Great danish?

It was supposed to taste like a danish. A sweet, rich, indulgent danish.

Instead, it tasted like cottage cheese on an English muffin with a drizzle of eff-nasty sugar-free syrup ... because, well, it was.


My WW leader mentioned in a meeting not too long ago that you could putt cottage cheese with a bit of jam on a semi-toasted English muffin, put it in the toaster oven till it looked good and eat it. Just like a Danish, she said.

Yeah. Right. "Danish, my German butt," I told my grandma. Except she agreed with D. Apparently, in the 1960s, when Grandma led a diet workshop, cottage cheese for breakfast was all the rage. Grandma even remembered how she made the breakfast - mix a bit of sweetener, cinnamon and vanilla in the cottage cheese and then put it on the muffin.

Remembering I had a lone cinnamon-raisin English muffin in the fridge (Operation: Clean Out the Pantry), I decided to see if Grandma and D. were right. I put the muffin the toaster and proceeded to make a cottage cheese mixture. Into a mini food processor, I put a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and cinnamon. I blended it until it was more like ricotta than cottage cheese and scooped equal parts onto the muffin. The little Danishes went into the oven, under the broiler, until the outer edges began to bubble.

I didn't even put it on a plate before taking my first bite I was so, err, excited. Or hungry. Whatever. I chewed and swallowed and waited. Hoping for this moment of serendipity where the bite I just took reminded me of heaven.

It never came.

The only thing I was reminded of was the fact that I forgot the sweetener and I was eating cinnamon-flavored cottage cheese. Let me tell you, there's a reason that's not on your grocery store shelves. I opened up the fridge and drizzled the last of the sugar-free syrup over the top. It was a definite improvement but not fantastic.

What could have made it better? Sweetener, obviously. Leaving the muffins in the oven long enough that all of the cottage cheese mixture bubbled. Drizzling the syrup on top before broiling (I think it might make it creme brulee-ish).

I'm anxious try it again but first I have about two boxes of cereal and a schload of oats to work my way through before new breakfast options come around. Stupid, Operation COP.