven and pan
Preheat your oven to:
350°F (175°C)
Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan very well.
Silicone mini-muffin liners work particularly well. Cottage-cheese-based muffins can stick more than conventional muffins, so don’t rely on an ungreased dark nonstick pan.
2. Blend the cottage cheese
Place the 225 g cottage cheese into a blender.
Blend for approximately 20–30 seconds, until smooth and creamy.
This step is important because it removes the noticeable cottage-cheese curds and produces a smoother muffin.
3. Add the wet ingredients
Add to the blender:
2 eggs
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons melted butter or oil
Blend for about 10–15 seconds, just until combined.
Don’t continuously blend for several minutes—the goal is simply to make a smooth wet mixture.
4. Add the oats and dry ingredients
Add:
1½ cups rolled oats
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
Pulse/blend for approximately 20–30 seconds.
You want the oats mostly broken down, but the mixture doesn’t need to become perfectly smooth.
For an especially smooth muffin, blend a little longer. For a more rustic, oat-like texture, stop sooner.
5. Rest the batter
Let the batter sit for 5–10 minutes.
This is useful because the oats absorb some of the liquid and the batter thickens before baking. A similar current mini-muffin recipe uses a short resting period for this reason.
6. Prepare the blueberries
If using large blueberries, you can leave them whole or cut them in half.
For very juicy berries, toss them gently with about 1 teaspoon oat flour.
This is optional but can help reduce excessive blueberry juice sinking into the batter.
7. Add the blueberries
Transfer the batter to a bowl.
Reserve a few blueberries for the tops if desired.
Gently fold approximately ¾ cup of the blueberries into the batter.
Don’t aggressively stir—the blueberries can break and turn the entire batter purple.
8. Fill the mini muffin pan
Spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of batter into each mini-muffin cavity.
Fill each cavity around ¾ full.
Add 1–2 blueberries to the top of each muffin.
Don’t overfill them because the batter rises during baking.
9. Bake
Bake at:
350°F / 175°C for approximately 12–16 minutes.
They’re ready when:
the tops look set,
the edges are lightly golden,
the centers spring back lightly when touched,
and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
Because blueberry juice can make a toothpick look slightly wet, don’t wait for it to come out completely dry.
For regular-size muffins, similar cottage-cheese/oat recipes generally take around 16–25 minutes, depending on the recipe and pan size.
10. Cool
Leave the muffins in the pan for approximately 5 minutes.
Then carefully transfer them to a wire rack.
Allow them to cool for another 10–15 minutes before eating.
They become firmer as they cool.
How Sweet Are They?
With only 2 tablespoons of honey/maple syrup, these are lightly sweet, rather than cupcake-sweet.
For sweeter muffins, use:
3 tbsp maple syrup/honey → moderately sweet
¼ cup maple syrup/honey → noticeably sweet
Add ½–1 cup mashed ripe banana → sweeter and softer
Add a few extra blueberries → more natural sweetness
If you’re serving these to young children, the lower-sugar version works especially well.
🫐 Fresh vs. Frozen Blueberries
Fresh
Best for the appearance shown in your photo.
They produce distinct blueberry pockets and don’t cool the batter.
Frozen
Absolutely fine.
Do not thaw them first. Fold them into the batter while frozen. Frozen berries can make the batter somewhat firmer and may create more purple streaking.
Nutrition Information
Because nutrition varies considerably with the cottage cheese, oats, sweetener and butter/oil brand, these are approximate estimates, not laboratory values.
For the recipe above, assuming 24 mini muffins and using low-fat cottage cheese, maple syrup and butter:
Per mini muffin Approx.
Calories ~70 kcal
Protein ~3 g
Carbohydrates ~9 g
Fat ~3 g
Fiber ~1 g
Sugars ~3–4 g
Sodium ~60–90 mg
For comparison, a full-size 12-muffin cottage-cheese recipe published by Eating Bird Food provides about 169 calories and 5 g protein per muffin, although its ingredient quantities and sweetener/oil amounts are different from this mini-muffin version.
Want more protein?
Use a higher-protein cottage cheese and make 18 rather than 24 mini muffins.
You can also serve them with:
Greek yogurt
cottage cheese
peanut/almond butter
a boiled egg
fresh fruit
Nut Information / Allergens
If by “nut info” you mean nuts and allergens:
The basic recipe contains:
Milk/dairy: cottage cheese
Eggs: yes
Oats: yes
Tree nuts: no
Peanuts: no
Wheat: no, provided you use certified gluten-free oats and uncontaminated ingredients
Important oat note
Oats are naturally gluten-free, but ordinary oats can be contaminated during processing. If someone has celiac disease or needs strict gluten avoidance, choose certified gluten-free oats. Similar cottage-cheese/oat muffin recipes also specify certified gluten-free oats for a gluten-free result.
To make them nut-containing
You can add:
¼ cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons almond flour
2 tablespoons peanut butter
For a blueberry-almond version, replace 2–3 tablespoons of oats with almond flour.
Easy Substitutions
Cottage cheese
Use:
full-fat cottage cheese
low-fat cottage cheese
Full-fat generally gives a richer, softer result.
Maple syrup
Replace with:
honey
agave
approximately 2 tbsp sugar plus 1–2 tbsp milk
Butter
Replace with:
avocado oil
light olive oil
melted coconut oil
Blueberries
Replace with:
raspberries
blackberries
chopped strawberries
chocolate chips
diced apple
Cinnamon
Try:
lemon zest
orange zest
¼ tsp cardamom
½ tsp pumpkin spice
Best Version: Blueberry-Lemon
For a particularly good variation, add:
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
to the wet ingredients.
The lemon cuts through the richness of the cottage cheese and makes the blueberries taste brighter.
Storage
Refrigerator
Put completely cooled muffins in an airtight container.
Refrigerate up to 5 days.
Freezer
Freeze in a single layer first, then transfer to a freezer bag/container.
Best quality for approximately 2–3 months. Similar cottage-cheese muffin recipes recommend freezing for up to three months.
Reheating
From refrigerator:
Microwave 10–20 seconds.
From frozen:
Microwave about 30–60 seconds, depending on your microwave.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are my muffins wet in the middle?
Usually one of three things:
Too much cottage cheese/liquid
Muffins were underbaked
Very juicy blueberries released a lot of moisture
Let them cool completely before judging the texture. They firm up considerably as they cool.
Why did they stick to the pan?
Cottage cheese makes the batter relatively moist.
Grease the pan thoroughly or use silicone liners. Don’t remove the muffins immediately after baking; allow them to sit for about 5 minutes first.
Can I make these without a blender?
Yes.
Blend the cottage cheese separately until smooth, then combine the wet ingredients in a bowl.
For the oats, you can use oat flour instead of rolled oats.
The texture will be slightly different, but the recipe will still work.
Can I use oat flour?
Yes.
Use approximately 135 g oat flour in place of the 1½ cups rolled oats.
Don’t pack the flour tightly into a measuring cup; weighing it gives the most consistent result.
Can I make regular-size muffins?
Yes.
Use a standard 12-cup muffin pan.
Fill each cavity about ¾ full and bake approximately 16–22 minutes at 350°F/175°C, checking with a toothpick near the end.
Can I omit the sweetener?
Yes, but the muffins will be quite mildly sweet.
For a naturally sweeter version, add a ripe banana instead of the maple syrup/honey.
Can I use fat-free cottage cheese?
Yes, but the muffins may be slightly less rich and moist.
Full-fat or low-fat cottage cheese is generally a better choice for texture.
Can I make them dairy-free?
The recipe has not been tested here with dairy-free cottage-cheese substitutes, so the result can vary substantially. Dairy-free alternatives can work, but choose a thick, unsweetened product and expect to adjust the oats/liquid.
Why aren’t mine as brown as the photo?
The browning depends on:
oven temperature
pan material
amount of sweetener
amount of fat
baking time
For more golden tops, bake toward the longer end of the range and use a metal pan.
Can I add chocolate chips?
Absolutely. Add ¼ cup mini chocolate chips along with the blueberries.
White chocolate + blueberry is especially good.
Can I add protein powder?
Yes, but don’t simply add a large scoop without changing the recipe—the extra dry ingredients can make these muffins dry and rubbery.
A practical starting point is replacing 2–3 tablespoons of oats with protein powder and adding a tablespoon or two of milk if the batter becomes too thick.
My recommended version for the photo
If your goal is to get as close as possible to the pictured little golden blueberry bites, I’d use:
225 g cottage cheese + 2 eggs + 2 tbsp maple syrup + 1 tsp vanilla + 2 tbsp melted butter + 135 g rolled oats + 1½ tsp baking powder + ½ tsp cinnamon + ¼ tsp salt + 150 g blueberries.
Blend everything except the blueberries, rest 5–10 minutes, fold in the berries, portion into a greased mini-muffin pan, top with extra blueberries, and bake at 350°F/175°C for about 14 minutes.
With years of experience in restaurant research and local SEO, Sara creates accurate, user-friendly guides that work for both people and search engines. Her goal is to help users go from search results to their nearest restaurant or menu choice with as few clicks as possible.
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