The objective
A “treat” breakfast cereal that is a convincing dupe for the store-bought kind
My daughter cannot walk down a grocery store’s snack or cereal aisle without her eyes lighting up like a slot machine.
She eats her fair share of sweets, including store-bought stuff, but whenever possible we opt for homemade. I feel very smug that she prefers the cookies I make over Oreos or Bear Paws, that she rejects packaged granola bars in favour of the ones her grandmother bakes, and that at birthday parties she leaves the cloying frosting on grocery store slab cakes untouched. This is the one area I don’t mind raising a snob.
As for the sugary cereals that beckon to her from their cartoon-covered boxes, I didn’t know it was possible to create an enticing alternative – until I opened Hello, Home Cooking by Ham El-Waylly, chef and co-owner of Brooklyn’s Strange Delight.
Growing up, El-Waylly’s mom only let him eat sugary cereal in the summer, when school wasn’t in session, so he made his own version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch using pita to scratch the itch the rest of the year. An evolved version of that recipe is in the book, and El-Waylly says he now prefers it to the one General Mills makes.
Would my daughter prefer it, too?
The process
I came across a few other recipes online for homemade Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but they called for making pie dough, rolling it out thinly and cutting it into squares. Using a bag of store-bought pita instead was infinitely easier and, for something I was about to add a ton of butter and sugar to, seemed slightly more “healthy.”
I had bought fresh pita at the start of the week with the intention of making the cereal right away. But then time got away from me and I found myself with a stale bag seven days later. No problem: El-Waylly told me that’s what he often uses. (The older pita requires a bit more effort to cut up than fresh; a sharp pair of kitchen shears might do the job better than a knife.)
While the pita was baking, I made the cinnamon glaze. My experiments with melting sugar and butter on the stove usually involve my candy thermometer, but this was far simpler: After the mixture started bubbling, I turned off the heat and whisked in salt, cinnamon and vanilla.
Like so many nostalgic childhood treats, Cinnamon Toast Crunch can taste too sweet and one-note to more mature palates – which is why El-Waylly adds salt to his glaze. (I actually think the recipe could use even more salt and a bit less sugar.)
The result
You’re going to think I’m making this up and I promise I’m not: My daughter devoured a bowl of the cinnamon pita crunch with a grin on her face.
After she finished, I poured her half a bowl of the store-bought Cinnamon Toast Crunch (which she’d never had) as a comparison. She had a spoonful, made a face and stopped eating, pushing the bowl away.
“I don’t even like that one,” she said, referring to the General Mills product, “and I’m in love with this one,” she finished, grabbing some cinnamon pita crunch from the container and tossing a few clusters into her mouth.
The original cereal reminded her of an unpleasant smell, she said. It also absorbed the milk faster and turned mushy.
The homemade version’s glaze is what levels up the recipe. Not only does it impart sweetness, saltiness and cinnamon flavour, it essentially gives the pita a hard candy shell that protects it from getting soggy in milk.
“It kind of feels like a magic trick,” says El-Waylly, who describes this elusive texture as “wet crunchy.”
He recommends storing the cereal in the freezer for maximum freshness: After a few days on the counter, the sugar will attract moisture from the air and the clusters will lose their crunch. Doing so is also good for self-control: It’s such a fun snack to grab a handful of to eat dry.
Before the first batch was done, my daughter said I’d need to make more again soon. Eggs, toast, Cheerios, yogurt and smoothies will remain the regular breakfast offerings at my house, but I plan on making cinnamon pita crunch as an occasional treat.
