Cottage Cheese Cookies Recipe
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These cottage cheese cookies are lightly sweet, crisp and crumbly. They are just right with a piping hot cup of tea (or coffee). They are also excellent with milk.
I took them to my sisters house tonight and we spread raspberry honey creme
I love discovering new blogs. I especially love finding European-type blogs because it’s very likely that we have foods in common. Last week, I came across One Turkmen Kitchen and that is where I found the original cottage cheese cookies recipe.
My only changes: I converted everything to US measurements and added lemon zest (because I have like a gazillion lemons from our trip to California).
Ingredients for Cottage Cheese Cookies:
2 sticks or 16 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
8 oz small-curd cottage cheese
zest of 1 lemon
2 1/4 cups all purpose unbleached flour *measured correctly
1/4 tsp baking powder
5 Tbsp granulated sugar
How to Make Cottage Cheese Cookies:
Preheat your Oven to 350˚F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
1. In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together your softened butter, 8 oz small-curd cottage cheese and the zest of one lemon. Mix on Medium/high speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture is smooth and fluffy.
2. Sift in the 2 1/4 cups flour and 1/4 tsp baking powder (or whisk together flour and baking powder instead of sifting) and knead it together with your dough hook or by hand until your dough is soft and not sticking to your fingers. If you find it is still sticking to your fingers, add another Tbsp of flour.
3. Roll the dough into a ball and then roll it out on a smooth, non-stick surface until it is 1/4″ thick.
4. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out your cookies, cutting as many as you can out of your dough.
5. Pour your sugar into a flat plate. Dip one side of your cookie into the sugar and gently pat it down to coat generously with sugar. Fold it in half with the sugar on the inside. Dip one of the folded sides of your cookie in the sugar again and fold it in half with the sugar on the inside. When you fold, the sugar will always be on the inside.
If you accidentally dip both sides of your cookie in sugar (I did a couple times) don’t panic, it will still be edible. Place the finished cookies on the baking sheet, fairly close together, since they don’t expand very much. Make a ball of dough out of the remaining scraps and roll it out again and again until you’ve used up all of your dough.
6. Bake at 350˚F for 32-35 minutes or until the edges and tops are golden brown.
Are you making any any new cookies for the holidays?
Cottage Cheese Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 sticks or 16 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 8 oz small-curd cottage cheese
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose unbleached flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 5 Tbsp granulated sugar
Instructions
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Preheat your Oven to 350˚F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
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In the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together your softened butter, 8 oz small-curd cottage cheese and the zest of one lemon. Mix on Medium/high speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture is smooth and fluffy.
-
Sift in the flour and baking powder (or whisk together flour and baking powder instead of sifting) and knead it together with your dough hook or by hand until your dough is soft and not sticking to your fingers. If you find it is still sticking to your fingers, add another Tbsp of flour.
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Roll the dough into a ball and then roll it out on a smooth, non-stick surface until it is 1/4" thick. Use a round cookie cutter to cut out your cookies, cutting as many as you can out of your dough.
-
Pour your sugar into a flat plate. Dip one side of your cookie into the sugar and gently pat it down to coat generously with sugar. Fold it in half with the sugar on the inside. Dip one of the folded sides of your cookie in the sugar again and fold it in half with the sugar on the inside. When you fold, the sugar will always be on the inside. If you accidentally dip both sides of your cookie in sugar (I did a couple times) don't panic, it will still be edible. Place the finished cookies on the baking sheet, fairly close together, since they don't expand very much. Make a ball of dough out of the remaining scraps and roll it out again and again until you've used up all of your dough.
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Bake at 350˚F for 32-35 minutes or until the edges and tops are golden brown.
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Natasha, two thumbs up 👍 👍
My husband accidentally bought two packs of cottage cheese instead of sour cream. I immediately went to your site to see what I can use them for besides lasagna and I found these delicious cookies and I had all ingredients listed 😀. I followed the recipe exactly. They were not overly sweet which we like and crunchy a bit. I also added some vanilla sugar to the sugar. I baked them for 30 minutes and I think I could have pulled them 1 or 2 minutes earlier but I guess it depends on the size of the cookie, my cutter was about 2,5 inches, not sure what size of the cutter you used. Next time I will try to make them a bit bigger even though I liked the size I had. The only thing is we cannot stop eating them. Thank you for all your recipes.
Hi Alla! I’m so glad you tried and loved this recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Loved the taste, mother in-law used to make a cottage cheese pie, that had the same taste, mine came to kind of big, and may not have cooked all the way through. Maybe I will roll them out of ore next time
Thanks for sharing that, Natasha. I hope it becomes perfect on your next try!
Hi Natasha,
I’m a big fan of your recipes and this cookie is absolutely a winner.. it’s crisp and yummy! I’ve tried a lot of your recipes and it didn’t disappoint me❤️. Thank you! Your recipes are always use every week😀. Sorry I didn’t think of putting the pictures – all I wanted was to eat right away and forgot about posting them.. I’ll do better next time.
Hello Anie, that is so wonderful! I’m happy to hear that you really enjoyed this recipe. No worries about the pics, you can take them next time and share them on our Facebook page or group!
Hi, Natasha
You have big fans in Europe !
It would be nice to have normal international measurements for all your recipes
Thank you!
Hi Maria! Thank you so much for sharing that with me! We do include metric conversion in our printable recipe card with every new recipe! We have been doing that for some time. Simply scroll down to the printable recipe card and press the red metric wording. Some of our older recipes don’t have the conversion but as you can imagine it is a time consuming process as they have to be added one at a time. Thank you for being patient!
Hi, Natasha,
I’ve been making these cookies for ages. Winner every time I’ve made them. My sister shared that recipe long time ago. Now I know where it came from, at that time she had friends from Turkmenistan.
The other day I made ‘rakushki’, but we call them ‘rozochki’ – roses. I add 250gm of cottage cheese to that recipe. But my son said he wants now ‘cheese triangles’, that’s how we call your cottage cheese cookies.
Thank you very much for being a blogger. I’m enjoying every time I watch or read your posts and my family enjoys every time I cook something new from your posts.
Very easy to follow and entertaining at the same time.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Irina!
Great recipe as always! Had a lot of fun making these with kids. It sure was a mess though!
Question: I’m not sure where I went wrong, but after the baking time ended, they looked great in the outside, but inside they where raw. I put them back for another 30 min, and they became hard and well done, but still had that raw look inside. What could be the issue? I used Traderjoes organic cottage cheese and Costco organic eggs….
Hi Ale, it should be soft but not raw like. Was anything changed or omitted in the recipe?
This was an interesting experiment. First I halved the recipe – I do this with new ones so I don’t use too many ingredients in case it doesn’t work out. I only had large curd cottage cheese, and when I was done mixing in all the ingredients I could still see the curds, so I was starting to think it was going to work. Plus the dough was very sticky, even after I added an extra tbsp of flour. But I soldiered on. I didn’t trust rolling out the sticky dough on my counter, so I improvised. I rolled a small amount into a ball in the palm of my hand, and flattened it out still in my palm, like a very small pizza. Then I layed the “pizza” down in the sugar, pressed it down some, then folded it as described in the recipe. Some I only folded once, some twice. I found the dough to be more fragile the thinner it got. I sprinkled extra sugar on top of just 3 of them, just to try it. I baked them for 32 minutes until golden brown on the edges, and found that the curds turned into an orange-rose color.
So the verdict is…delicious! The folded cookie is perfectly crispy, almost like philo dough. The ones I folded twice in the sugar taste better and look more interesting, but if you don’t have a big sweet tooth then folding once is also good. I did not have issues with raw or wet dough. Next time I will try to very carefully flatten them more, as they do puff up in the oven. Also I think the smaller ones are cuter too. Wish I could upload a photo here! Thank you Natasha! These cookies are a nice change from my usual baked goods!
Thank you so much for sharing that with us CK!! I’m so so glad you enjoyed this!
Forgot to add my star rating – 5 stars! Also there’s a typo in my review – when I saw the large curds and sticky dough, I thought it was NOT going to work, but it finally did work!
Hi Natasha, thanks so much for the recipe! My family loved them so much. What is the inside supposed to be like? My insides are kind of wet, like a raw dough consistency (visually, not to touch) even after baking forty minutes at 350. The outside is perfectly crumbly though! Is that how yours are? How can I get them to be crumbly but not dry? Thanks in advance!
Hi Maria, it should be soft but not raw like. Was anything changed or omitted in the recipe?
I had same problem. They baked for almost an hour until they got really dry on top and bottom, and inside, still looked like a raw dough and wet. I’ve added a little bit of sugar to the dough. Could that be the issue?
Other than that, great recipe and taste really good.
Hi Natasha,
Do you think I can use this dough to make the merengue cookie recipe (the ones you roll)? We used to make the merengue cookies and I lost the recipe but I remember that the dough had tvorog as one of the ingredients. Also, has anybody tried it with Ricotta instead of cottage cheese? Should have less curds…
And yes, thank you for all your wonderful recipes and videos!
Hi Marianna, I honestly haven’t tried this dough for the Finnish Meringue cookies so I’m not sure how that would work. I can’t make that recommendation without trying it first. If you experiment, let me know how it goes 🙂
Thank you for the recipe – I just baked these cookies and they look and taste lovely. I baked 34 minutes to achieve the pink golden tint I like on my cookies. In my childhood these were called “jabot” after decorative vintage lace collars.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it
These are so good! My favorite cookies have always been творожное печенье, and these cottage cheese cookies are as close as you can get from the local ingredients. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Thank you for the wonderful review and you are very welcome 😬.
Hi Natasha,
Would these be okay stored in an airtight container and how long can they be stored for?
Hi Viktoriya, Yes that would be fine and I think they would be best enjoyed within 3-5 days.
Hi Natasha,
I am baking these cookies as I type and anxiously waiting to see how they turn out! One thing I noticed, was that my dough was full of cottage cheese curds. looking by your picture, I don’t see you had the same problem. I did buy small curds, maybe I will need to blend them in a blender next time. Any suggestions ? Its too late to do anything now, but hoping they will still be yummy!
Hi Mila, there were still some cottage cheese curds but yes the dough was exactly like what you see in the photo. It might be brand specific – some cottage cheese curds are more formed and defined (daisy) versus some are a little softer and easier to blend (darigold, etc). If using daisy, you might blend the cottage cheese a little longer until it is more broken up in the stand mixer, or until it looks like what I have in the photo. I hope that helps and I hope you love the cookies! 🙂
I made these last night and YUMM, love that they are slightly sweet! And such an easy recipe!
I didn’t have lemon so I added vanilla extract.
Q: Do you rinse the cottage cheese?
Q: Baking time is based on an electric stove? I have a gas stove and had to keep checking to make sure they didn’t burn.
Hi Yana! I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe!! Thank you for sharing your substitution! I did not rinse the cottage cheese and yes it is based on an electric stove. Did you have to modify the bake time with a gas stove? Thanks Yana!
Yes, on the convection setting (gas stove) I had to take out around 25/28minutes. But on the regular setting (gas stove) it took longer, about 38/40minutes. Next time, I will test again to make sure this is true.. and will use zest. 🙂
Forgot to add the stars to my review! Also there’s a typo in my review – I was starting to think that the cookies would NOT work when I saw the large curds and the sticky dough. Glad I persevered! Lovely cookies, thank you!
thanks for inspiration. I made it with homemade cheese and only honey. I used coconut oil instead of butter. adjusted flour. Smells great and tasted great.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us!! 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies!
Hi Natasha,
M daughter and I made these cookies couple days ago. What a success! These are easy to make with a kid and all family and my co-workers enjoyed them afterwards. Love your website!!! You should try to go to Food Network star. I would be rooting for you! 😉 My respect and good wishes to you and your family.
Julia, thank you for the compliment and I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe 😁. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Hi Natasha,
Do you think if I substitute flour with almond floor, the cookies will turn out ok? I’m allergic to gluten.
Also, instead of sugar to use honey?
I’ll experiment, but from your professional view, what do you think?:)
Hi Ale, without testing it myself, I can’t say for sure, but I’m not sure that the almond flour can get the dough to a rollable consistency. I would probably experiment with gluten free flour before almond flour for these. The same goes for honey. I think it could work but your other proportions of flour will have to be adjusted as well. Sorry I don’t have a more concrete answer for you.
Hi Natasha. I love your recipes. What if i make this with homemade cheese? Will that work?
Hi Ruslana, is it a homemade cottage cheese or tvorog (farmers cheese)? I haven’t tested it with farmers cheese but I imagine it would work, except it is more dry than cottage cheese so you will probably need less flour to get the dough to the right consistency.
Thankyou, I will let you know☺
Hi Natasha,
Can you freeze these cookies ☺
I haven’t tried freezing them so I can’t say for certain. If you try it, let me know how it goes! Sorry I can’t be more helpful.
Hi Natasha I was just wondering if I could substitute the granulated sugar for brown sugar
I have not tried that substitution so you would have to experiment. I imagine cookies won’t be as light in color. Let me know how it works out if you try it 🙂 .
Hello Natasha, Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. Do you have a good recipe with soft dough for cookie Oreshki. I bought my Electrical Oreshnitsa from WA and I love it but I want to find a soft dough for Oreshki. Viktoria.
Viktoria, I don’t have a recipe for that, wish I could help.
Hey! I have everything expect for a lemon! What if I don’t add the Lemon in? Could I substitute it for something else?
You could just leave it out – it won’t have any of that “hint of lemon” flavor but it will still taste good. You can also add a small amount of orange zest if you like 🙂
These look awesome! I think I will try to make them over the weekend. I think I would like to add sugar to the actual batter as well, just so they are on a sweeter side and could be served as dessert. Do you think that would work and how much sugar do you think I should add? Thanks!
Have you tried these the way they are? Dipping in sugar really adds enough sweetness.
Hey Natasha,
We were snowed it here in Atlanta GA, so there was nothing better to do than bake! I decided to try these delightful cookies that have been on my list to make for a while and they turned out perfect! I didn’t have a lemon so I just skipped the lemon zest and they still turned out wonderful! They are so dangerous though, while I was waiting for the cookies to cool down and devoured three cookies one after another within a minute! I just couldn’t control myself! I dusted them with some powdered sugar once the cookies had cooled down and they were beautifully presented and oh so delicious! Thanks so much for this easy recipe!! 🙂 Keep up the awesome work!
I should have dusted mine with powdered sugar. Doesn’t it make everything better? I’m so happy you like the cookies 🙂
Thank you Natasha for the recipe! The cookies turned out great, not sweet at all. I have used brown sugar and whole wheat flour, and dusted with powder sugar on top! Since I only have mixer, farmer cheese might be better (since it got almost no curd).
I bet it was the brown sugar that made them less sweet. I’ll have to try it. It’s great to know they worked well with whole wheat flour too and they were probably beautiful with the powdered sugar!
These tender, flaky little gems turned out perfect. I have to hide them from my husband because he keeps going back for more. Thanks for yet another perfect recipe.
By the way, I didn’t have raspberry honey crème, so we used orange marmalade slathered slightly on top….mmmmmm!
“slathered slightly” Is there such a thing as a light slather? lol
That’s awesome! You know its good when you have to hide them. 😉
I made a double portion because i have a big family. They came out very good! I shared with my married daughter and she LOVED them. Also, i got a comment from my son-in-law that i should make them more often. Thank You so much! I enjoy looking at all your recipes and this was the 1st one i tried!
I hope you find many many more favorites! Thanks for the feedback 🙂
Can these be made with farmer’s cheese as well? As a substitute for cottage cheese?
Several of my readers have made them with farmers cheese with great results. I will be trying that next time I make them.
Thank you for recipe. I bake them one hour ago and I ate 10 with cold milk. Yami
It’s hard to stop once you start, especially with cold milk :).
Thank you Natasha for the recipe. I did your cookies and I ate 15 with cold milk. They are so good
love the pictures 🙂 brings memories of childhood 🙂 great job Natasha 🙂
Thank you Katie 🙂 That’s awesome that these bring back memories for ya 🙂
I remember those cookies from childhood. Now I’m trying to remember what shape did my mom make them. I think triangles too. Looking good.;)
Thank you! What did you call them growing up?
Um…Don’t remember. Tvorozhnoe pechen’e?:) What did you call them, guys?
You can add cinnamon in the sugar, I wonder if that would be yummy too 🙂
That’s a good tip, thank you for sharing. I would like to try that next time I’ll make those cookies.
I bet it would be!
I have never had cookies made with cottage cheese. these look delish. i’d love to try them!
Let me know how they turn out when you make them :).
Oh, I love these! I think we used to call them “sochniki”. My mom used to make these and then we would take them to school as snacks. It’s always been on my to-do list to make them!
I took them over to my sister’s house and they were all gone shortly :).
I think the higher temperature does make them rise quicker..they are crumbly and at the same time flaky..just heavenly!
Hi Natasha,
Cookies look awesome. I would try this soon. I have another question to you. I made kiev cake one time and the meriung became soft when I served. I assembled the cake a day ahead and kept in the refrigerator. Can you tell me, what should I do to keep the meriung crunchy.
Did you make sure not to get the fruit spread on the meringue? I think if you want it to sit for awhile, it’s best to use a buttercream frosting. I’ll have to update the recipe soon with better pictures and I want to test it with a new frosting. Thanks for your feedback! 🙂
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw your post this afternoon, because I was munching on these cookies. I made a gigantic batch this weekend:). We’ve been making these cookies in our family ever since I was a little girl, although we make them with farmer’s cheese instead of cottage cheese. They are one of my favorite cookies – so simple to prepare but are soft, and remind me slightly of puff pastry. I just love them. Great pics!
I didn’t know they were popular with Russian/Ukrainian folks too! These are more crumbly. Now I really want to try yours because I have a whole bowl of tvorog in the fridge right now! I work for the next couple of days though so I have to wait 🙁 Anyway, are they called “ducks feet” cookies?
These are SO good…dangerous because you can easily eat like 10!!
Is that what happened when I left them at your house? Did you finish up the jar of raspberry honey creme?
Hi Natasha, love your blog 🙂 thank you for sharing all these wonderful recipes! Did you use American version of cottage cheese or russian (tvorog)? Thank you!
I used the American version; plain cottage cheese. I wonder how it would taste with tvorog. I actually have some in the fridge!!
I am going to try with tvorog tomorrow I will let you know the outcome 🙂
Please do let me know!! 🙂 Please post a picture somewhere so I can see how they turned out.
My version of these cookies…so delicious!
1 cup of farmers cheese
1 stick of cold shredded butter (cold butter makes the pastry flakier)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tea sp vanilla
mix all together then add
1/2 tea sp baking soda mixed with 1 table sp vinegar
then add 3/4 cup flour
dough will be sticky (you can add more flour if you want to roll out dough and make circles with cookie cuter)
take about 2 table spoons of dough and dip into flour so it won’t be sticky, make a circle with your hands dip into sugar fold in half dip into sugar fold in half again and dip top into sugar, put on parchment paper on baking sheet bake at 375 degrees for about 20-23 min till golden
I’ll have to try your version Marina! I wonder if the higher heat makes them flakier too?
If you want them flaky, instead of creaming the butter, try cutting it into the flour 🙂
I love the pictures, just so so homey looking 🙂
Thank you for the tip Marina, I should try that next time :).
These cookies have being my family’s favorite for years! The only difference in my way of making them is that I also dip the top of the cookie into the bowl of sugar. It makes a nice crisp top and looks glossy too. Thanks, Natasha, for posting these cookies, now my 16 year old daughter will have an old time favorite recipe with your pictures for her cook book 🙂
You are welcome Natasha, I should try your version as well :).
Oh, and I forgot to mention I use Farmers cheese instead of cottage. Homemade works best, but store bought is good too.
Your recipes are endlessly delicious !!! You know what I’m talking about 😉
Thank you Karolina :).
I love cookies! These look similiar to Olga’s “geese feet” cookies. I plan to try both of your recipes sometime in the future and see how they differ from each other. Also, do you happen to have a Sharlotka recipe?
Wow, I guess this is a more common cookie than I thought! Hers does look delicious. I would love to hear the outcome of your testing :). Currently don’t have a Sharlotka recipe.
I like this recipe. Thanks Natasha and by the way every recipe I try from your site, turns out always yummy.
That’s music to my ears 🙂 well, technically my eyes since I’m reading it. Oh nevermind. Thank you! It makes me very happy 🙂
Oooooo, these look delicious. I’ll be making them soon. Thanks Natasha!
You’re welcome! I hope you love ’em.
This is so awesome! I would never be brave enough to attempt a baking recipe in metric because everything needs to be converted so exactly, but I will certainly try these!
And the conversions aren’t exact; they are a little weird and hard to convert to the standard things that we use.
metric recipes are not very difficult if you take the time to practice a few times. Most of the best recipes that I’ve ever made are scaled by weight instead of volume. They always turn out exactly right and it is a revelation once you start baking with a scale instead of measuring cups. It only takes a few minutes more to prepare your ingredients, but the result is absolutely worth it in the end. You’ll never be intimidated by your recipe again! Good luck!
Last time I made theses I was probably 10 or 11. 🙂 They’ve been on my “recipes to re-visit” list for ages but I’d lost the original recipe! Pinning this one! 🙂
Thanks for pinning! 🙂
These cookies are so sweet looking! Cottage cheese would make for a beautifully light, crumbly cookie, I’m sure.
They were nice and crumbly and borderline flaky. This was the first time I put cottage cheese in cookies and was pleasantly surprised 🙂