At just 2g net carbs a serving and with a wonderful crisp texture, this keto cinnamon toast crunch cereal might just be the ultimate low carb breakfast (or fun treat!).
Grain Free & Keto Cinnamon Toast Crunch 🥛
Now Extra Crunchy!
We’ve got grain free keto cinnamon toast crunch cereal, and we’re (most definitely!) sharing. Here’s your childhood’s cereal bowl dream, low carb and with all non-processed ingredients. And most definitely, one of my favorite sweet treats we’ve cooked up as of late.
Who doesn’t remember getting home from school, and devouring a bowl of good-old cinnamon toast crunch with iced-cold milk. Or that late-night snack. That flavor will forever be engrained in our tastebuds. And since we’re in this woe for good, we thought we’d revive this classic for the sake of nostalgia.
Though do note that the taste cannot be replicated exactly, blame it on artificial flavorings, refined sugars and processed carbohydrates. But trust me when I say that it will more than satisfy your cinnamon toast crunch cravings. And more.
And talking about ideal, you can always freeze half the dough for a rainy day. 🌧
Keto-fied
Keeping keto macros in mind, aside from making this classic cereal low carb, I made sure to introduce a good amount of healthy fats into the mix.
And I absolutely adore grass-fed butter as the fat here. Though do note that coconut butter can be subbed in, just the resulting cereal will be denser and therefore slightly less crunchy.
So at 2g net carbs, I find these keto cinnamon toast crunch to be a very good deal. Particularly compared to the whooping 19g net carbs of the original!
Though let’s face it, just like with the original, you might be doubling the serving size on occasion always. Still, 4g net carbs!
Essentially a cookies & milk sorta thing, it makes for one truly special keto breakfast treat.
The Deets
Creaming the butter properly with the sweeter is paramount here to build a nice structure for the cereal (think rise and crunch!). And creaming with sweetener, in case you haven’t done it before, takes a bit longer to incorporate than with good-old sugar. But don’t give up, and keep going until you’ve got the sweetener well incorporated into soft and fluffy butter.
The other indispensable thing, is that the dough be thoroughly chilled before rolling and baking. Why? The butter in the dough has to solidify once again before you can roll it out and cut it up. Think 1 to 2 hours (or overnight).
And if the dough becomes too sticky while rolling and cutting, just pop it in the freezer for a few.
The Flours
I found that super fine almond flour did a super duper awesome job (solo!). Add a touch of xanthan gum, and we’re golden.
In terms of brands, for the almond either Anthony’s or WellBees work great. Both are super fine grinds.
The Sweetener
Erythritol lends a very similar crunch and chew to sugar for crisp cookies, and no other low carb natural sweetener does that (xylitol takes up to a day to crunch up and will result in chewy cereal!).
My current favorite for these guys? Lakanto golden without a doubt. Least cooling effect, nice maple-like taste. But Swerve and Pyure (at half the amount) are awesome too.
As for the ‘sugar’ cinnamon topping, you can either carry on with erythritol or use xylitol (with a preference for the later, as it has less of a cooling effect).
And if using xylitol, make sure to be careful if you have a pup or cat around the house, as it’s highly toxic to the little guys! 🐕
The Cut-Up
This really depends how OCD you are (needless to say, I rank high on the scale). But please forget your pastry cutter or knife here, it’s all about the ruler.
Wash up a ruler and use one of its edges to press down on the dough and cut it up. Then take a small fork and prick down each square to avoid excessive puffing.
But note that I timed myself and it took 3 minutes 40 seconds to cut up and do the pricking for the whole batch. i.e. totally worth it for the sake of a true bowl of keto cinnamon toast crunch.
And… the video story!
Keto Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal
Ingredients
- 192 g almond flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum or 1 tsp flax meal
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 80 g grass-fed butter at room temperature*
- 96 g golden erythritol or erythritol-based sweeteners
- 1 egg
For the cinnamon topping:
- 28 g grass-fed butter melted
- 2 tablespoons xylitol or Swerve
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- See recipe video for guidance!
- Add almond flour, cinnamon, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt to a medium bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined and set aside.
- Cream butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer, 2-3 minutes. Add in sweetener and continue to beat until thoroughly light and fluffy and much of the sweetener has dissolved.
- Add in egg, mixing until just incorporated. The mixture will appear slightly 'broken' (i.e. not thoroughly smooth).
- With your mixer on low, add in half of your flour mixture- mixing until just incorporated. Mix in the rest.
- Wrap cereal dough with cling film (saran wrap) and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to 3 days.
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper until nice and thin. Using a ruler, cut dough lengthwise and then crosswise into squares. Prick each piece with a small fork (optional).
- Transfer parchment paper with the keto cinnamon toast crunch to a baking sheet or tray, and place in the freezer for 10 minutes prior to baking. The shaped dough can be frozen for up to 3 months, and baked straight from the freezer (adding 2-3 minutes more to the baking time).
- Bake for 8-12 minutes, until fully golden (depending on size and thickness). Keep an eye out for them, and note that if you like them crisp you'll want to push the baking time as much as possible (until deep golden).
- Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon 'sugar'. You can also do this prior to baking for a more 'crusty' result, both work well just depending on your preference so feel free to experiment.
- Allow to cool for ten minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely, as they'll continue to crunch up (this may take a few hours for the sweetener to harden up again!).
- Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
People really are something. To all the ones who can’t wrap their mind around how to do it– If you’re so worried about “wasting” ingredients, just scale the recipe down for a test run. You should already own a kitchen scale. For the single egg, mix it in a bowl to combine yolk and white, then weigh out the appropriate amount to satisfy the liquid/binder component. Use the leftover egg however you want. It’s not that difficult.
Love this recipe! Made it twice already. Both my husband and myself so happy to have cereal back in our lives!
So happy you both enjoyed Kate!!
I can’t wait to try this – I was just wondering if you can freeze the cereal to make it last longer?
I’m a rockstar in my social media keto group because I made this! I only sampled a little bit but I will say, it’s the bomb diggity. I would recommend doubling the recipe though.
The taste is fabulous. But mine were not crispy 😕. I followed the recipe exactly as written but cooked them an extra 5 minutes. Waited a few hours but not crispy. Nextmorning, I put them back in the oven for 5 minutes but unfortunately they stayed non crispy. What did I do wrong?
Think I can roll out the dough with a pasta roller?
How many times people have asked the serving size! It’s written on the Nutrition list people!!!! 40g a serve
Read read read before posting a question 🧐.
How come it doesn’t say how big a serving is? I don’t want to make it and then have to divide it all out by serving. I need to know the serving size so that I can put it in a container and then scoop out the appropriate size. I’m worried that 2g Carbs per serving is actually a few little squares? Does anyone know what the actual serving size is??? I would assume this has been asked many times… I know the most recent question was. Thanks. 🙂
It seems the recipe says it makes 10 servings at 40g per serving. To compare, regular Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal boxes say 3/4 cup (31g), so it seems you’re going to get quite the satisfying amount for 2g!
Unless I’m blind, it says serving size is 40g?
Says 40 grams on the nutritional label😊
Serving is 40g. It’s right there on the nutritional information.
It says that serving size is 40g you can see it under Recipe Notes
Made these yesterday and love them! Just the right crunch and texture, and delicious. I left out the coating as the plain squares were just the right sweetness for me. I couldn’t believe how great they taste with plain almond milk. My squares are not as precise as yours, in fact they are “no two alike” type pieces, but yummy just the same & less time consuming..lol. Thank you for a great recipe!
Sadly wasted time and ingredients on this recipe. The ‘cereal’ cane out cake like and I even tried twice. Hopefully will be able to find another, giving up cereal has been quiet hard
Sorry, butter is not Paleo..
recipe also says you can use coconut butter
It doesn’t say Paleo, it says keto. Butter is definitely keto 😉
Did you notice the asterisk beside the butter? Apparently not.
If you proceed down the page to find the meaning of the asterisk, it says if you’re PALEO you can sub coconut butter. Which you probably already knew. Which makes one wonder, why post at all?
1. I really like this recipe. Ive used it at least 5-6 times.
2. My feedback is Ive cooked it following her instructions and it didnt come out very well. I want to echo what someone else previously commented. Roll the dough into individual thin strips, freeze for more than 1 hour, then take it out and and cut it into small cereal pieces. Then the thickness comes out well and they dont burn while coomkng.
Thanks!
I made this twice. Both time, it cooked very uneven, and my oven is only 2 years old. So I have some parts burnt and others not. So the steam made the whole thing taste burnt. I sat and watched it the second time because 10 minutes was much too long at the required temp! Can’t waste more ingredients on this recipe 🙁
Since this recipe was created, allulose has come on the market. Have you tried this instead of erythritol? It’s my preferred sweetener. Also, have you ever subbed in a combination of whey isolate, flaxseed meal, coconut flour and/or oat fiber for some of the almond flour? I wasnt sure if it would crisp up with a combo of flours.
Allulose works like xylitol in cookies (and pretty much in everything too), so you’ll get soft cereal 🙁
Love this! I’m a Keto novice and am wondering what the best milk is to maintain Keto and the taste of this cereal?
Can you use golden monkfruit?
I’ve had this recipe filed in my “Recipes to Try” for what feels like at least a year now. I FINALLY made this a couple nights ago and it turned out perfect! I almost cried by how great these are! I LOVED cereal before learning healthier eating habits – I could finish a box in a day. NOW, I can enjoy the ice cold (almond) milk poured over these delicious nuggets without the guilt, headache or bloat! THANK YOU for this amazing recipe! So excited to keep using it.
Not crunchy enough, feels like cookie. Must be because of the almond flour. Or wasn’t thin enough. The taste is very similar to Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Can’t deny that….
This recipe was fantastic!! These came out super crunchy and not a big cooling taste.. I did use Swerve golden as well as Lankanto Golden if that makes a difference. I just want to say thank you for bringing cereal to my life again! 👍🏾👍🏾
What’s the shelf life on these? Can I store them like regular cereal ?
hello from sunny Greece! Do i replace xantham gum? its a little bit hard to find it in local markets in my country town. thank you for your time
Super disappointed! Followed the instructions to a T and mine are super soft/cookie-like. Can’t get them to crisp up whatsoever! I used erythriol (not golden- regular) what happened?!
Did you wait a couple hours to let it crisp up Lindsay? xo!
I had this problem too, but thankfully I’ve made a different cereal before, so I modified directions and came out perfectly:
Add almond flour, cinnamon, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt to a medium bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined. Add sweetener, melted butter, and egg.
Wrap cereal dough with cling film (saran wrap) and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to 3 days.
Preheat the oven to 300.
Transfer the dough to a large silicone baking mat or a large piece of parchment paper. Top with another piece of parchment and roll out as thinly as possible (without being see-through!).
Remove the top piece of parchment. Use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to score into small squares, about 3/4 inch wide.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until firm to the touch. Remove and let cool completely. If it’s not completely crisp, return to a warm oven (175F) for another 20 or 30 minutes.
Break into pieces and serve.
pssst! If you do melted butter rather than actually creaming it with the sweetener you are sacrificing the texture!
Consider them like a biscotti…twice baked cookie! I’ve had great success letting them cool and THEN putting back in the over (low heat) for a little while! Mine are always crispy!!!
These tasted good though the dough is difficult to roll! Tested a few ways to work with it, and I think freezing the dough and cutting them out as slice n bake is the easiest (no re-freezing needed :)). Roll into square logs, freeze, cut into thin slices and then cut each slice into smaller pieces.
Hi, my son is keto for epilepsy and can’t have sugar alcohols. I use a powdered monkfruit extract… will it work in this recipe?? I know it won’t crunch up the way erythritol will, but I also don’t want to waste all that almond flour to try if it’s going to be terrible 🙁 Help!
How big is a serving?
I want to know this too!
Makes. 10. Servings. Divide weight/mass/volume of final product by 10 to get weight/mass/volume of 1 serving. Using random amount: If finished cooked ‘cereal’ weighs about 400 grams or makes about 1.5 cups, than a single serving would weigh about 40 grams (amount Paola indicated) or measure about 1/4 cup! It will depend on how large/small or thick/thin you make the individual cereal pieces, whether you use butter or ghee, what sweetener type you use, etc.