Cottage cheese frozen dessert with peach is a pairing that may be your next dessert to help with more protein, weight management, and satiating a sweet craving.
…And dare I say as good as any frozen yogurt or peach ice cream you’d have! It even has the pretty peaches and cream color. And you can make this with other stone fruits like plums and cherries that will hold up.
And it’s so easy to make at home with a blender, like a Magic Bullet.
Cottage cheese and peaches are a delicious taste pairing. 🍑 +🧀
…I discovered this as a child, as that was the only way I would eat cottage cheese as a picky kid eater. And today, you can give it a try for yourself with your picky tastes!
Whether you use fresh peaches is up to you. Fresh peaches are abundant in hot summer months.
So you can stock up during summer season when peach desserts and juicy peach-everything are in full swing. Then freeze them for later in the year or year round if you like when they’re harder to find.
And if you want an easy way to get a smooth peach dessert year-round, use canned peaches that are the smoother way for this cottage cheese frozen dessert.
Canned peaches are also already soft. You won’t need to cook them. And you don’t have to wait until peak summer peach season. All you need to do is drain them, and rinse them if you like.
You can pair your peach cottage cheese dessert that’s like an ice cream with peach cobbler or peach profiteroles. Both are low-sugar.
Peaches are great for healthy peach drinks like juice, tea, or coffee. Also, how about a peach donut?... have you seen them around? That’s a newer type of peach, also called a flat peach or Saturn peach that are fresh.
They look more out of this world than earthly. 🪐
The ones I found came in a plastic casing with a handle that made it look like a purse.
But the best peaches for this peach cottage cheese frozen dessert are canned.
And whatever peaches you choose, you can freeze your extra peaches. Frozen peaches are perfect for this peach cottage cheese dessert.
You can bring them out of the freezer and move them to the fridge. That will soften or mush them without needing to cook them over a day or two. They are perfect for bakes too.
You can use your freezer as your second pantry (that’s what I do!).
It makes meal prep easier, along with food variety for your groceries on hand.
This is a low-fat delicious frozen cottage cheese dessert.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
1cupcottage cheese
1cup softened peach (about one fresh peach or 8 peach canned slices)
water or coffee
Instructions
Blend peach and cottage cheese together and add back a little liquid as needed.
Freeze, and bring out to enjoy!
Notes
Canned peaches will work well to make a smooth texture like creamy ice cream. You can also use frozen peaches that are brought to room temps and will be soft.
Hi-hat cupcakes are one of my favorites. My eyes light up in delight. A 3-step cupcake has everything to be a quintessential dessert staple… chocolate, frosting, and a cup-cake layer.
Who doesn’t like being greeted with this type of hat? Hi-hat back atcha!
And while the white pillowy cloud of goodness is usually made with meringues or marshmallows… this one is not. Because that usually equals a generous amount of white granulated or powdered sugar… and that adds up to high sugar in the body.
…And when sugar is high, then you want more to eat. Both you and your body crave more.
And those “empty calorie” sugars do you no favors if you’re trying to be healthier, low-sugar, are pre-diabetic, or trying to lose weight.
But this hi-hat cupcake recipe version is not that high (sugar) way.
It’s also full of healthy ingredient goodness mixed in to a delicious low-sugar chocolate treat..
If you use the ingredients and technique below, then you’ll bypass the high-way negative effects.
…See what I did there? 😊
Low-Sugar Points:
And knowing all this, as an intentional anti-inflammatory food and low-sugar baker, I used a smidge of monk fruit sugar for the cupcakes that won’t spike blood sugar like regular white sugar does.
Monk fruit sweetener is also super sweet tasting on the tongue, so you don’t need much. For all those good reasons, it’s added to the cupcake and also helps the cake texture.
For the frosting, I decided to use the natural sugar already in Greek yogurt as the sweet ingredient.
Yogurt naturally has lactose that’s a natural form of sugar.
So there’s no added sugar… and when food shopping, you can look for those written Greek yogurt label confirming positives to see for your very own eyes.
A thicker yogurt (5% or whole milk) works consistently for a thick frosting, but 2% or reduced milk could work too from the many yogurt options out there.
The test is when you open your yogurt, if the yogurt slides off a spoon like most regular yogurts. If it’s thicker like many Greek yogurts, it won’t easily slide without your needing to prod it along.
And if it fails the spoon test, you likely will get an elegant mound cupcake hat (like a melting snowman or pill hat), but not a cone shape or an elf’s hat that you often see with hi-hats.
But either hat style will melt in your mouth or get gobbled up by someone. 😋
…And actually the less perfect it looks, the more likely that’ll happen quick… if you get my drift.
And I’m all about easy over perfection.
Then for the last part of melted chocolate, you have many options. Some chocolate morsels has monk fruit sugar as an ingredient if you want more healthy options. You can also choose dark cacao or regular dark chocolate morsels.
But now we’re getting ahead of ourselves…
Because.. first you have to make the cupcakes! And then you can assemble or put it all together.
And for planning, you can make the entire hi-hat cupcakes in under 2 hours, or in stages.
The cupcake itself from start to finish will take less than 30 minutes.
Ready?
To make the foolproof easy hi-hat cupcakes, these are the chocolate cake ingredients and steps:
-2 egg yolks
-1/2 cup milk + more (I usually add an extra few Tablespoons because that will yield a thinner batter… and that means more cupcake)
-1 Tbsp neutral oil or liquid form of coconut oil (if you want to use less healthy fat, then you can use 1/2 Tbsp and it will also work as cake is naturally a more dry texture to begin with)
-1 tsp lemon juice or white vinegar for acidity
3/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cacao (or unsweetened cocoa powder)
1/8-1/4 tsp monk fruit sugar
1/2 tsp coffee (optional)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of kosher or coarse sea salt
Step 1: Measure your flour and dry ingredients and add to combining large bowl.
I have found gluten-free almond flour with a little all-purpose flour works best, and adds healthier vibes. So it’s the best choice all-around. But if you don’t have almond flour on hand, then you can also use full-on all-purpose flour.
I leave out the coffee for chocolate cakes but that’s a decision you make as some people love the pairing. For me, salt adds more of an impact in taste to a chocolate cake than coffee does. Another option is to add a little more cacao powder than the recipes call for to bring in more “chocolatey” vibes.
I like the dark, bitter unsweetened 100% cacao to be the star ingredient in the bake. But to each her own… you do you!
Then start adding liquid ingredients. Separate your eggs when they’re cold from the fridge (and you can save your egg whites for other recipes like baked cannoli shells).
Hand whip/loosen up egg yolks in a separate bowl (and reserve adding the egg until the end if you want to taste your batter before baking). But otherwise, you can add the egg yolks to one easy bowl along with all the other liquid ingredients. Use 1/2 cup of milk of choice
Any taste-friendly liquid would work. Even a little water would work, but it would be a zero taste add (and less fat and protein for the cake texture), so I wouldn’t recommend.
Oh and btw, it doesn’t matter if you add dry to wet or wet to dry ingredients. And in happy nostalgia, that’s what my favorite baking teacher Martha Stewart has said before. Her teachings have encouraged my hi-hat and cupcake baking to name a few practical areas.
And in my small kitchen box, the reason I add wet to dry (or add dry ingredients first to the bowl) is because then I now know how much actual liquid I would need based on the batter texture consistency (e.g. all milks and flours are not exactly equal). I find it easier to pour a splash more liquid than to go back and have to measure out dry ingredients..
But either way, combine by hand the dry and wet ingredients. I recommend with a spoon instead of a classic baking whisk because batter-flour pieces tend to stick to a whisk and you can lose half a cupcake that way… and we want all the cupcakes! 🧁
Plus, you’re not as likely to over mix or over combine your batter with a spoon. There is such a thing as having to0 much fun mixing… but it doesn’t belong in a cake. 😀
Then after a few magic strokes, fill your cupcake holders to almost full. I use reusable silicone cupcake holders but you can use paper or foil ones too. You can also spray your baking cupcake tin, but be sure it’s the kind that isn’t potentially dusting off metal glitter over time that can end up in your cupcakes.
Bake the soon-to-be hi-hat cupcakes at 350°F/180°C for 20 minutes. Don’t over bake. The cakes should be on the paler side with a little golden glow.
Pull out of the oven when time is up. If you’re not sure, you can test with a toothpick if it comes out clean.
And while still warm, pull the cupcakes out from the cupcake tin that’s still warm. You want to stop the baking heat that’s still coming from the cupcake tin.
And you can easily do this with a metal spoon.
…maybe the one you rinsed off that you used for combining the ingredients in the batter? As you bake more, you naturally get more efficient. 😊
Place the cupcakes on a plate. Let the cupcakes cool in the fridge for about 10 minutes. If you don’t plan on finishing your hit-hat cupcakes in one sitting, then cover the cupcakes in the fridge (I recommend) or you can leave out covered overnight at room temperature.
Make the frosting for the hi-hat cupcakes frosting:
Again, you can find no added sugar because it’s Greek yogurt that has lactose natural sugar (and win body points 💯).
It’s about 5-6 tablespoons of thick yogurt per cupcake. You can add less if you want to.
Use a piping bag to pipe on frosting with a large round circle piping tip. You can also use a thick pastry-type bag, snip a bottom corner, and use that as the round opening.
Tip: If you discover you have the wrong yogurt type that won’t work for frosting after you’ve opened the yogurt container (…that has happened to me as someone who likes food experimenting!), then you can keep your cupcakes in the fridge covered (to prevent drying out) for up to a week, and still make the frosted hi-hats and melted chocolate. They’ll still be delicious… and from the get-go, you let-go and let melt away all of your hi-hat cupcake worries!
Then when you’re happy with your frosted cupcakes, refrigerate them to let the Greek yogurt frosting set.
Next, make the melted chocolate. You can use a coconut oil melted chocolate recipe. And for this hi-hat cupcakes recipe application, you can use about half of a third of the coconut oil. And then let the melted chocolate get back to about room temperature (so you don’t melt the frosting and it slides off like Frosty ☃️).
It’s a little like tempering dark chocolate without having to be so precise in degrees, to get a shine.
Hold the cupcake at the bottom and twirl in melted chocolate. You may lose a little frosting in the melted chocolate that you can easily add back on.
Then refrigerate the cupcakes for 2-3 minutes to let the chocolate set.
This is a moist chocolate cupcake with no-sugar added frosting and melted chocolate. If you make these for others, they will be a hi-hat-hit. This makes 4-5 regular size cupcakes.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, new york
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
2largeegg yolks
1/2cupmilk of choice (plus more)
1/2Tbspneutral oil (light olive oil or liquid form coconut oil recommended)
1tsplemon juice or white vinegar
3/4cupalmond flour
1/2cupall-purpose flour
1/4cup cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa
1/8-1/2tspmonk fruit sweetener (depending on how low-sugar you would like to make this)
1/2tspbaking powder
1/4tspbaking soda
1/8-1/4tsppinch of kosher or coarse sea salt
4-6TbspThick Greek yogurt per cupcake (no-added sugar recommended)
dark chocolate morsels (for melted chocolate)
coconut oil (for melted chocolate)
Instructions
Pull eggs out of refrigerator and separate the egg yolk and whites (save the whites). Whisk the egg yolks to combine to cupcake batter. If you will want to taste the cake batter, put egg yolks in a separate bowl, otherwise they can be added to the combining batter bowl.
Make the chocolate cupcake batter in one bowl. Gently combine dry and wet ingredients. Tip: use a spoon to combine. This will be a wet batter that you can pour and spoon into the cupcake holders/pan. Fill the cupcake to about 1/8" from the top.
Bake cupcakes at 350°F/180°C for 20 minutes. Let cool in refrigerator. This will make 4-5 full cupcakes depending on how much total liquid/milk you add.
Make the frosting with Greek yogurt. Add to a piping bag with a round or star tip. Hold straight up on cupcakes and press the piping bag a few times and then pull up. Refrigerate cupcakes while making the melted chocolate.
Make the melted chocolate (see the melted chocolate recipe). Hold the cupcake bottom and sides, and then dip each frosted cupcake into the melted chocolate. Refrigerate to let the chocolate cold set.
Enjoy! Cupcakes will last for several days covered in the refrigerator.
Notes
Monk fruit sweetener is a healthy, anti-inflammatory sweetener. It is more sweet than granulated sugar, so you only need a little.
Berry lavender tea scone can be a low-sugar healthy dessert. When I don’t know what to bake, and have a sweet craving, it’s a scone!
Whether you pronounce it sgonn or scone, it’s a score that will be gone soon!
…Like this raspberry lavender tea scone plate that’s irresistible during heart month and for a Galentine’s dessert 💕
Pair heart healthy raspberries and dark chocolate (with flavanols that improve blood flow) for a tasty anti-inflammatory effect.
And if you’re wondering what separates a scone apart, here’s my take…
A scone is a breakfast pastry, a sweet snack like a cookie, and more elevated than a bar. It’s also an EASY bake you can make low-sugar and healthier with your delicious flavors!
Cut round like a pie, but looks flat like a pancake (before the oven)… a scone comes out of the oven wedge heel-raised elevated, puffs up in the center, and crunchy inside and around in all the right places.
You can be creative and dream up your own easy scone flavors to life. This is the new food wheel… with berry and white chocolate. 😊
And if you cut the wedges before it goes in the oven, like this…
…You’ll have less crumbs on the baking board and more in your mouth.
Plus with cut wedges, whether you share or not, you’ll know how many wedges are left… before it’s sgonn. 😋
That I’m sure is fast. It’s a good idea to go ahead and make 2 scones side-by-side to anticipate its appeal.
And if you have an event you need or want to bring a dessert to, a scone is a smart, foolproof one!
You can’t mess it up, and it will be a hit 🙌
On that note, the reason I really like a scone is you don’t have to do any prep work.
For starters, the few, small pats of butter you use can be straight from the fridge or freezer and works better.
Because cold keeps the fat separate with small pieces in the dough, so that when it goes into the magical oven, steam happens and creates air pockets so you get an airier scone like you expect in breakfast pastries.
That’s the fascinating baking science part.
And with the texture working for your easy berry tea scone, you can add almost any sweet food ingredient that inspires you.
Think of the variety of tasty, healthy anti-inflammatory flavors (aka flavanols).
…Like spices, healthy smoothie powders, extracts, berries, honey, tea, and fruit. And for the wet ingredients, you can use tea like Early Grey bergamot or lavender that I added.
Perfect pairings for weekend Sunday brunch or afternoon tea! 🫖
A technique I like: in a mug, add warm tea water to honey to liquefy, plus the tea all together. Let it cool and then add to the dough mixture.
You can also shredded coconut or zest like in a low-sugar orange scone (that’s like confetti 🎉).
Think also of healthy cake ingredients you can use.
…But without any egg or milk (if you choose).
Which means a easy berry tea scone can live longer if you want it to last on a room temperature plate.
All in all, this is a delicious dessert for any occasion that no one will know there is very little sugar (and no table sugar) if you choose.
Shhh!… unless you tell ’em.
Because honey and butter alone are a delicious pairing that is enough for a delicate and decadent pastry.
But why leave it there? Healthy tea and fruit in an easy berry lavender tea scone adds an elevated taste.
And while I pulled 13 pantry and fridge ingredients in total (in the recipe), you can make this with half as many ingredients or less if you want to keep it simple… starting with some flour, butter, liquid, and sweet.
And to keep it healthier, use a healthier flour blend (e.g. almond or gluten-free flour), less butter, honey, and brewed tea. Up to you!
One thing in common is your easy berry tea scone will be delicious. See what you can come up with using my recipe as inspiration. 🍥
This is a berry tea scone that you can make your own flavors and ingredients with the instructions provided
Course afternoon tea, Breakfast
Cuisine American, british
Servings 8pieces
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
3/4cupalmond flour
1/2cupall purpose flour
2Tbspbutter, cold small pieces
1tsplavender tea (brewed and cooled)
1-2tspraw honey
1Tbspblueberries
1Tbspraspberries, dried or fresh
additional berries for tops
1/4tspcinnamon spice
1/4tspsalt
1/2tspbaking powder
1Tbspwhite chocolate (optional)
1tspvanilla extract
Instructions
Fully hand mix ingredients into a 4" dough disc. If you find that the scone dough is too dry (and won't stick together), add a little inspiring liquid that can be water, or flavored teas to get a dough that sticks together and slightly moist to the touch. If you find the scone is too wet or sticky, add some dry ingredients like spices, almond flour, and/or healthy powders.
Press additional sweet ingredients like berries randomly to the tops.
Cut 4" scone into 8 pie wedges.
Bake at 325°F/165°C for about 35 minutes (or until browned all around).
Donut with a chocolate glaze is one dessert that can be made delicious and healthy when baked without butter. Like this variety chocolate glazed donut plate, where some are jammed… as in raspberry jam.
Chocolate and raspberry are a decadent pairing and can be made healthy (with dark cacao and low-sugar). Raw cacao and organic raspberries are loaded with polyphenols that are anti-inflammatory good. And baked in with no butter in this recipe, you can stick with the healthy theme.
Chocolate pairs well with almost any flavor like coconut, and many of them are healthy like nuts, fruits, and spices.
And in our flavor choices… once upon a time, I ate my last Boston cream filling donut (…well, that was not healthy)…
And the donut showed up on my arm the next day. 😀
I don’t think I’ve had a store-bought Boston cream donut since. Even though I love how shiny cute they look and glossy glazed. And don’t get me started about the fresh bakery scent trail it leaves. 🍩
…But kidding aside, I found other store-bought ways to get the sweet taste without the fried-ness in traditional donuts. …because like high sugar, fried foods are addictive.
You can’t have JUST ONE and be satisfied. If you’re like, you fight willpower.
…So if you eat smaller bites and healthy sweets, then there’s no guilt.. and there’s NO “eat now, pay later” after-effect.
Those are all heathy moves.
And when there’s an emergency donut sugar craving 😊… (for a sweet tooth, that’s often)… low-sugar snacks like this healthy baked dark chocolate glazed donut do the trick.
Oh, and there’s no butter in this recipe. Healthy fat foods like a little coconut oil (that’s minimal) is a good alternative. You can also use a light olive oil that has minimal savory tastes.
And if you’re someone who likes variety, you can zhugh and flavor each baked donut with different looks and tastes.
Like rose and rosewater, pistachio, unsweetened shredded coconut and other plant-based foods. 🌹🥥🌱
They’re good healthy food substitutes. And if you’re looking for a good sweet food substitute, give this baked coconut donut a GO-GO! 🥥
Baked Chocolate Glazed Donut - Healthy Donut Alternative
A healthier donut baked with gluten-free flour with a shiny chocolate glaze top and healthy toppings.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 4donuts
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
1cupcoconut flour (or gluten-free flour)
3/4cup all purpose flour
2tspcoconut oil (or neutral oil)
1tspyeast
1egg
3/4cupmilk of choice
pistachio bits and shredded coconut (zhugh)
1/4cupdark chocolate, melted (zhugh)
low-sugar raspberry jam (optional)
Instructions
Combine donut cake ingredients by hand. Use enough milk to get the consistency closest to a cake batter (not too liquid and not too dense). Grease your pan with coconut oil and pour batter into the pan. Bake on 350°F/180°C until top looks baked and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool. Cut out with round cookie cutter (easier to do before completely cooled).
After cooled, to add (oozing) raspberry jam to centers, poke a food skewer through the middle side of the donut to make a hollow tunnel in the donut. Use a food syringe or a squeezable jam bottle to insert jam into the tunnel.
Make melted chocolate glaze and dip donut top side in glaze.
Zhugh with coconuts and pistachio bits while glaze is still wet.
Keep the donuts out in a cool spot for 2 days or for longer lasting, refrigerate in a covered container.
Sugar cookies can be tasty and healthy cookies with honey as the sweetness. And this recipe uses 4 ingredients and is one-bowl easy.
And with strawberry (or any berry), that’s berry good! 🍓 Like this plate of cookies is made low-sugar, gluten-free… and tasty good. Recipe below 👇
How this low-sugar sugar cookie recipe is different and can be cookie controversial is that there is no white sugar (or sugar crystal substitutes like Stevia that alters tastes).
With an optional light strawberry chocolate glaze at the end, you can keep this naturally low-sugar without missing a sugar beat! 🎉
Think of the strawberry seeds as sugar seeds 😊 And the gluten-free cookie crumbly bits falling off as sugar bits to please your sweet cravings.
This is a cookie challenge because with sugar in the name, NO table sugar doesn’t make sense… but if you’re like me, you’re up for the low-sugar challenge for your healthy body!
It’s a good balance FOR sweet taste buds with a healthy mix so there’s NO compromise.
And this is an EASY challenge because there are only 3 wholesome ingredients needed for these one-bowl sugar cookies to come together. And white table sugar is not one of them.
It’s 1/2 teaspoon of natural honey sugar per regular-size cookie cutter cookie. And you can substitute butter that’s usually in cookies with coconut oil if you would like to make your sugar cookies more healthy.
But it was not easy to come up with this on my end…
This was a journey… because I remember the crunchy hard sugar cookie vividly with sugar crystals on top shaped in dainty flowers with a whole in the middle that I once happily dreamed about. 🧒🏻
I had a sweet relationship with sugar.
…Never in my wildest dreams did I think making and eating my own cookies would be a typical Day in the Life that I’m happy about.
…And I never thought I’d graduate to making my own sugar cookie… without sugar crystals.
Maybe you get it because you too ate spoonfuls of sugar (and enjoyed every sugary food thing out there) like those of us who have a sweet tooth (or a full set of sweet teeth 😊)?
Thankfully for us who also aspire to healthy… the less sugar we eat, the less we crave and the fewer sweet taste buds as we get older.
That helps us align happy and healthy living.
Happy living is good for mental health.
And so if you want to add a glaze top to cookies and desserts, you can balance the healthy and happy ways (…and that’s what pleases my healthy and ex-catering self 😊).
Here on this plate I use a melted chocolate. I chose strawberry chocolate, but white or dark chocolate would work great too.
But in reality, most people use powdered sugar with a flavored liquid for a quick sweet glaze.
And that’s where sugar amounts can be over the top (in more ways than one!). ☹️
Because powdered sugar glazes are using another form of potent table sugar and even more white sugar, that’s not good and can tip the scales.
…AND you need a-lottta powdered sugar to make very little glaze. About 1-3/4 cup of powdered sugar is needed to replace 1 cup of granulated sugar… UGH!
So finding healthier ways like melting real chocolate is a smart and sweet tasty idea…
And you can happily smear the melted chocolate glaze on tops as you anticipate your cookie plate.
That’s one glaze that will go far! A mere 2 oz. of chocolate with a teaspoon of coconut oil will give the shine and get the job done for half-a-dozen cookies.
…You can make this no-guilt, low-sugar cookie batch in minutes when you get the sweet hankering!
