Recipe for homemade cinnamon crunch cereal that is healthy and grain-free for minimal carbs and easier digestion for breakfast.
One of the most popular videos and recipes I’ve posted on this blog is How to Make Cold Breakfast Cereal.
A frequent question I’ve gotten from that post is how to make a grain free homemade breakfast cereal for those who eat Primal or Paleo or are currently on the GAPS or SCD diet.
Why would you ever want to make your own breakfast cereal when there are oodles of brands at the store, you might ask?
The reason is because ALL boxed cereal from the store, even if organic, should be avoided due to the heavy processing required to make it.
Called extrusion, this process liquefies the cereal grains into a slurry using very high temperatures and pressures to manufacture the desired shapes, puffs, and flakes.
This violent processing denatures the proteins in the cereal grains leaving them toxic and allergenic.
Making your own healthy, homemade breakfast cereal is clearly the way to go given the highly processed boxed versions at the store.
The recipe below is a healthy version of the Cinnamon Crunch cereal from the supermarket. It was shared by Heather, a reader friend who kindly shared her creativity with all of us.
Note that homemade coconut flour and soaked almond flour made at home are best, but in a pinch store bought is fine. Kefir may be substituted for yogurt if desired.
Want a nut butter version? Try this peanut butter grain-free breakfast cereal too!
Homemade Breakfast Cereal Recipe (grain free)
Recipe for homemade cinnamon crunch cereal that is grain-free for minimal carbs and easier digestion for the morning meal.
Ingredients
- 4 cups almond flour
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 3 cups plain whole yogurt
- 3/4 cup expeller pressed coconut oil
- 1 cup honey
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp baking soda leave out if on SCD Diet
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1.5 Tbl cinnamon preferably freshly ground
Instructions
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Soak almond flour and coconut flour in yogurt or kefir in a covered glass bowl for 24 hours.
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Mix in remaining ingredients into the batter. Pour batter into (2) 9 x13 pans coated with coconut oil. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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Do not overbake.
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Let cool and then crumble homemade breakfast cereal onto baking sheets and dehydrate at 200 F for about 24 hours. Take out dried cereal off the top every few hours so as not to overdry and make the cereal too hard.
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Store homemade breakfast cereal in an airtight container in the fridge.
Reference
I hesitate leaving a comment at the very bottom of the article – I doubt anyone will see it! But we’ve made the Cinnamon Crunch cereal twice with two variations, and each time, the cereal has come out very, very, very bitter tasting. The first time, we tried soaking the flours in raw milk kefir. The second time, we soaked with yogurt.
Has anyone else experienced this? We had to throw out both batches. I can’t figure it out what we’re doing wrong, when we followed the recipe exactly and the cereal looks just like the pictures.
Hey Andrea! Usually when you are soaking grains or nuts, you do often get that bitter taste in the end result. Sometimes there is no way around it…but I found that if you replace the kefir or yogurt with water and lemon juice or apple cider vinegar(probably around 3 TB plus enough water to equal 2 1/2 cups total liquid for this recipe- you may need the whole 3 cups, though. Start off with just 2 1/2 cups liquid and if it looks too dry, add in the other 1/2 cup liquid), it usually helps with the bitterness. Of course, you could just use soaked and dehydrated almonds and make your own almond flour so that you can eliminate the whole soaking process. Hopefully this helps! 🙂
~Kelly
I was hesitant to put in the time to make this because my picky 12 year old doesn’t like anything I make for him in attempts to improve his diet. It’s not even done in the oven and he tried it and lovs it. He says he loves it better than any boxed cereal, even his beloved honey nut Cheerios! He told me to put it in his lunch! I am so thrilled. Getting healthy foods in this boy is such an ongoing struggle. Thank you!
Question regarding soaking of nuts/seeds: I will use ground pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in place of the almond flour. When I use seed meal in baking, I always soak and dehydrate prior to use. Should I soak/dehydrate my seeds for this recipe even though they will be soaking for 24hrs in the yogurt? Thanks!
I make the one with grain all of them, but I am currently on GAPS. Any suggestions on why my “cake” crumbled completely apart after I let it cool down from baking (to go onto the sheets to dehydrate)? It is literally crumbs…
I made this yesterday and seriously, it is the best. Thank you Sarah for posting this.
Finally made this. My family loves it! I didn’t have quite enough ingredients so I multiplied everything times 3/4. The only request mine asked was for me to use two pans next time so it will be thinner. I used only 1 pan since it wasn’t a whole recipe – my bad. Look forward to trying the peanut butter one next.
Oh and by the way, I didn’t want to keep my oven on 200 for 24 hours. After all, it’s summer here in Texas; so I dehydrated it on 155 for 12 hours. They loved it!
Hey! This looks really yummy! I am trying this as soon as my almonds have finished soaking and dehydrating. I might use some ground pecans too just because we have a lot in our freezer. 🙂
One question: how much does this make?? It looks like a lot, but I cannot tell. Thanks a lot for the recipe!
~Kelly
this looks so good!. I love your recipes!.
I am curious about using yoghurt or kefir . . . if it is heated to 200 degrees you will kill off all the delicious probiotics. Why wouldn’t you just use milk?