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Many people might be surprised to learn that making your own homemade cereal is well worth your time! The reason is that boxed breakfast cereals are some of the most toxic, unhealthy foods you can possibly buy!
What’s more – believe it or not – organic cereal brands and whole grain cereals are the absolute worst!
The reason is that the violent processing required to make boxed cereal (called extrusion) is so high in temperature and pressure that the proteins in the grains are completely denatured and rendered toxic from the ordeal. Organic boxed cereal is the worst of all because it is whole grain and therefore higher in protein. (source)
Ever wondered how all those shapes and flakes are made? The cereal grains are actually liquefied in order to create the slurry necessary to create the desired form. This destroys the integrity of the grains making them difficult to digest and toxic for the body too.
So don’t be fooled by boxed cereals that only have a few ingredients. The ingredients label tells you nothing about the dangerous processing that occurred to produce the cereal!
Toxic foods are frequently the most addictive (think MSG and aspartame/nutrasweet), so even though it is difficult, you simply must eliminate these foods from your pantry for good! Cold breakfast cereals are some of the most addicting processed foods on the market in fact.
I just cringe when I see parents giving their toddlers Cheerios and other boxed cereals as finger foods. If these parents only knew how toxic these foods are, perhaps they would think twice about handing it out so freely to their children.
The good news is that you can make a very delicious, healthy alternative yourself at home!
How to Make Breakfast Cereal (How-to Videos)
The first video below demonstrates how to make and bake the breakfast cereal batter. The second video shows you how to crumble it into bite size pieces and gently dehydrate for the satisfying crunch in a bowl with milk!
The written recipe follows 🙂
If you would like to know how to make this cereal Paleo, here is a homemade grain free cereal recipe to try instead.
Homemade Breakfast Cereal Recipe
Recipe for how to make cold breakfast cereal so that you can avoid the toxic, overly processed boxed versions at the store. Organic cereal isn’t any better!
Ingredients
- 6 cups flour preferably freshly ground for optimal nutrition
- 3 cups whole yogurt plain
- 3/4 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup maple syrup dark, preferably organic
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
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Mix fresh flour and soaking medium of choice in a large, glass bowl. Cover with a clean cloth and rubber band and leave on the counter for 24 hours.
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Mix all the remaining ingredients including fresh cinnamon into the batter after soaking is complete.
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Pour into 2 – 9×13 pans and bake at 350 F/ 177 C for about 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Do not overbake!
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Let cool and crumble the coffee cake into small pieces (see second video above for ideal size) and dehydrate on cookie sheets at 200 F/ 93 C for about 12-18 hours. Turn cereal pieces every few hours to dry evenly.
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Store in airtight containers in the refrigerator.
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Serve alone as a finger food snack or in a bowl with either dairy or nondairy milk.
Recipe Notes
Substitute whole milk kefir, buttermilk, or clabbered milk for yogurt if desired.
For dairy free cereal, use 3 cups water plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice or store bought or homemade apple cider vinegar.
Substitute date syrup for the maple syrup if you wish to sweeten only with fruit. Do not substitute honey as cooking honey is not healthy.
More healthy breakfast cereal ideas
You can mill the flour and then soak it as I show here.
You do NOT soak the wheat berries, dry and then mill. In that case you would need to sprout the wheat berries, dry and then mill. There is another video to show this. You could also sourdough the flour. There are three different methods for preparing grains.
Sarah:
From what I am gathering about flour is that you either soak it, dry it and then mill it OR you can just mill it and then soak the milled flour.
Are both the same either way you do it?
Hi Christy, of course you can make this without fresh flour, it just won't be as tasty or nutritious.
Hi Betty, I have never used (and actually do not even own) a dehydrator. You cannot make cereal batter into flakes as this would require the batter to be extruded, which is exactly what they do in a factory which denatures the proteins in the cereal grains and makes them toxic!
Hi Sarah,
Do you ever use a dehydrator? Also do you think a 'jerky' maker attachment for strips could be used for the cereal and have it come out more like 'flakes'?
I want to try this but hate to 'waste' the batter if it doesn't work. Any chance you have tried making the cereal batter into flakes?
Thanks.
What a lot of wonderful information! I don't have a way to grind my own flour sadly. Are you saying I shouldn't bother doing this without fresh ground flour?? Thanks for linking this to Two for Tuesdays!
Hi Sarah! You are so cute in your video! I love that you make them, i really want to start doing that one day too. When I read the sidebar in Nourishing Traditions about what the big Cereal company executive said when the research scientist told him that extruded cereals were toxic it shocked me, it doesnt anymore! I love soaked oatmeal! I dont do a lot of grains anyway but my kids love soaked oat muffins for breakfast so we dont buy a lot of cereals anyway. Occasionally, my husband will buy them organic Cheerios and we put our own honey on them and raw milk–for a treat…Thanks for sharing this on the two for tuesday recipe blog hop. it is important info! Alex@amoderatelife
Yikes! I fed all of my kids toxic finger foods! Thanks for sharing this with Two for Tuesdays this week…very informative =)
Thanks for linking your video to Two for Tuesday. I bet a lot of people will be interested to learn about cereal, being that it's so popular.
I don't use the microwave for anything that we eat or drink. Only to warm up heating pads for things like sprains and tummy aches.