Homemade Cookie Crisp “Cereal” Recipe

I don’t think anyone ever asked for this, but here it is: a recipe for homemade Cookie Crisp cereal that tastes EONS better and ACTUALLY resembles cookies. I’m throwing all the shade today; it’s all I can do to not die of boredom during this time of self-quarantining and social-distancing.

I took different things from different recipes to make cookies that are crispity CRONCHity, instead of the usual soft, chewy cookies that I love. This is so that they hold up to the milk well and more closely resemble cereal texture. Imagine soft and chewy cereal…gross right? These go perfectly in a bowl of milk – ESPECIALLY when you let them soak in the milk for a couple of minutes.

The main factor that changes cookie texture is the sugar: in good recipes for soft, chewy cookies, there’s a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar. I’m not sure why (because I don’t have a food science degree), but basically when it comes to cookies, brown sugar = soft and chewy and white sugar = crispy and crunchy. So in this recipe, the ratio of white sugar to brown sugar is higher.

I also added the process of making BROWN BUTTER. You can always substitute with regular, melted butter; however, I always like to brown my butter when I can – it adds this nutty, butterscotchy flavor that’s just EVERYTHINGGG. It also fills your kitchen with the best smell in the universe, so please take a shot at it.

One thing is, I’d love to scale this recipe down, but it’s kind of difficult for people to divide A SINGLE egg yolk without a scale. Because of that, I recommend just going ahead and making the full recipe or halving it at the most; you can always freeze the dough, and cookie dough freezes beautifully. It felt like I didn’t even make a dent in the dough – I think I used maybe 1/4 to a 1/6 of it? That alone yielded me 2 small Ziploc bags of cookies, so just keep that in mind.

ONE LAST THING – this is one mistake I made that you can fix yourself: either chill the browned butter for 5 minutes OR the dough for 15 minutes, before adding the mini chocolate chips at the end. This was the only time I used mini chips, and because my dough was still slightly warm because of the browned butter, all the chips melted and became one with the dough. I was afraid it would affect the texture of the cookies and make them chewier. Thankfully, the cookies were so small that it didn’t affect much – just the overall color, which was darker than I wanted.

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

10 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg yolk

2 tbsp honey or light corn syrup

2 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping if desired

Instructions

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Swirl the pan as it bubbles and watch over it so that the butter solids don’t burn.

When it becomes amber in color, smells like nuts and caramel, and forms brown bits on the bottom of the pan, remove from heat immediately and pour into a large bowl to cool for 5 minutes.

Pour the granulated sugar, brown sugar, honey, egg yolk, milk, and vanilla extract into the butter bowl and whisk until combined.

Slowly add in the dry mixture and fold it in until no pockets of flour are left.

Cover and chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for 15-20 min then preheat the oven to 350F.

Fold in the chocolate chips after the dough is chilled.

Scoop dough out a slightly heaping 1/8 tsp at a time.

Roll each into a ball and place on prepared sheet pans, giving a little space in between to account for spread; if desired, press a couple more chocolate chips on top.

Bake in preheated oven about 5-7 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet several minutes.

Enjoy in a bowl of milk!

Store in an airtight container or Ziploc.

Freeze leftover dough in plastic wrap or in an airtight Ziploc.