| Interestingly enough, I just wrote a letter to Kellogg's asking
how the heck cereal flakes are made. It turns out that they make
some kind of mash out of the grains, and then let it sit for a while
before rolling it through two rollers, which flatten out the grains
and cause the grain mash to separate into the flake-things. I think
it would be difficult to make at home unless you were willing to
abuse your pasta-machine.
For hot cereal, my father often just mixes some whole grains he
has around with water and some raisins and cooks it like one would
cook oatmeal. I call the resulting product "hot bird seed," since
that's about the texture -- millet, wheat berries, raw oats, and
it takes forever to chew. If you like wholistic foods (I do) it's
good, but I wouldn't serve it to anyone who likes Captain Crunchberry.
P.
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"Home-made" microwaved cereal
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 Tablespoons margarine or butter
6 1/2 cups puffed wheat(or puffed rice, or cheerios)
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup ground pecans (or other nuts)
- Stir together first three ingredients in small microwave-proof bowl.
- Heat in microwave on HIGH for one minute, then remove and stir again.
- Mix cereal and other dry ingredients together in large,
microwave-proof bowl (the idea is to get as much surface area as
possible, so a shallow bowl is better than a deep one).
- Drizzle honey mixture over cereal ingredients and stir well (mixture
will be sticky- I use a buttered wooden spoon to stir).
- Microwave at cook power 3 or 4 (approximately 1/3 power) for 8
minutes, stirring every two minutes. As you get closer to the end
of the cooking cycle, you may want to stir once a minute.
- Remove bowl from microwave and stir for a minute or so, to make sure
that individual pieces of cereal remain separated. Cool thoroughly
and pack in glass jars with tight-fitting lids. Store in a cook, dry
place.
VARIATIONS:
For cocoa krispies - add 2-4 Tablespoons of baking cocoa to the honey
mixture, and eliminate the sunflowers seeds...
For Honey Nut Cheerios - eliminate the sunflower seeds
For an interesting variation - substitute coconut for the sunflower
seeds. Add 1/2 to 1 cup raisins as the mixture comes out of the
microwave.
Note: this recipe is very flexible. You will find that the cocoa
krispies are quite "wet" going into the microwave if you don't use
the wheat germ or nuts. On the other hand, you may want to increase
the liquid ingredients a bit if you add more dry ingredients to the
basic recipe.
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