Most of you know that my older sister is expecting her first baby very soon. She is 9 months pregnant so Ryder could come anytime now. My whole family is so excited to have a baby in the family and I still can’t believe that I’m going to be an aunt. It’s completely surreal.
One of her latest cravings has been something really random; peanut butter Cap’n Crunch. That’s pretty random, right? I knew there was no way we were going to be able to find anything remotely close unless I made it. It’s hard enough just to find peanut butter here. It’s been clear since we moved here that there is a general dislike of peanut butter in this culture so the hope of finding a peanut butter breakfast cereal is pointless.
Well, as I’m always up for a challenge, I decided I was going to make her some Cap’n Crunch. I think this recipe was similar enough to curb the craving. She said she likes it even better actually.
This recipe is really simple you guys, although it does take a few minutes to roll it into balls. I tried 3 different methods of doing this. First I tried simply pinching off pieces and rolling them into balls. That was taking longer than I had patience for so then I decided to roll it into a sheet with a rolling-pin, cut criss-cross lines to make 1/2 inch squares, then roll the little squares into balls. You could also roll small sections at a time into skinny snakes and cut them slice and bake style.
However you want to do it, you really just want to get it into little pieces in order to get lots of crunch on all the edges. That’s what makes it taste so much like the real thing. It would be a lot of fun to do it with kids helping. I mean, how cool is it to get to make your own cereal?
It turns out that it’s also a lot of fun to photograph this cereal too. I probably annoyed everyone in the house to death with all of my rapid clicking and crazy fascination with pouring milk onto cereal. I know we’ve all done it a million times as kids so I don’t understand why it’s so much more fun when cameras are involved. There’s just something about the way it splashes over the cereal. Huh.
So basically you just really need to try making this. It’s totally worth the time and if you have any amount of sanity you can’t help loving it. Plus it’s gluten free if that matters to you. Oh, and you can give it your own funny cereal name, put it in an empty cereal box, and then paint the name on the box. You’ve got to try it!
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups peanut butter
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 1/2 cups cornmeal
- 2 cups oat flour (gluten free if needed)
- 1/2 cup rice flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 C) and line one or two baking trays with parchment or silicone pads.
- Warm butter, coconut oil, and peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl or saucepan over low heat until very soft. Mix in sugar until very smooth then add salt, vanilla, and soda. Add milk and flours and stir until well mixed.
- Roll into small balls the size of most puff cereal and place on baking tray. This part can be a little time consuming so if you have extra hands around you might consider recruiting.
- Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, depending on your oven, until golden brown and perfectly crunchy, stirring halfway through.
- Cool completely before serving.
