We tried the cottage cheese ice cream trend

If you are even halfway trying to increase your protein intake, you may have been inundated with videos on social media recently about making high-protein ice cream from cottage cheese. (Don't know what I'm talking about? See here.)

• After seeing seven or so videos about this concept, which involves blending cottage cheese with syrup or honey and other flavorings, then freezing it, I decided to give it a try.

Initially, I was obsessed. In particular, one version that uses strawberries and graham crackers I thought tasted a lot like strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

• I made several batches of it over the course of a week.

Yes, but: Cottage cheese ice cream is quite finicky, I soon discovered.

• You can't just make it and leave it in your freezer and enjoy it the next day.
• For most recipes that use two cups or so of cottage cheese, about four hours of freezing time is ideal. (For a half batch, you still need two hours.) After that, it becomes a hard, icy mess — and doesn't usually defrost in an appetizing way.
• You also need to stir it a few times during the freezing process to create peak creaminess.

The verdict: Even as someone who works from home, I found it difficult to time my cottage cheese ice cream consumption properly.

• Either I'd make it and want it ready sooner than the four hours, which is what provides the right consistency to best mimic actual ice cream, or I would have things to do and not be able to eat my protein-rich ice cream imitation at the right moment.

The bottom line: After you get over the initial shock that you can make a somewhat decent-tasting ice cream substitute from cottage cheese, you'll likely grow bored of babysitting it in the freezer — and decide there are easier ways to add protein to your diet.