So what exactly is cereal milk?
The idea is truly brilliant.
A wildly popular drink created by pastry chef Christina Tosi of the famous Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC, cereal milk is exactly what it sounds like: an ice-cold milk drink that tastes like your favorite breakfast cereal. See? Brilliant! After all, what child doesn’t look forward to that sweet cereal-infused milk left over when all of the frosted flakes, apple cinnamon cheerios, or cocoa krispies are gone?
The sweet cereal milk is the best part!
Intrigued by the Momofuku idea of infusing regular milk with toasted cereal, I experimented to come up with a homemade cereal milk recipe. Although I’ve never tasted the original to compare, I really love this version. It’s especially great for anyone who doesn’t want to pay $5 for a glass of cereal milk, anyone who wants to control the amount of sugar that goes in, or anyone who is a vegan or can’t have dairy. Oh, and anyone who doesn’t happen to live in a city (NYC or Toronto) with a Momofuku Milk Bar location.
Homemade Cereal Milk
(inspired by Momofuku Milk Bar)
- 1 cup cereal of choice
- 1 3/4 cup milk of choice
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract
- sweetener of choice to taste (amount will depend on the type of milk you use. For example, if you use unsweetened almond milk, try 2 tsp sugar or a pinch of stevia extract.
Preheat oven to 300 F. Spread cereal out on a baking sheet, and bake 12 minutes. (I used Whole Foods bran flakes for this recipe, but many other types of cereal will work. I’d just recommend not using granola.) Transfer to a large glass, add the milk, stir and let sit 30-35 minutes. Don’t rush this step. When the time is up, set a fine mesh strainer over a container and pour the mixture into the strainer. Really squish the flakes down, using the bottom of the glass or a spoon, until pretty much all of the liquid has been pushed into the strainer. (Compost the mushy cereal, or save it for another use.) Add all remaining ingredients to the container, and stir. Voila! Cereal milk!
Question of the Day:
What was your favorite childhood breakfast cereal?
When I was really little, my favorite was Cocoa Krispies because it turned the milk into chocolate milk. I also really liked Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and only stopped eating them when I was in high school because we moved overseas and one box cost eleven US dollars! Although I don’t often eat cereal anymore, I’ll sometimes pick up a box of Love Crunch granola for snacking. And I usually have a box of Whole Foods bran flakes on hand for recipes like the Healthy Butterfingers.
Link of the Day:
I might be the only person in the world who doesn’t like milk with cereal, but I just had to comment and tell you how much I love the second photo with the white and blue straws. Gorgeous!!
Nope, you’re not!! 🙂
I don’t eat cold breakfast cereal much anymore as an adult, however, as a child I never liked the milk on my cereal. I had to have it to get the cereal wet, but I drained the excess in each spoonful and would have never drank the remainder in the bowl afterwards. I vividly recall my parents hounding me for wasting all that extra milk. Whenever we went to my grandma’s house though, I had to suck it up and drink it or, more often, quickly toss it or let the cat drink it before anyone noticed.
🙂
I am right with you on this one, I can eat cereal as a snack but really don’t like the milk with it. Can’t stand soggy cereal. The “national”cereal here in Australia is Weetbix, not sure if there is anything similar elsewhere but they soak up the milk so bad. I would just rather spread butter and honey on them. But now as an adult really cant see the point in spending money on boxed cereal.
Fellow Aussie here. I can’t stand wet weet-bix either. We call it gloop, because that’s exactly what it is. Dry, cut in half to make thin weet-bix, spread with butter and vegemite on the other hand…
The only cereal I do really like now is toasted muesli or porridge. Thanks Katie for opening my world up to so many different things you can do with porridge 🙂
I eat my cereal dry too! My current favorite is Arrowhead Mills Organic Puffed Kamut. You’re definitely not the only one, haha! 😀
Whoa, I love the cereal milk concept. Growing up my parents weren’t keen on sugar-y cereal, but sometimes we got cinnamon toast crunch-which my friend recently told me the “cereal milk” from is what horchata tastes like…
What a genius idea! My BF would love this, he has cereal every morning and has done since he was little! haha!
Kerry X
Grapenuts (I dumped so much sugar on them the milk was grainy at the bottom of the bowl) and captain crunch all the way . . . Oh and you can’t forget Frosted Flakes . . .
sounds super delicioso !
Wow, this is so interesting! I’ve never heard of cereal milk before, but I look forward to trying it out.
Well this is just brilliant!!!!!
I don’t think I was the biggest cereal eater as a kid, because I can’t even remember what my favorite was. But my little brother loved Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms. I definitely remember eating Lucky Charms once in a while. Talk about junk!
Does it really taste different from drinking the milk after a bowl of cereal? Just seems a little silly, though I’m sure very tasty. 🙂
That is so cool! I’ve never even heard of it, but now I must try it 😉