Welcome back to Home for Christmas edition #6. Today's recipe is an absolute delight, mainly because it’s so ridiculously impractical. Homemade. Cereal. Yes, you read that right. Who has the time to make homemade cereal? Before you roll your eyes and click off, hear me out.
Brown butter, chocolate and smoked salt puffed rice that melts in your mouth, homemade mini spiced meringues and candied hazelnuts - yes, this recipe is sweet, frivolous, and has virtually no nutritional value, but It’s also the perfect end of year project to restore a sense of joy and nostalgia. So, consider this a sign to stop, for a moment, and do something for the sheer pleasure of it. Joy awaits, I promise.
P.S. I know you’re busy, so don’t feel bad if you have to skip to the recipe at the bottom of the newsletter. However, if you do so happen to have a few minutes to spare, let’s keep company for a while longer.
Of course, I realize that this is, on the surface, simply a recipe for homemade chocolate cereal. How deep can one get? But it’s never really just about food. From a young age, my mother taught me that recipes are stories. So, naturally, writing to you feels like an opportunity to form a connection. Sharing thoughts, memories and moments somehow feels less transactional than just handing over a list of instructions. So, make yourself a cuppa, perhaps read on, then grab your friend, partner or child and make this cereal.
Nostalgia
I am not someone who is good at in-betweens; I'm either wildly excited or coolly unmoved. I am attempting to work on attaining a balance between these states, crucially, unearthing color within life's gray areas and finding joy betwixt this and that. I am learning that if one has an eye free of desire and without beams, everything appears beautiful. A beautiful eye, for beautiful things.
The problem is, when I dwell on the concept of 'tomorrow' too deeply and for too long, that beauty dissolves. I am often filled with innumerable thoughts concerning unconquerable difficulties. My temples blaze. My heart is heavy. My wearied mind swirls with questions; a storm rages in the pupil of my eye. With vision blurred, the vast ocean of the unknown looms on the horizon.
When I am feeling like this I indulge myself, if just for a second, in nostalgia, allowing my mind to wander back to simpler times. I don't yearn for yesterday in a melancholic way, and I don't wish to reside in memories alone, but the past reminds me of just how many chances we have at renewal. Everyday is a sort of rebirth; perhaps this explains why I find, and have always found, the morning time to be so healing. I value the soft cadence of new beginnings. I embrace confronting routines that provide great delight.
How tenderly we discover our true selves in seemingly perfunctory tasks: making the tea, frying eggs, pouring milk into our cereal. With ease and without deliberate searching we can find ourselves stumbling upon profound answers in our quotidian practices.
As a child I was not allowed sugary cereal save for special occasions such as Christmas holidays, or when my beloved cousins visited. So, when I stumbled across online murmurings concerning the annual release of Christmas Morning Cereal, nostalgia covered me like a wave. This Willy Wonka-esque cereal is the culinary invention of pastry chef, Dominique Ansel, who not only created this iconic festive delight, but also invented the legendary cronut. What-a-guy.
Now that I am an adult and can indulge in whatever breakfast I so wish, this cereal is the indulgence I am currently craving the most. I am currently in the UK so buying the real thing is out of the question, plus it’s sold out! So, I had to find the recipe. The problem was, after many searches it remained elusive. There was only one solution: I would have to create my own.
Oh, the sweet taste of rebellion; all my childhood dreams of dessert for breakfast have, at last, come true.
Nothing can compete with cinnamon meringues and candied hazelnuts nestled between crispy chocolate, brown butter and smoked salt puffed rice that melts in your mouth. And the best part? Well, that must be the milk at the bottom of the cereal bowl which eventually forms a salty/sweet cocoa elixir that asks, no, rather demands, to be unceremoniously slurped.
Give way to your inner child and indulge. Go on, rebel, won't you?! Dessert for breakfast is always a good idea, no matter what age.
The Recipe
Chocolate puffed rice
150 g/5oz Rice Krispies or puffed rice cereal
50 g/2oz brown butter
50 g/2oz light brown sugar
300 g/11oz milk chocolate
50 g/2oz Golden Blonde or Dulcey blond chocolate
Pinch of smoked salt
Mini Cinnamon Meringue
2 large eggs, whites only
60 g/2oz caster sugar
60 g/2oz icing sugar
1 tsp of cream of tartar
Pinch each of cinnamon/nutmeg
Candied Hazelnuts
100 g/4oz hazelnuts
3-4 tablespoons of runny honey
15 g/ ½ oz butter
1 tsp of light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon
Method
Puffed Chocolate Rice
Lightly grease a medium baking tin and line with baking parchment.
Brown the butter – in a medium saucepan, melt the butter then cook over medium heat for 5 or so minutes until the butter turns a golden brown then turn off the heat and add the light brown sugar. Stir.
Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie (double boiler). Alternatively, in a medium-large bowl, gently melt the chocolate in the microwave. Remove from the heat before adding the butter and brown sugar mixture. Stir to combine before adding the smoked salt, and puffed rice. Again, stir to combine.
Transfer the puffed rice mixture to the baking tin (or flat container), spread out evenly and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours. When cooled, roughly break apart.
Meringue
Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl then add the caster sugar and combine. Add the sugar to the egg whites, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking after each addition to maintain a stiff peak consistency. Repeat this process until all the sugar is amalgamated then add the cream of tartar and combine.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag with a round nozzle.
Pipe mini meringues onto the parchment paper lined baking tray and bake at 250F/120C/100C FAN for approx. 1 hour, depending on your oven. To be safe, check on the progress halfway through.
Hazelnuts
Place all the ingredients, except the sugar, in a saucepan for 1-2 minutes over low-medium heat then add the hazelnuts and stir gently to coat.
Once coated, transfer the hazelnuts to a baking tray lined with baking parchment and place in the oven for 10-12 minutes at 160C fan. Remove halfway through, sprinkle with the light brown sugar, then toss the nuts before returning to the oven for the last 5-7 minutes, depending on your oven. At this stage the hazelnuts should be a very light golden brown.
Once removed from the oven, separate the nuts whilst still hot then leave to cool.
Serve
This recipe serves approx. 4 people aka 4 small bowls of cereal.
A note or two
All of the components above are delicious, but if you fancy making just one of them for a sweet treat (such as the puffed chocolate rice) - go right ahead!
See a visual of how to make this recipe here on my Tiktok!
What a great Christmas treat to give oneself, or if altruism is your thing for friends & family - if any can be spared! totally indulgent ! Great idea.