Maple Almond Butter Toasty Bowl

If this is the second dessert recipe I’ve created with cereal this week, do I consider myself on a roll yet? Maybe not. For now, I’m just on a bowl.

Thanks for all the kind recommendations regarding Lasik surgery and my wonky eyeballs. I’ve already scheduled a consultation for two weeks from now. We’ll see what happens!

This doesn’t change the fact that dinners this week have been repeats or Happy Herbivore cookbook tester recipes, so I put my own creative juices towards dessert again tonight. And in a continued effort to use what I have and buy only what I need, the star of this treat is cereal once more!

Whereas yesterday’s Cinnamon Raisin Cereal Pudding was a cool, creamy dish of mush, today’s is a crispy, caramelized little dish with a center of almond butter lava. No need to do the wait-and-stir song and dance this time, though. You’re just 10 minutes away from a toasty bowl of your own. Readysetgo!

Maple Almond Butter Toasty Bowl

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup puffed cereal (I used kamut puffs)
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp almond butter (I used raw crunchy AB, but any nut butter will do)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Coat a ramekin (or one indentation of a cupcake tin) with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
3. Combine cereal and maple syrup in a bowl and stir to coat.
4. Spoon half of cereal mixture into ramekin and pat flat. Top with the blob of almond butter and cover with the rest of the cereal. Pat flat again.
5. Place ramekin on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the top begins to look toasted and feels crispy to the touch.
6. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes or so, just long enough for it to congeal a little and have cooled enough to eat.
7. Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired, and munch.

Serves 1

 

One thing to be aware of is that your ramekin will look quite full before baking. The cereal un-puffs a bit in the oven as it soaks up the maple syrup.

And while I do recommend allowing it to stand for several minutes after baking, don’t wait too long or else you’ll lose the glorious melty-ness of the almond butter, which is totally key to this treat being foodgasmic. There’s a reason it’s called a toasty bowl, not a cold-and-congealed bowl!

I’d be lying by omission if I didn’t admit that it kind of tasted just a little like that Honey Smacks cereal with the frog on the box. Unlike that cereal, however, this version allows me to sleep at night knowing I’ve eaten something better than chemically-sweetened air. Can I get a “harumph?”

Cereal’s obviously not just for breakfast. It’s fun to think outside the bowl!

What’s your favorite cereal? Do you have a non-traditional way of eating it?