Oh here it is! Homemade, so digestible, so filling, so fabulous! I found a cereal recipe and modified it to fit my family’s taste buds (we love peanut butter). It is a huge hit. When you try to kick processed foods you may find yourself picking and choosing what to get rid of first. We LOVE cereal in this family and really didn’t want to clean it out of our pantry! If you have read Nourishing Traditions, or follow The Healthy Home Economist than you know that cold breakfast cereal is one of the most toxic items in your pantry and should in fact be one of the first things to go (sigh). Our frown “turned upside down” once we discovered this recipe! I may at some point in the future delve into the cons of cold breakfast cereal, but for now….let’s just learn how to make homemade cereal…so great! Here are the ingredients you will need:
- 5 cups flour (I use fresh ground soft white wheat or spelt)
- 3 cups raw milk or yogurt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 3/4 cup coconut oil (in its liquid form)
- 2 cups natural peanut butter (nothing in the ingredients but peanuts!)
- 1 cup honey (you can use maple syrup but there is something very classic about peanut butter and honey)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Start this in the morning of day 1: combine the flour and milk/yogurt in a mixer bowl. Mix together until well combined. Cover bowl with towel set a plate on top or secure with a rubber band (keeps the fruit flies out). Note, I have found the top dries out more if you do not use a plate, but it is up to you. Leave on counter for 24 hours.
Start this in the morning of day 2: Preheat oven to 350. Mix all of the ingredients into the mixer with the batter and blend until well combined. Pour batter into 2 greased 9×13 pyrex pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. You do not want to over bake this should be a very moist coffee cake. 25 minutes is perfect for me. Good luck not eating the coffee cake as it is now. Let cool until you can handle it because you will crumble it onto baking sheets (2 half sheet pans to be exact). Put in a 170 degree oven for 6-8 hours. Check every hour or as needed (maybe every 2) to remove dehydrated pieces on the top and shuffle around as necessary. You are going for chunky Grapenuts. Store in a gallon ziplock bag in the fridge – stays fresh until you run out! Slicing a banana on top or adding raisins (0r both) is our favorite! The beauty of this cereal is you can customize it to your family’s liking. Smaller pieces that stay more firm in the milk, larger pieces that get softer – it is up to you! Optional: Omit peanut butter and add one additional cup of flour plus 1 teaspoon maple flavoring, and 1 cup of maple syrup instead of honey for a tasty cinnamon maple cereal. Follow same assembly/cooking instructions as mentioned above.
Ok I MUST try this! I love peanut butter and I miss boxed breakfast cereal so much since switching to a real food diet. Thanks for sharing at Monday Mania!
[...] can make your own cereal that actually is healthy! Try out this peanut-butter-flavored version from Project Family Cookbook — I’ll bet it even tastes better than Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch (you know you [...]
Hi Nikki, this looks SO good and I can’t wait to try it for my kids.
Also, when I was here visiting and drooling over this recipe, I was noticing that the Rookie Class image/link you have in your sidebar doesn’t go to the right page so people can sign up. If you’ll email me, I’ll help you get the right link in there.
Kelly@KellytheKitchenKop.com
Nikki I’ve not been happy with the NT style homemade cereal so I can’t wait to try this! Thanks for sharing with SLT!
Oh man, I love peanut butter and am so excited about this recipe. I’ll be trying it with water and vinegar to soak instead of yogurt, as I’ve been reading that the calcium can inhibit the soaking process. But this just sounds amazing. I made the Healthy Home Economist’s recipe once, but didn’t have maple flavoring and it ended up not tasting all that great. But I am super excited about a peanut butter flavor. And adding banana on top of the cereal sounds amazing. Yum!
Please share back here how it goes. I have been reading the same thing but also discovered you don’t have to use vinegar but rather just warm water. If that is the route you go it may taste better without vinegar.
Only acidic medium will neutralize the phytic acid in the grain warm water doesn’t work. Some people prefer lemon juice, however. I found that whey makes it less tangy than using vinegar or kefir or yogurt. And I always have a lot of whey since I make cheese!
Actually studies are showing that time is the true neutralizer. Warm water plus time. Acid helps speed up the process. I still use acids so don’t get me wrong, I believe in it. I am just stating that I have read the same information regarding dairy as an inhibitor. I may share my research in an upcoming article! Thanks for visiting again!
I am pinning this on pintrest. Cant wait to try the peanutbutter cereal out.
Thank you so much! I really need to visit that site!
I am really sorry but I can’t get this post to pin on pintrest for some reason. Ugh! I want too, though.