These homemade vanilla almond cereal puffs are a fun change up to your breakfast routine. Ditch the store bought sugar laden cereal boxes for a healthier, gluten free option you can make at home!
Growing up, we were a “normal” healthy house. Meaning, there was the occasional yodel or twinkie on the counter but school lunches were on whole wheat bread, a bologna and mayo sandwich was out of the question and fruit roll-ups were about as good as the snacks got.
Dinner was always homemade, no chicken nuggets from the freezer and vegetables with every meal.
So while friends got to eat their sugar laden cereals and pop tarts every morning it was an all out fight with my mom in the grocery store to just get anything besides the disgusting (at the time) Kashi box that took permanent residence in our pantry.
I must’ve been about 5 but I can remember the scene like it was yesterday.
We were in the cereal aisle and I was begging, pleading with her to let me get a box of Golden Grahams.
No idea why that was the one I wanted but I was adamant. I don’t know what happened, either the stars aligned or she was just tired of fighting with me, but I won.
I happily grabbed that box off the shelf, we paid, loaded everything up into our baby blue Chevy Cavalier wagon and by some act of god, I was allowed to eat some in the car (my dad was a stickler about no eating in the car. Dirty his car or ruin his lawn and you’re as good as dead).
10 minutes later, Golden Graham engorged, I puked in the car.
No idea if it was the driving, the cereal, a stomach bug or what but I never argued for fun cereals again after that and besides the occasional Lucky Charm indulgence (who can resist those marshmallows?!), I honestly have no desire to eat them.
The Golden Graham experience did me in.
I saw these homemade mocha puffs last week and thought “why the heck have I never made my own cereal?!”
1. How fun does that sound?
2. I control the ingredients
3. Therefore I can eat an entire bowl and not feel bad that I just quadrupled the suggested serving amount (who the hell eats 1/2 a cup of cereal anyway?)
So I made homemade cereal puffs and besides the part where it takes like 30 minutes to roll dough into grape sized balls, they rocked.
So many possibilities.
Definitely trying a chocolate version next because is there any better way to start the day than with chocolate for breakfast? Nope.
Love this vanilla almond cereal puffs recipe?
Try these other cereal recipes: Healthy Cinnamon Crunch Cereal and Warm Quinoa Cereal with Caramelized Bananas.
Vanilla Almond Cereal Puffs
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup gluten free baking flour, or all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown rice flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 11/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
- 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it comes together into a dough.
- Remove from the food processor and roll into balls about the size of a small grape.
- Place dough balls on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, shaking the pan once half way through so they donâ??t burn on one side.
- Remove from oven, let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
These sound delicious and such a healthier alternative to the sugary cereals that are around nowadays.
I dont have brown rice flour or almond flour, what can I use instead?
I have buckwheat, coconut, spelt, oat flour.
I haven’t tried it with different flours but I suspect oat and spelt would be ok replacements. I wouldn’t use coconut because the ratios would be quite different.
OMG…I am so making these with my kids today. I am going to quadruple the batch :-) They look sensational!! I have never made my own cereal either so I hope mine look as good as yours.
Oh my goodness this sounds exciting, but I would totally use my cookie press to portion the little bits of dough then roll them into balls from there – I think that would save lots of time as my cookie press has a die for really tiny little dot cookies!
Good idea on the cookie press!
You must be really patient to roll all those in little tiny balls! It must be well worth it to invest in your health by starting with a small step of a healthy breakfast or a HealthAble breakfast!
these sound great.. I think I would just roll our the dough and cut into small squares with a pizza cutter.. way faster..
good idea!
I had the same junk food battles with my mom when I was growing up. There was one time where I was really hung up on trying McDonald’s chicken nuggets and after weeks of begging, my mom finally let me get them. I, like you, proceeded to eat them in the car and then promptly puke everywhere. I think my body just couldn’t handle it. Lesson learned!
Love your homemade cereal idea! The flavor combo sounds awesome!
What a horrible childhood experience/memory to turn you off from kid cereal! lol I love this idea of a healthy/tasty homemade version though. And seriously… 1/2 cup is just plain absurd but I suppose we’d all be a lot smaller if we really restricted ourselves to those amounts.
Awesome, awesome, and awesome! How fun & what a great idea!
Ok I just HAVE to try this!!! How cool!!