Cinnamon Toast Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I have been thinking of this recipe for a while, and this is the week that I finally put it together. A couple of months ago, I was at Trader Joe's and I saw that they were carrying chocolate bars that contained bits of cinnamon toast cereal. I bought a bar and planned to eat it, but I must have bought it at a time when we had a lot of other candy in the house, because I never ate it. That’s not really a common thing in my house!

I had been thinking that they would be interesting to put into cookies, and that I could also use cinnamon toast cereal in the dough, either in its whole form or crushed into crumbs. When thinking of recipes, I knew that I had made ranger cookies that had different mix ins. I figured that I would adapt that recipe to use the chocolate bar and the cinnamon toast cereal. This recipe is from the Betty Crocker Cookbook (1969 edition).

The original recipe called for oats, coconut and wheat flake cereal. I figured that crushing up the cereal would be somewhat similar to the oats, and then used the whole cereal and the chopped chocolate bars to substitute for the other ingredients. As long as you keep the ratios about the same, your cookies will work. These cookies brown a little more quickly because the cinnamon sugar that coats the cereal browns fast. The cinnamon really stands out in these cookies and they have a nice crunch to them. This was an experiment, but I think that they turned out quite well!

Cinnamon Toast Chocolate Chunk Cookies

½ cup butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup cinnamon toast cereal crumbs

1 cup cinnamon toast cereal

2 cinnamon toast cereal chocolate bars, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar on medium until smooth. Add the egg and the vanilla and mix again on medium to combine. Add the remaining ingredients and stir on low, just until the dough comes together. 

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using about 1-1/2 tablespoons per cookie.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Recipe adapted from the Betty Crocker Cookbook