Homemade Cinnamon Toast Crunch (2024)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, make it special by learning how to make your own homemade cereal with this Cinnamon Toast Crunch recipe!

Making your own homemade cereal isn’t a difficult venture. All you need are a few basic pantry staple ingredients and you’ll never have to buy cereal from the store again.

Make Your Own Homemade Cereal

In our home, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Ever since my babies were old enough to understand the concept of breakfast, I’ve tried to make it a delicious, but peaceful morning time that we spend together. I usually like to make a big breakfast…bacon or Homemade Sausage, pancakes with Blueberry Sauce, or a delicious quick bread like Banana Bread. I light a few Beeswax Candles, play some soft comforting music, and let everyone slowly wake up for the day.

But some days, that just isn’t possible. We are in a hurry to get out the door for an appointment or on town day and we just don’t have time for an overdrawn breakfast. I’m no perfect mom, I feed my kids cereal on occasion for breakfast (although usually with some kind of protein and fresh fruit otherwise it’s just not filling enough for my boys!) but I don’t always keep it on hand since it’s not a “regular” breakfast staple.

Instead of buying more, I’ve been experimenting with learning how to make cereal. Turns out, it’s much easier than you would imagine! The homemade Cinnamon Toast Crunch like cereal I’m sharing with you today is so easy to make. If you can make Homemade Crackers, you can easily make your own cereal. Even if you aren’t a big fan of cereal for breakfast, this makes a great afternoon snack!

Ingredients for Homemade Cinnamon Toast Crunch

• All-Purpose Flour OR Whole Wheat Flour OR All Purpose Gluten Free Flour. Just about any type of flour will work in this recipe. If you use regular flour, this is a great way to sneak in an extra serving of whole wheat flour for the kids.
• Baking Soda. I always buy my baking soda in bulk.
• Cinnamon. Another ingredient that I always buy in bulk.
• Coconut Oil. We prefer the expeller pressed oil that does not retain the coconut flavor but you can use either kind in this.
• Sugar. You can use raw sugar, cane sugar, or brown sugar in this recipe. All will give it a slightly different flavor but all are good!
• Vanilla Extract. I use my own Homemade Vanilla Extract.
• Honey. I mostly use local honey but if I can’t get any, I will use honey from Azure Standard or Vitacost.
• Water. When cooking or baking, I only use water that I’ve filtered through my Berkey just in case.
• + Extra Cinnamon, Sugar, and Coconut Oil for the topping. (Optional)

How do they make cereal crunchy?

You just need to bake the cereal for a certain amount of time and let it cool completely to get it to be crunchy, just like when you are making crackers.

What ingredients should be in cereal?

Most cereals will start with a base of some kind of flour, a sweetener, and something to bind it together. You can experiment with different flours and different flavors to see what your family likes best!

What Do You Serve With Homemade Cereal?

• Homemade Sausage Patties Recipe.
• Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage.
• Any kind of fruit.
• Chopped nuts. Sprinkle these on top for an easy added protein.
• Scrambled Eggs.
• Yogurt and Peanut Butter. Scoop a dollop of yogurt and also a dollop of peanut butter or nut butter on top of the cereal for a treat.

Why make homemade cereal?

This recipe costs about $1.90 to make. It should serve around 4 people depending on your serving sizes. ($0.48 per serving). It can be made gluten and dairy free.

A box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch costs $3 and has 8 servings per box ($0.40 per serving). It contains about 25 ingredients.

How do you make cereal step by step?

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, honey, and melted coconut oil. For this recipe, I used refined coconut oil instead of extra virgin so it would not have the coconut flavor. You can use whatever you have on hand.

Add in the baking soda, 1 1/2 cups of flour, and water. Stir until combined, the mixture will be messy.

Add in the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. You want the mixture to be somewhat crumbly but not completely dry so if you need to add a bit less or a bit more flour, use this time to get the batter to the right consistency along with whatever flour you are using. I’ve found that a total of 2 cups of my gluten-free flour blend works perfectly with this recipe but depending on the blend you use, or if you decide to use all purpose or wheat flour, the amounts may be slightly different.

Tip: Looking for more Gluten Free recipes? Find more Frugal Gluten Free baking ideas here!

Place a piece of parchment paper onto two baking sheets or cookie sheets. Divide the batter in half between the two pans. Spread it out a little with your fingers and then top with another piece of parchment paper and use a rolling pin to flatten the dough. Roll out to 1/8 inch thick. The thinner you get, the crunchier the cereal!

Melt another tablespoon or two of coconut oil and brush over the tops of the flattened dough. In a small bowl, combine 1/8 cup of cane sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to sprinkle over the coconut oil. This step is optional…if you want to add as little sugar as possible, you can go ahead and skip this step! However, A layer of melted coconut oil will still add some nice flavor and crunch so I would still add that even if you don’t do the cinnamon/sugar mix.

Use a pizza cutter or a small paring knife to score the cereal into small pieces. Bake the sheets at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the cereal has turned a nice shade of brown.

After you remove it from the oven, let it rest for a minute or two on the counter and then use your knife to score the pieces again, but only widthwise (or they will break). Let the pieces cool completely before scooping off the trays.

This recipe will fill about 2-quart size jars or a half-gallon jar. Store in the jar with a plastic lid on the countertop if you plan on eating soon or stick it in the fridge or the freezer for longer term storage.

Enjoy for breakfast or as a snack. Not only is it tasty, but it will make your home smell delicious as it’s cooking. Win-win!

Want to print this Homemade Cinnamon Crunch Cereal recipe? Grab it below:

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Find even more made from scratch Breakfast ideas!

Have you ever tried to make your own homemade cereal?

This recipe to Make Your Own Homemade Cereal was originally published on Little House Living in September 2017. It has been updated as of October 2022.