Spiced Cottage Cheese Rolls

A Perfect Thanksgiving Recipe!!

Sharing this recipe of warm and yummy “Spiced Cottage Cheese Rolls” here today is my way of celebrating Thanksgiving this year. 

Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to be thankful and grateful for everything we have in life. During these unprecedented Covid times, this day has an even bigger significance. The daily activities and things that once seemed routine are now a luxury. This year has taught us the value of life, family, a roof on the head, a job, a companion to share your living space with and much more. As much as I wish for this pandemic to settle and get my normal life back, I am thankful to Covid for teaching me the life lessons of being grateful for the minuscule.

This post is dedicated to all the readers and people in my life who have motivated me always to experiment with food and baking. Thank you so much for all the love you guys have showered me with and I am grateful to have this platform to share my recipes and life experiences with each one of you.

This recipe of Spiced Cottage Cheese Rolls is an instant, non-yeast version of dinner rolls filled with goodness of cottage cheese (paneer) and Indian spices. The ease of the recipe gave my daughters an opportunity to be involved and make it even special. Kids mixed the ingredients together while I formed the dough. They loved rolling the dough into balls and keeping them in baking trays. 

Cottage Cheese (Paneer) is an Indian cheese that is high in nutritive value. It is rich in calcium and protein and aids in many body processes. Cottage Cheese can fulfill about 8% of the daily recommended calcium intake. Cow’s milk contains the highest amount of casein protein among various kinds of milk. 100 gms of paneer has a whopping 83 gms of protein. It also prevents tooth decay. Paneer provides instant energy to the body, a bite of cheese can act as your energy bar too. Hence, paneer should be part of your daily diet especially if you are a vegetarian as it fulfills protein need of the body.

My younger daughter, Elina (3.5 yrs) kept rejecting the recipe till it was out of oven and was served. She was the first one to take a bite and came running giving me a big hug saying, “Mumma take a bite, this is so tasty”. It brought a smile to my face which can never be expressed in words. This was a perfect family lunch on a cloudy weekend that each member of the family enjoyed. I was a content person having fed a perfect mix of healthiness to all of them.

The rolls were soft, fluffy and perfectly spiced. They had a nice flavor from whole wheat that blended perfectly with the spices and paneer. The addition of paneer made the rolls quite filling on stomach and gave a mild milky taste that blended well with all spices.

The rolls can be accompanied with any curry of your choice or had as is as a snack. Me being a vegetarian, have paired them from the regular Bhaji (mix veg indian curry) usually paired with butter roasted buns (pavs) to a Chinese Vegetarian Schezwan Gravy at different times. This recipe has become a family favorite and is a keeper for all. 

One has immense possibilities of playing around with this recipe to get a different taste each time. (Refer to the Notes section of recipe for the directions). Do give this recipe a try and share your experiences and suggestions. I would love to hear your views on the recipe from each one of you. Happy Baking!! Stay Healthy!!

 

RECIPE FOR SPICED COTTAGE CHEESE ROLLS:

 STEP 1: In a large bowl, grate and mix the cottage cheese (paneer) and cheddar cheese.

STEP 2: Add baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, chilli powder, dry mango powder, garam masala and grated fresh ginger.

STEP 3: Crush the dried curry leaves and add to the bowl.

STEP 4: Measure and add half cup (60 gm) of whole wheat flour and half cup (60 gm) of fine semolina flour.

STEP 5: Mix everything well together. Add in the curd to the mixture. Form a soft dough with hands.

STEP 6:  Divide the dough into 12 parts and using a bit of oil on hands create small balls in shape of rolls.

STEP 7: Line the rolls onto a baking tray.

STEP 8: Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius for 15minutes. Preheating the oven after forming the dough lets the flours soak up the curd and result in amazingly soft rolls.

STEP 9: Bake for 55 minutes with the top rod on for last10 minutes to get perfectly browned rolls on top.

STEP 10: Let the rolls cool down to warm temperature inside oven. Enjoy your cottage cheese rolls with a hot curry of your choice or with a cup of tea/coffee.

RECIPE NOTES:

1. Replace Indian spices with Italian seasonings for some Italian rolls.
2. You may add-in finely chopped vegetables, crushed garlic and Italian seasonings to get some yummy pizza rolls.
3. Add some crushed garlic to make some garlic rolls.
4. Clarified butter (ghee) can be replaced with any neutral flavored oil or butter.
5. Semolina flour may be replaced with whole wheat flour. The rolls still turn out good, however, they will have a stronger taste of whole wheat.
6. One can also bake the rolls in muffin trays.