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Recipe updated 5/13/16
Light, creamy, fluffy, easy – and oh, so summery! These gorgeous bars, similar in texture to a jello salad, are a pretty dessert perfectly suited to take to a party. They’re a cinch to mix together, and the recipe yields a 9×13″ pan – plenty to share, if you’re feeling generous, that is.
These are based off of a recipe I came across in a book of tea-table delicacies (traditional, sugar-laden recipes, of course).  The example picture was so pretty, and once I looked at the recipe, I was thrilled to see that it wouldn’t be too hard to recreate in a healthier version.
These bars really are beautiful, and my pictures (which I took in terrible lighting) do them no justice. The bars are a crisp white, bejeweled with brilliant blue berries. You could use blackberries or raspberries in place of or in addition to the blueberries. Alternately, I’m guessing that one could blend the berries to make a purple dessert, or keep part of the batter white and blend berries into the other part and swirl the two together. I thought of doing that, but I was going for easy.
This recipe actually reminds me of a fruit jello salad; I think it would do well in a pretty mold. However you want to adapt it or shape it, it’s good – a great dessert to take to a social function. 🙂
You can pin this recipe from my Desserts board here.
You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- 4 tsp. Knox gelatin (add an extra teaspoon if you're using Great Lakes brand or THM Just Gelatin)
- ½ cup near-boiling water
- 1½ cups unsweetened almond milk
- ½ cup cottage cheese
- 16 oz. (two packages) ⅓ less fat cream cheese, softened
- ¼ tsp. THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ cup whipping cream
- Fresh berries (blueberries, blackberries, and/or raspberries) - do not use frozen
- Whisk the gelatin into the hot water and let it stand while getting the other ingredients assembled.
- Blend the almond milk and cottage cheese together until smooth (an immersion blender works well).
- In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, stevia, salt, and vanilla. Add the almond milk/cottage cheese mixture and beat until well-combined. Add the gelatin mixture; beat well. Add the cream and beat until just combined.
- Pour into a 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle with the fresh berries of your choice. Refrigerate for 3 hours or longer before serving. Yields: 15 servings.
Suggested products:
- THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder can be purchased from the Trim Healthy Mama online store.
- Unflavored gelatin
Could you use sour cream in place of cottage cheese? Or do you have a better substitution?
Thanks for all great recipes!!
I’ve only tried it as written. 🙂
I’m looking forward to trying this! Looks really refreshing! I was wondering about something I’ve noticed in the blog world lately, and especially with THM bloggers recently. More and more of the pins do not have the name of the food on them. This recipe, for example, doesn’t have a pin with the name on it, and at first glance it looks like chocolate chips. I’m much more likely to skip over it if I’m looking for an E snack/dessert. Is that something which has been promoted as less desirable? Just wondered. I’m one who looks at the names to quickly find the right food I’m after.
Hi Allison! Good question! I usually provide images with clear labeling for Pinterest (and pin those myself), but I can’t control which images everyone pins from my website so those don’t always get pinned. Sometimes people just pin the regular pictures from the post. This particular post is REALLY old (circa 2014) and was created back before I knew anything about Pinterest, so it doesn’t have any fancy graphics. 😛 If you go to my Pinterest account, you’ll be able to find lots of clearly labeled pins for most of my recipes. https://www.pinterest.com/brianathomas391/boards/
This recipe was listed under dairy free on your website. I was so excited, until I saw the long list of dairy laden ingredients. I do see it has almond milk {Yeah!} but sadly cottage cheese, cream cheese, & whipped cream are dairy laden. Perhaps it was an oversight to slip it in the dairy free section?
Hi there! I checked and the only tags I’m seeing are “Blueberry, Cheesecake, Egg Free, Gluten Free, Low Carb (THM:S), No Special Ingredients, no-bake, Party/Potluck, Peanut Free.” Perhaps you were in a different section than you thought? This is my dairy-free section. 🙂 https://www.briana-thomas.com/indexes/fuel-type-allergy-info-theme/dairy-free/
Hi there, these look delicious! Do you think it would work to substitute coconut milk for the almond milk? Thank you!
If you mean the kind from the carton that’s quite similar in nutritional value to the carton unsweetened almond milk, then yes, that should be fine. 🙂
Hi Briana! I made this yesterday and for some reason it never firmed up.
Hi Kathryn, the only time I’ve had issues with something like that is when I didn’t get the water that I dissolved the gelatin in hot enough. I’m sorry you had trouble with them, and this is the only reason I can think of that would explain their not setting up.
Thank you, Briana… I boiled the water before adding the gelatin. It dissolved nicely…I used Great Lakes Gelatin (green can). Do you think it might make a difference what the temperature is of the gelatin when added to the mix? I wonder if It cooled off too much? (I let it sit while I made the other preparations).
Hmm, I really don’t know, and I’m not familiar with that brand of gelatin. Has it done a good job of gelling things before, I assume? The temperature may have something to do with it, although I’d think it would’ve still been pretty warm when you added it since these don’t take too long to put together.
Hi Briana…I just read that the gelatin I have…the green can of Green Lakes… does not gel like the others. I add it in my coffee for extra protein, good for joints, etc. I will make this trying a different brand… Makes perfect sense if this is the case. Do you use Knox gelatin? Looking forward to trying this again and will let you know if that was the culprit! Blessings to you and happy belated birthday!
Oh, that makes sense now! I’ve never used Green Lakes, so that’s good to know so I can help other people in the future. I’ve used Knox gelatin before, and I think that’s the brand I used for these bars. Right now I’m using unflavored gelatin that I got at a bulk food store; the brand isn’t marked on the package. Thank you for the birthday wishes!
Great Lakes Collagen comes in a green can, and collagen does not gel. Great Lakes Gelatin is in an orange can and will gel as any other gelatin. 🙂
Can I use Lactose free milk (I absolutely despise almond milk) like ya know since the lactose is gone then that should make it THM approved right?
I have never heard of lactose-free milk, so I couldn’t tell you. What are the ingredients and nutritional info?
Ummm it says:
fat free skim milk
lactase enzyme
vitamin A palmitate
vitamin D3
Generally dairy milk is off-plan because of the carbs. They’re in liquid form which is an insulin spike waiting to happen. How many carbs are in a cup of this milk?
Is there any reason you use almond milk over regular milk? You are adding in whipping cream, so this would be an S dessert, right? Could regular milk be substituted if you don’t have or want to use almond milk?
Regular milk is very high in carbs unless cultured in some form. 🙂
How much stevia? The recipe reads “doonks” ??
A “doonk” is the THM name for 1/32nd of a teaspoon. 🙂 So in this recipe, you would use 1/8 tsp. of pure stevia extract powder, such as the brand I linked to.
This is my next dessert I’m going to make. Looks delicious, I just need to get more almond milk!
Would you think Lily’s chocolate chips could be subbed in for the fruit?
That sounds kind of gross to me, but sure, go ahead. 😛 Haha…I wonder if they wouldn’t get really hard though, being kept in the fridge like that. Kind of like putting chocolate chips in ice cream.