Making your own Keto Cereal is almost as easy as pouring it from a box. It takes only 5 ingredients and 35 minutes of your time. Now that’s healthy convenience food!
What if I told you that you don’t have to give up cereal on a keto diet? And what if I told you that you don’t have to pay the exorbitant prices for pre-made keto cereal?
You might tell me I am crazy and maybe I am. But it’s a good kind of crazy. As in mad scientist and evil mastermind kind of crazy.
I’ve been making this keto cereal for about a decade now and my family loves it. Long before any companies ever thought to mass market and make a profit from it! And this homemade recipe truly is about as easy as pouring it from a box.
I’ve got other tasty cereal options too, like low carb granola and keto oatmeal.
Why you need to try this recipe
So why make your own healthier cereal? I have a whole host of reasons for you.
It’s easy: Really, this keto cereal takes only 5 ingredients and 35 minutes of your time. So it’s about as much work as picking up a box at the grocery store or ordering it online.
It has clean ingredients: Pre-made keto cereals vary a great deal in quality. Some are much better for you than others, and some are pretty dodgy, at best. Making your own at home is the best way you can guarantee the nutritional factor.
It’s crazy good: This cinnamon crunch cereal is absolutely delicious. It has great cinnamon flavor and it’s super crispy too. And did I mention how easy it is to make?
One reader says: “I would never have thought of making this but for the fact that I’m on an egg-free salt-free elimination regime, but I’m glad I did because it’s absolutely delish and so easy to make. Very satisfying for a former cereal-aholic too. Even stays crispy in cream, unlike grain cereal.”
Ingredients
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This easy keto cereal recipe has been a reader favorite for a long time and with good reason. You only need 5 simple ingredients:
- Almond flour: Make sure you are using blanched almond flour, and not the natural almond meal that contains the skins. It makes a big difference to the texture of this recipe and many other keto baked goods.
- Shredded coconut: If you don’t like coconut, you can sub flax seed meal or more almond flour in the same amount.
- Sweetener: I recommend an erythritol-based sweetener, such as Lakanto, for this recipe. These are best for a truly crispy texture. Any amount of Bochasweet or Allulose will keep the keto cereal from crisping up properly. Learn more about keto sweeteners here.
- Butter: I like salted butter here, to add more flavor, but you can also use unsalted.
- Ground cinnamon: It wouldn’t be cinnamon cereal without a healthy dose of cinnamon!
Step by Step Directions
1. Pulse the dry ingredients: Combine the almond flour, coconut, sweetener and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse to combine.
2. Work in the butter: Scatter the butter pieces over the mixture and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Press out thinly: Spread the mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cover with another sheet of parchment or waxed paper. Use a rolling pin and/or your hands to press down firmly so that the cereal sticks together and mixture is about ⅛-inch thick.
4. Bake until golden: Bake until golden brown, then sprinkle with a mixture of cinnamon and sweetener.
Expert Tips and FAQ
If you don’t have a food processor, you can mix everything by hand. Use a pastry cutter, if you own one, to work the butter into the dry ingredients. If not, use two knives to cut it up finely.
Press the mixture out as thinly and evenly as you can so that it bakes evenly. If the edges are getting too brown before the center is baked through, remove them. They will cool and crisp up while the rest is still baking.
Serve this cereal in a bowl with some almond milk or cream. You can also sprinkle bits over yogurt or your favorite keto ice cream. Some of my readers use this recipe to make a delicious crust for keto cheesecake.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many storebought keto and low carb cereals actually contain quite a few carbohydrates. However, this homemade cinnamon cereal has 6.5 grams of carbs and 3.4 grams of fiber.
Most cereals you find in the grocery store are made with wheat flours and full of refined sugar. You should not eat these if you are following a low carb or keto diet. My recipe for keto cinnamon cereal has 3 grams net carbs in a ½-cup serving, making it a great keto breakfast choice.
Store the cereal in an airtight container on the counter for up to a week. There is nothing in this recipe that will spoil. But if you live in a humid environment, it may soften up a bit. You can always return it to a warm oven to re-crisp it.
Swaps and Substitutions
Dairy-Free Option: Use melted coconut oil or any preferred oil in place of the butter. You don’t have to do this in a food processor, you can just mix everything in a bowl. Coconut oil tends to be greasier so try adding 5 tablespoons at first, and then add more if the mixture isn’t sticking together.
Nut-Free Option: Use sunflower seed flour in place of the almond flour. You will need two or three tablespoons more of it, and it may take a little longer to bake. Because this recipe contains no baking powder, you don’t need to worry about any green reaction.
Need more healthy breakfast ideas? Grab a copy of Easy Keto Breakfasts!
Easy Keto Cereal Recipe
Ingredients
Cereal:
- 1 cup (112 g) almond flour
- 1/2 cup (40 g) shredded coconut, OR flax seed meal
- 1/3 cup (60.67 g) Swerve Sweetener
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 6 tbsp (85.04 g) butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
Cinnamon Sugar Topping:
- 1 tbsp Swerve Sweetener
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine the almond flour, coconut, sweetener and cinnamon. Pulse a few times to combine.
- Scatter the butter pieces over the mixture and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Spread the mixture on prepared pan and cover with another sheet of parchment or waxed paper. Use a rolling pin or your hands to press down firmly so that the cereal sticks together. Remove the top sheet of paper and bake 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
- While baking, combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the cereal immediately after removing from oven. Let cool completely on pan (it will crisp up as it cools) and then break into small pieces.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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I was just asked over the holidays what I missed most about eating low carb. It is cereal!!! And you came up with several varieties. Thank you so much.
Thanks!
Probably tasty, but I what to use instead of coconut because I’m sensitive to it.
looks like you didn’t take the time to actually read the blog post.
Hi there,
For anyone else who’s trying to adapt the recipe in order to avoid erythritol, I thought I’d share my experiments. I melted the butter and put a liquid sweetener in it, so that it would distribute. I used 1/4 tsp Whole Earth Stevia and Monk fruit liquid blend. That part seemed to work fine, although I would add more in the future. But the cereal never crisped up. I tend to think that the erythritol is important to making it crispy. I had the same issue the first time I tried it, but in that case I’d used tagatose as the sweetener, which was truly awful. Anyway, I ended up just toasting some pumpkin seeds and coconut flakes and using that in my yogurt instead. I should mention thst I was using her suggestion for sunflower seed meal in the recipe rather than almond flour (my son has deadly food allergies to nuts and peanuts), but I don’t think that was the issue. I just don’t think it will crisp without the erythritol, unfortunately, but I’m not willing to use that as a sweetener any more.
I really appreciate your comment I’m in the same boat. But I’m wondering what if we cooked the allulose to hardball Then poured it over the mixture. I’m thinking more of her other granola type recipes. I tried to make a glaze yesterday for her “sugar” cookies I made. first I made the recipe exactly I was called for and everything turned out great. Then I mate again the substituting allulose. They weren’t as crispy but they were still delicious. But I just can’t get any kind of cookie frosting to work using allulose or xylitol. So I ended up melting some Lily’s white chocolate which does have some erythritol, but I don’t think very much because it doesn’t have that cooling effect on me and I mix that with some butter and made a “frosting”. It just won’t get firm, so put another cookie on top and made a sandwich! It would get firm if I only used the chocolate but then it would be hard! 🤷♀️
Erythitol gives me severe digestive problems. Would this work with allulose? I even need to be careful with allulose, but can tolerate a little. Thank you.
Allulose won’t crisp. Just a fellow follower of Carolyn!
Cecily
Have been wanting something sweet after dinner, so although this is “cereal” I don’t plan to eat it with a spoon. 😉 When I pulled ot out of the oven I put on the cinnamon mix and used a pizza cutter to cut into pieces. Let it cool and broke it apart. I love this and will be making it again.
Fun idea!
This cereal is amazing! My kids love it too, which is a bonus. They are asking for different flavors. I figured I could use some extracts to mix it up, but they specifically asked about chocolate. I know you have other chocolate cereal recipes, but as we are partial to this one, I am wondering if you could suggest how to make this recipe chocolate. Just add cocoa powder? A little extra butter? Any advice would be appreciated!!
Hi, just a follower here 👋🏻. I wonder if it could work melting chocolate and spreading it with a brush on top of the still-warm-cereal. Wait until cools down a bit and cut with a pizza roller…Maybe it’s worth a try
Sounds delicious!
I don’t have shredded coconut on hand, could I sub with coconut flour?
No, that’s not the same at all and your dough will be a mess.
Taste is delicious but I could not get it to crisp up. I used an insulated pan, could that be the problem? I used almond flour, coconut, butter, swerve confectioners cinnamon.
P. S. I love all of your recipes-thank you!!
Did you use the new Swerve formula that contains allulose? If so, that’s the problem.
This tastes very much like Cracklin’ oat bran to me. Delicious!!
A question. Can I also use Magarine instead of butter or does it need the firm texture?
I am sorry, I don’t use margarine and can’t recommend it.