How many bags is too many, I ask? Cinnamon Toast Crunch (CTC) is like a life insurance policy in our house, but in all reality, nine boxes of opened cinnamon toast crunch is enough to feed a small army. So as I was organizing them in my pantry, I thought to myself, “I could Mac that.” So I did. Am I the first to make this recipe? Probably not. But am I the first that has more boxes of this particular cereal than I have children in my house? ABSOLUTELY!
To be honest, this is when you can actually have dessert for breakfast and feel fine about it. When we make Cinnamon Toast Crunch Macarons we start with the shell. Most cereals we grind up and sub out flour for cereal (more on this later) but for these cookies we simply just sprinkle a few crumbs on top to make this sweet cereal center stage, and blend in some more crumbs into the buttercream. It’s the buttercream that holds the delish taste of our childhood.
How-To Convert Those Extra Boxes of CTC into Macs:
- Use a food processor to crunch up the cereal. You’ll have two kinds left in your food processor bowl: super-fine dust, and bigger bits. Save the super fine dust for blending into the buttercream (see #4, below).
- The bigger bits are sprinkled on your freshly piped shells before baking. Add the cereal to the shells after you have piped, tapped, and released, and all air bubbles are popped. Now, just between us friends, don’t overdo the sprinkling. Too many bigger bits of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is just too much cereal on the shell; it can make the shell weak.
- Keep the cereal bits within the diameter of the shell, as any hanging off the edge are extremely difficult to package. Just ask me. (Which, you didn’t, but I am telling you anyway.)
- Modify the Sweet Mac Shop American Buttercream (below) by adding 2 Tablespoons of the super-fine dust of the crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Blend well. It will flavor the buttercream, and coupled with the stylish and delish top shell, you’ve got your breakfast for dessert! (Or dessert for breakfast. Whatever.)
American Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter Let sit on counter for 30 minutes.
- 250 grams powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Place butter in bowl of mixer, and attach paddle flat beater. Mix on medium speed until butter breaks up and is starting to look smooth.
- Add vanilla and salt; mix for 30 seconds until combined.
- Add in heavy whipping cream.
- Measure powdered sugar on scale. Slowly add to the mixer, 1 cup at a time.
- PRO TIP: Start the mixer speed back up slowly after adding the cup of powdered sugar, otherwise, pull out the mop.
- Once ingredients are all mixed, turn the mixer to medium high and set timer for five minutes.
- Flavor or color the buttercream to your preference. We make a huge batch of plain, then add flavor and color depening on the amount of buttercream we need. Making one large batch saves time in the long run.
- NOTE: American Buttercream will keep up to two weeks in the fridge, and one day at room temperature.
I can’t wait to try this one Barb!! Cinnamon toast crunch is my favorite! ❤😊