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.
- Swerve Sweetener: I recommend Swerve or another 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.
More delicious keto breakfast ideas
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
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Thank you so much, Karen. It is honestly comments like this that keep me going. I love the taste of this cereal. Thanks for sharing with us.
Since going low-carb a few years ago, I simply let go of breakfast cereals as they were always a slippery slope for me. No big deal, I found other lovely foods to enjoy. With that said, I kept seeing this recipe in my line of (scrolling) vision and I thought, okay .. time to partake as the reviews were too good to ignore. So I went about my merry way and followed everything exactly and then realized when I already had the mixture patted into a pan, I forgot the sweetener LOL. Screw it, baked it anyway and topped with the sweetener/cinnamon mixture (I used xylitol) and honestly, this was perfect. If I had used the sweetener in the mixture, it may have been too sweet for me. At the same time, I am reading the comments about the importance of the proper sweetener IN the mixture but I despise Swerve (too heavy cooling reaction for me) and wouldn’t have used it anyway but I found a roundabout fix that did work for me. About 1/2 and 1/2 chunky texture to crumbs but those crumbs can be sprinkled on yoghurt or even as pie crust, as suggested above. I’ll definitely put this in the ‘keeper’ folder (along with the Zucchini Tart that is simply divine!). Thanks, Carolyn!!
This was sooo easy to make and so delicious. I had it with some unsweetened vanilla almond milk this morning. t!
Happy to hear it!
I love that this is homemade and low carb!
This is THE BEST!! I love that it’s homemade and low carb, I’m always looking for great breakfast options and this is it!
This looks incredibly delicious! I’m going to have to try this.
Ugh……Like so many others, it tastes AMAZING but is not crisp 🙁 Did you try a batch with flax? I don’t know why but I used the flax instead of coconut. I’m wondering if it needs the coconut to crisp up? Oh well. It is yummy and I’ll surely eat it anyway! Thanks for all the great recipes!
What sweetener did you use? I suspect that’s the culprit.
Oh my gosh! Thanks for getting back to me. So honored you replied! 🙂
I used Sukrin. (Which is similar to Swerve right?) But here’s the thing I just thought of….I think I might have grabbed the powdered sukrin and put that in the mix instead of granular! I definitely used the granular on the coating but I’m so used to using the powdered version I think I put that in the food processor. Would that change the texture?
Thanks for your time and the fabulous recipes!
It might be the issue, although powdered erythritol sweeteners tend to crisp things up too. Try reducing the butter in yours as well, to make for more of the dry ingredients.
This looks so delicious and I love Cinnamon Crunch cereal. Only sad thing for me is I have to be dairy free. Do you think it would work if I used coconut oil and use a little less of it? Thank you. Love your recipes!
It might but I can’t say for sure because I haven’t tried it.
I’ve never made anything like this before. Granola was the only thing that came close. Love the use of almond flour! YUM!
Mmm this looks delicious! Thank you so much!!
This is the second recipe for a cinnamon toast cereal I’ve tried and failed at miserably! I want to know details when baking, it is a science after all. How did you spread this on the sheet pan, how thick, was it rolled? Too much missing I formation! I’m finding a lot of keto or low carb recipes are like this, very discouraging and extremely disappointing from this community. Details PLEASE!
Actually, all of the information is right there for you. It is not meant to be rolled out…if it was, I would have said so. Spread out simply means you spread it all out to the edges of the pan. Now…in what way did this “fail” for you?
I tried to get mine all the way to the ends of the cookie sheet and think it was too thin. Even in trying that it didn’t go to the ends of the sheet, only about half of a regular sized cookie sheet.
It’s not meant to necessarily go all the way to the ends of the sheet, as long as it’s pressed thin and sticks together.
Wow, what a quick response! Thank you!
Just made this for the first time. It is delicious! I love all of your recipes!
Mine came out soft, too! Grr! (Is it humid today? Here in the deep South, it pretty much always is!!) So, I presently have it in my dehydrator. We’ll see if I can crisp it up like that!
I bet that works! come back and report, I’d be curious.
Mine didn’t turn out super firm. It was somewhat crumbly, but not the “dust” that some have complained of. I used a silicone liner on the baking sheet for easy removal. I baked it about 5 minutes longer than recommended, but it felt set to the touch, so I removed it. I used a pizza roller while it was still warm to cut it into little squares right on the baking sheet, which were firm enough to keep their shape. DELICIOUS!! More cinnamon flavor and far tastier, but less crunch, than Cinnamon Toast Crunch from my erstwhile fat days. For the coating, I used Sukrin Gold, which is an erythritol based brown sugar sub. Wow!! Tastes like I’m eating snickerdoodles dunked in (almond) milk; the texture is similar, as well. Can’t speak highly enough for this surefire winner that just hit the spot!
Glad you liked it!
I wonder, should one press it into the pan? I just spread mine on the parchment paper–could that be why it didn’t firm up? I see others have had a similar problem … LOVE the flavor, but it turns to dust the way it came out. Thanks for any insight!!
What brand of almond flour did you use?
I used Honeyville almond flour. It is finely ground-love it for baking!
Then I don’t really know what the issue here was. Sorry!
Wow wee. Had a hard time getting it in the oven. Wanted to eat it raw! Added some unsweetened coconut and just a few sliced almonds. Omg. You have really saved my breakfast ritual with this one. Ty ty ty!
Glad you like it!
I changed it up a little, making a tasty “granola” type snack, as well as a breakfast cereal.
Add 1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut, 2 tbsp sunflower seeds and 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds.
I also used coconut oil rather than butter, upping measurement by about a tbsp.
I skipped the Swerve/cinnamon sprinkled on the top
So I made this recipe and the taste is amazing! However, mine is still in more of a powder form and never got any crispness to it. So we really can’t eat it. Any suggestions on what I can do to make it right? The only difference I had was I used stevia instead of 1/3 cup of a sweetener. I even tried cooking it another 10 minutes thinking my oven just needed more time to crisp it. Thank you for your help! I have loved all the recipes I’ve tried from your site.
Something is off here. It might be the stevia swap, I am not sure. But your best bet is to add a little egg white, reroll it out really well and bake it at a very low temp until it’s dry.
Thank you so much! I had no idea what to add to it and the egg white did it! I will try another batch in the next couple days and start out with adding the egg from the beginning and let you know how it works with a fresh batch.
Glad it worked!
Carolyn, my son loves the maple taste and he loves this cereal- i was wondering if i can put some maple extract would that work well in this recipe?
“maple cinnamon crunch?”
Carolyn, my son loves the maple taste and he loves this cereal- i was wondering if i can put some maple extract would that work well in this recipe?
“maple cinnamon crunch?”
That would be fantastic!
Okay, this is THE BOMB! I’m working my way through a list of 25 low carb cereals and this is my favorite so far. And I love the idea of using it as a crust too. Going to triple the recipe and make a huge batch of it this weekend so my whole family can enjoy it (I’m hogging this batch). :). Thanks!
Glad you liked it, Brandee!