This TikTok ‘Cottage Cheese Wrap’ Recipe Is Bad, Actually | Lifehacker

There’s a viral cottage cheese wrap making its way around the internet and it’s being touted as a high-protein bread replacement for sandwiches and wraps. Well, I love cottage cheese and I do love a sandwich, so how bad could it be? Well, folks, it’s not great. 

I don’t know if I’m surprised that the internet misled me, or just disappointed. I’m one of those weirdos that actually really likes cottage cheese—the 4% fat variety, of course. It’s one of my go-to warm weather snacks when paired with fresh fruits, so I was eager to buy my first tub of the season and enjoy it in this new application. It’s not weird to try and pack in the protein and reduce carbs, but this creation really falls short. Not only does the wrap replacement suck in a practical sense, but I actually think it messes up the cottage cheese flavor too. 

What is the viral cottage cheese wrap?

The main idea seems to be that you can blend cottage cheese with some egg parts to make a loose batter of sorts. Spread the mixture in a flat rectangle on a sheet tray and bake it in the oven. Et voilà: A perfect, high-protein, gluten-free wrap that you can pack with many leafy greens, cold cuts, and maybe even more cottage cheese. There are many variations of this cottage cheese wrap including this one which only uses egg whites, this one which uses whole eggs, one that fries it all in a pan instead of baking it in the oven, and I even came across another that uses flour (which I can’t find at the moment)—so what exactly are we doing, then? 

On TikTok, this process takes 12 seconds from blend to bite. What you don’t see is how damn long it takes to bake, and quite frankly, how you actually need to over-bake it for this to work at all. Throw out everything you know about cooking eggs with this “wrap.” Egg whites begin to set at 140°F, which is usually what we aim for because the proteins build tender bonds that you can easily break with a fork or with your teeth. 

The bread replacement, however, requires the proteins in the eggs to cook at high temperatures—some recipes instruct for 400°F—and form many strong, rubbery bonds. You know how sometimes when you fry an egg for a few minutes too long, and the edges of the white turn crispy and brown, and you struggle to break it even with a fork? Yep, that’s what’s required here. The high-moisture cottage cheese in the mixture interrupts some of the egg’s bonds, so the ones that are connecting need to cook until browning, or else the whole thing falls apart into a mushy, and quite unappealing, mess. 

The uneven results

I actually don’t even have a problem with cooking the “bread” until browning. Eggs are an incredibly versatile ingredient, and if you can cook them until they’re chewy enough to mimic bread, well, what wonderful innovation! I take issue with the wrap in practice.

The batter looks smooth and promising before baking.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

I saw multiple TikTok videos that seem to have run into the same problem I did—my layer of cheese-egg batter spread out in the oven and became uneven. (This is almost guaranteed to happen if you have sheet pans that warp under higher temperatures.) The thin side burned and the thicker side was okay.

My batter creeped over to one side and part of it died.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

The burnt and crispy section broke off when I tried to fill the wrap, and the thicker section was flexible but borderline mushy in parts. I ate half of it, generously offered the other half to my boyfriend (he declined), and tossed the other half. 

The second time I tried it with whole eggs instead of just egg whites, and the flavor improved slightly. Nonetheless, I still encountered the same issues with irregular cooking—burnt sections and mushy spots. If you chose to make this high-protein “bread,” I would recommend a recipe with whole eggs, and ditching a sheet pan to use a parchment-lined casserole dish instead. Then you don’t have to deal with warping. That said, I won’t be making this again. 

Make these high-protein options instead

Baking something for 35 to 45 minutes to get a product you might very well chuck is pretty much my definition of not worth it. You’re better off keeping it fast, simple, and—most of all—delicious. Make a stunning, fluffy omelette with some cottage cheese inside, or a frittata (which is an omelette for lazy people) which only takes about 10 minutes in the oven. These options are also high-protein and gluten-free, and you can fill them with veggies and meats too. If you must have a wrap, try pan-frying some plain ol’ egg whites, like with these dumpling wrappers, but use a larger pan. It’s way faster (we’re talking one to two minutes per wrap), about as high-protein and low-fat as you can get, plus you don’t have to bake these to hell and back just so they’ll hold some ham. Happy bulking, everyone.