Cereal Dust Granola!

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Hello Nerdfighters!

Over this past weekend I put another piece of Hank and John Green's dubious advice to the test (or Hank and Katherine's rather). A few months ago, a Dear Hank and John listener named Arthur wrote into the pod about a particular breakfast dilemma. The question began as follows:

"What am I supposed to do with the cereal crumbs and bits that are left at the end of the bag/box of cereal?"

This question was being discussed by Hank and Katherine (who was subbing in for John at the time) on Episode 117: Lightsaber Your Tiny House when Katherine suggested an extraordinary and delicious idea: make it into granola! I interpreted this as a call to action and set out to help solve Arthur's question.

Here's a look into my evening of making Cereal Dust Granola!
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Making this granola was relatively simple. I asked a friend who is particularly enthusiastic about food for some suggestions and she led me to an Almond Butter Granola Recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod. She then made some suggestions on what cereal to choose for this test and how to adapt the recipe accordingly. I made a few changes along the way and ended up with this recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Cereal Dust Granola (because who doesn't love peanut butter and chocolate?):

  • 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
  • 1/2 cup chopped almonds
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup cereal dust + crushed cereal mix




I had never made granola before I attempted this, but it was so simple and I cannot wait to do it again with more cereal combinations (I think my friend would be proud)!  After making a big mess, having fun, and eating plenty along the way, I got to enjoy this delicious treat.
Here's how I made it!

Step One: Chopping The Nuts
I chose to use some peanuts and almonds I already had on-hand, so I didn't buy anything pre-chopped (there's a college budget for ya). I was actually rather nervous about this part but it was ridiculously easy.

Step Two: Mixing the Ingredients
After chopping the nuts, I prepped the rest of the ingredients just like normal. But here's where it got interesting - I got to use the cereal dust! Unfortunately, this box of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios was particularly lacking in dust, so I crushed up about 1 cup of the broken cereal pieces on the bottom of the bag and threw them in with the oats. Clearly, this was not necessarily up to par with the original question, but it needed to be done. Forgive me?

From here, I just followed the recipe by mixing all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and the liquids in another. Once the liquids were mixed, I melted them in the microwave for ~30 seconds and poured it on top of the dry ingredients. Then I combined everything together and got this delicious looking mixture!

                                            

Step Three: Baking
After combining all of the ingredients, I spread the mixture out on a baking sheet and baked it at 325°F for 15 minutes, stirred the granola, and then put it back in for another 15 minutes, again just like the recipe says. After coming out, it was golden brown and my entire kitchen smelled of peanut butter-chocolate deliciousness. 


And we've now arrived at the best part. Was this as delicious as it sounded? Was Katherine onto something? Has the cereal dust debacle been solved?

Spoiler Alert: I LOVED IT. The peanut butter-y taste and little cereal pieces added so much to the recipe. I will admit, the granola is a little more crumbly that it probably should be, but that's probably my fault because I didn't add any extra liquid to compensate for the addition of the cereal (beginner move for sure). But regardless, YUM.

Thank you for the great suggestion, Katherine Green! I cannot wait to try this again with some more fun and adventurous cereals to see just how far this can go. 

Oh, and I hope this helped answer your question, Arthur.

Let me know what you think! Are you going to try your own version of the Cereal Dust Granola? Do you have any other cereal type suggestions? And as usual, let me know if you have any more dubious advice from Dear Hank and John that you want me to try!

DFTBA,

Liana

Comments

  1. debFebruary 20, 2018 at 12:03 PM

    I have been making granola ( for sale) for many years from conventional ingredients(child of the 70s here). Glad you are having fun with your cereal dust version---I'll try it for my own fun sometime.

    ReplyDelete

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