Sometimes my kids want cereal for breakfast. Heck, even I occasionally want a bowl. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a single minimally-processed cereal available at the grocery store that I feel comfortable feeding my kids. Even if the cereal only has a few ingredients, the high temperatures and pressures required to form long strands or puffy balls destroy many of the nutrients. Many cereals are expanded and then spayed with sugar and oil so they will keep their form and crunch while sitting in milk. And the little flakes or rings? Those are grains mixed with liquid until they form slurry. The mixture then goes through a machine called an extruder. The extruder applies high heat and pressure to form the rings, flakes or shreds. According to Paul Stitt, a biochemist and author of the book Fighting the Food Giants, the extrusion process destroys many nutrients, denatures fatty acids, and can even destroy the synthetic vitamins which are added to the cereal.
Now for the fun part. Making cereal at home is easy and you can have control over exactly what goes into your morning bowl. It only takes a few ingredients and some hours in the oven to dehydrate while we all sleep. We like it as a crunchy, sweet alternative to our usual eggs and smoothies. It’s also great as a crunchy topping over yogurt.
Homemade Grape Nuts Cereal Recipe (Paleo, GAPs, Grain Free, Dairy Free)
I recommend making double the recipe, since it only serves four. Serve over cold raw milk, organic milk, almond milk, or rice milk.
Adapted from Good to the Grain
Serves 4
Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour (I used Honeyville)
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
Preheat oven to 170ºF or as low as your oven will go (you can also make this cereal in a dehydrator). Whisk almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk coconut milk, honey and vanilla in a small bowl and pour over dry mixture. Stir until mixture forms a thick, wet dough. Place a piece of parchment paper on a large baking sheet and pour dough onto parchment. Using an offset spatula, spread the dough evenly over the pan. Dehydrate in the oven overnight, about 10 hours. Cool completely.
Break cereal apart and feed through the tube of a food processor with the large-holed grater attached. (Alternatively, place all cereal pieces in a ziploc bag and crush the cereal by pounding the closed bag with the back of a skillet).
Serve cereal with cold milk. Cereal will keep in an airtight container for about 1 month at room temperature.
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I rave about myself every night at the dinner table, “Honey, can you believe I made this??” And it’s all thanks to you!! (and teaching me that organic butter is welcomed and embraced! No more fat free, yay!!
{ 57 comments… read them below or add one }
this is brilliant, Carrie!
Certainly a much better alternative to the store bought stuff!
I am really excited about trying this recipe. Sometimes I just want something crunchy! I can see eating this with a couple of spoonfuls of chocolate grain-free granola added on top. Try this great recipe for some chocolate and crunchy to top your yogurt! http://gourmandeinthekitchen.com/2012/gluten-free-grain-free-chocolate-granola-recipe/ Thanks for sharing. I love your blog.
I love Sylvie’s recipes! I haven’t tried her grain free chocolate granola yet, but it’s on my list!
Oooh I will definitely be trying this today or tomorrow. I have made a similar recipe from Sally Fallon’s “Eat Fat, Lose Fat,” but this is easier and naturally gluten-free, which we need. Excited! Thanks, Carrie!
Yay! Grain free cereal. When you first suggested eating this way a while back I thought you were a bit crazy. But now I get it and I feel so much better. Thanks for that! I have really missed cereal, though, so I can’t wait to try this!
LOVE this recipe!! Huge fan of Grape Nuts.
DO you think this would work the same subbing 1 for 1 the coconut flour for ww flour? We don’t have gluten issues so the ww flour would be easier for us
I haven’t tested it, but I would use 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour for the almond and coconut flours. If the dough seems too tacky, add a bit more flour. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!
Coconut milk in a can, or the refrigerated kind?
I used organic canned coconut milk. I prefer it to the refrigerated kind because it has less preservatives.
OK, you are on – going to try this, as long as I can meet the captcha code, so frustrating.
I’m sorry the captcha is frustrating. I had many issues with people hacking into my site, so I had to set up captcha codes to help with that issue.
I’m determined to wean my children off of store bought cereals. Even though I buy the “healthy” brands I know they’ll be so much better off if I can transition them to something more substantial in the morning. This cereal sounds like a great place to start. What’s involved with dehydrating it in the oven? Do I leave it on a very low temperature over night? Thanks.
All that’s involved is putting it in the oven and leaving it there overnight as instructed in the recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
We actually just went through are last box of “Organic” cereal. I have been feeling a bit on the guilty side as it makes for a quick breakfast. Now that I am feeling better we have been able to get back to Juicing in the mornings so hopefully that will give me the energy needed to get breakfast back on the Right track. This recipe is surely going to be incorporated. Thank you for sharing.
Angelina
WOW!! wonderful! thanks…will be making this soon…perhaps in an hour or two!!
Wow!! Sooooo good! Just made my first batch last night! I had a hard time sleeping as I was so eager to eat it!! Will definitely make it again soon!!
Carrie, this sounds delicious!
the house smells so good! can’t wait for breakfast tomorrow. (or a midnight snack?)
I think I just heard a choir of Angels singing! This looks heavenly! Cannot wait to try!
Really? It’s that easy? I blush, thinking about how much money I spend trying to find “healthy” cereal and it’s not all that good for me. Thanks for the education. And recipe!
Just finished! The kids have asked me every half hour when it would be done. It smells a lot like graham crackers here and we thought that they might be good left in chunks to make smores. I know they wouldn’t hold together as well but they would be an easy alternative.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I had the same thought (substituting for graham crackers for smores). It would be nice all crumbled up with some homemade marshmallows and chocolate. Yum!
You should see me right now. My mouth is hanging open in disbelief. I had no idea that all cereals were so bad! I have been buying Organic and trying to keep it as natural as possible… but wow. What you described is gross! Thanks for this recipe… will be trying it!
Do you use 1 c. of canned coconut milk in this grape nut recipe or refrigerated coconut milk?
Thanks!
I used canned organic Thai Kitchens milk for this recipe.
Absolutely yummiest homemade cereal…..thx Carrie! It has been very hard for our family to maintain a grain- free diet since moving overseas this year. Your post about cereals was timely – as breakfast is where we often slip up. This is soooo good and will be a perfect healthly addition to our breakfast rotations.
You’re welcome! Thanks for the kind words.
I really didn’t know that you can make your own homemade cereals at home. This is, for sure, the best possible version of cereals, healthy and without additional sugar or aromas ( like those we usually buy). Will have to make them. Thanks for sharing this one. Have a great week!
Love this!!! Just let my youngest have regular grape nuts -he will be so happy!
I am really trying to be careful w/ all the nuts though. They can lead to other issues from what I have been reading. I will for sure be making and most likely sharing on my FB page. Thanks!!!
I used to love Grape Nuts in my wheat eating days. I will always remember Euell Gibbons commercial….staring at a tree and saying “many parts are edible”. Many people joked that the cereal was made out of a tree stump.
Tried this recipe it tastes really good! But my food processor just pulverized the cereal, so next time I will just smash it in a bag. And there will be a next time!
Thank you so much for posting this, I can’t wait to try it! I make my own almond milk and have not figured out a way to use the flour yet. I am such a minimalist when it comes to kitchen appliances and don’t have a dehydrator so I wonder how to get the almond leftover pulp to become flour. Anyway, so glad that you mention you can use an oven (which I DO have), and a skillet (check) instead of a dehydrator and food processor for the minimalist like me!
AMAZING! I have made 6 batches already!! My whole family loooooves it. I quit eating grains earlier this summer so I am thrilled to have cereal again. I have used a couple batches as “cookies” and left them in large pieces. Thinking about making s’mores with them when it gets cold!
Thanks for the feedback. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I love the idea of using them for smores!
This is such a great idea!! I have to try it
Help! My cereal didn’t crisp up. I cooked for 10 hours at 170 & it’s still soft. What did I do wrong?
Is it particularly humid where you are? This can play into how long it takes to dehydrate. For instance, I live in the desert so it only takes me about 10 hours, but my friend who lives in a more humid climate needs at least 10 hours or more. I would just leave it in there for a couple more hours and keep an eye on it until it’s crisp.
Just curious… I am not a fan of coconut but I would love to try this. Do you think there is another liquid I could use instead? Does the cereal have a coconut taste to it because of the milk?
You could also use heavy cream. The actual cereal doesn’t have a coconut taste, and I ate it with some fresh milk. If you’re looking for a non-dairy alternative maybe almond milk would be a good choice.
Seems a bit silly to ask – but why the oven instead of a dehydrator? I dehydrate meals for camping a lot and would rather leave the dehydrator on all night than the oven. (our gas oven cycles on and off a lot.
Thanks
A dehydrator will work great. I don’t own one, so that’s why the instructions call for a low-temp oven.
This looks delicious! Would TJ’s almond meal work?
Almond meal will work well!
Is there any reason I can’t omit the honey?
I don’t think the mixture would have enough moisture to hold together properly. You might be able to increase the liquid a bit, but I’ve never tried it.
Cool I’ll try a batch with Manuka Honey and one without.
Carrie I will have to try this. i have been busy cooking from your cookbookthat I have not been checking the blog as often. I am loving the cookbook and my food does not look like your pictures but the taste is amazing. My 4 yr old boys absolutely love the beef stroganoff (spelling??) We made the raspberry muffins this morning and your strawberry shake is a hit. I did not put the egg, I am a bit scared of them ingesting a raw egg. Any advice to help with this? I hosted a dinner for New Year and made the risotto and everyone loved it. Thanks so much!
Thank you for the kind words! I understand your hesitation with serving raw egg yolks. Here’s a great article about eggs – if you scroll about half-way down you’ll see the title, “How to Cook Your Eggs, or Not”, and it gives some great info about eating raw eggs. http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/eat-eggs-and-have-chicken-too
I used to love grape nuts. This sounds great, but I am allergic to almonds. Any suggestion for an alternative to the almond flour?
She told me I could use whole wheat flour in place of! Hope this helps!
Thank you for the suggestion. I was hoping for a gluten free alternative.
This was delicious! We all loved it and my 18MO loved it as graham crackers! As mentioned it doubles well for this. I subbed raw heavy cream b/c I didn’t have coconut milk and it worked perfectly. Will try almond milk next since two of my kids have dairy sensitivities. Thanks so much for sharing!
I LOVED this cereal. I made my own almond flour by processing blanched slivered almonds in my food processor. I also made my own coconut milk. I used maple syrup instead of honey (or maybe I used a combination – can’t remember even though it was just a few days ag0). Delicious. I was amazed how it turned out after the 10 hours in the oven at 170F. Paleo Perfection! It’s a great breakfast with fruit and homemade almond milk after my morning workouts. Very portable… toss some into a tupperware and bring to work. I might actually write a review on my blog linking back to your website. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
OH MY GOSH! Amazing doesn’t even begin to describe this! My toddler and I were eating this straight out of the bowl before dehydrating it, it is sooo good! I did make some substitutions simply because I didn’t have some things. We used maple syrup for the honey, and almond extract for the vanilla extract (it really brought out the almond flour)! I can’t wait for it to be done to try it dehydrated! I’ve really been craving crunchy cereal since going grain free! Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Almond extract sounds perfect for this recipe!
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