This doesn’t look too fancy. And I wasn’t actually expecting very much from it.
How much can you get from butter, sugar, and breakfast cereal?
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter or margarine
- 2 1/2 cups Cheerios
- In large skillet, heat 1 cup sugar and 1 cup butter or margarine to boiling, stirring constantly.
- Boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture becomes light brown and thickened, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat; stir in 2 1/2 cups Cheerios cereal until well coated. Turn onto ungreased baking sheet; spread mixture 1/4 inch thick.
- Cool; break into pieces.
The youngest “kitchen assistant” was quite excited to see one of the ingredients come out of the cupboard.
“CHERRIES!”
“Cheerios.”
“CHERRY!”
“Cheerios.”
“CHERRIES! SO!”
“… Sure, ok.”
At first everything cooked along quite nicely. Butter melted, sugar stirred in, everything combining nicely.
Then this strange phase transition happened after about seven minutes: the butter started to separate back out.
“Does this look right?”
“I don’t know, what are you making?”
“Toffee. This looks like mashed potatoes or something.”
Despite the misgivings, I poured it over the Cheerios and stirred. It felt like there was too much cereal, and I worried it wasn’t getting fully distributed.
I tasted it while it was still fairly hot (burning my tongue), and immediately called Buzz into the kitchen. “Dude, you have to taste this.”
He took a bite too. “Oh, wow. That isn’t mashed potatoes.”
And somehow the entire sheet of crunchy toffee started vanishing before I belatedly realized I’d completely failed to take a tasting photo.
“Quick, smile. I need to get a picture.”
“OK, but shoot fast, I want to eat more of this.”
This is insanely delicious. Duh, right? It’s pure butter and sugar.
Verdict: Insanely delicious.
Tasting notes:
Pure butter and sugar with crunchy bits, this is perfect candy. It is definitely important to cook this long enough — until the sugar-butter mix begins to turn beige instead of lemon yellow. I made it a second time and didn’t cook quite as long, and the result was less crunchy and hard. (Still tasty, just a different texture.)
Okay, that sounds really good. I am going to have to try this one out!!!
Buzz looks like he just discovered crack for the first time 😉
Yeah, we’ve been calling it Cheerios Crack. Especially after I made a second batch and 80% of it vanished between when I spread it out to cool and when I returned to the kitchen, and Buzz was looking mildly sheepish.
Definitely. And it’s really easy, too, which is always a plus!
Never tried just heating butter and sugar without water, but clearly it works. Not sure if I'd pour the result over Cheerios, but maybe their saltiness would make it excellent. Also, "Cheerios" spelled backwards begins with "soirée" and for some reason I find that endearing.
I later had to clean off the baking sheet the candy had been spread on, so I could bake some biscuits. I had conveniently eaten it down around the edges, so that the remainder would fit on our smallest plate.
My aunt made something similar to this, but with puffcorn and mixed nuts instead of Cheerios. The salty puffcorn combined with the toffee was really delicious.
Pour it over popcorn. Stir quickly. Makes really good caramel corn.
I make a similar toffee (brown sugar instead of white) poured over chopped nuts and topped with chocolate. Everyone calls it crack cocaine.
We’ve had similar results (everyone in the house picking at it while making yummy noises) when poured over popcorn.
Not a bad idea to use a candy thermometer to get to the hard crack stage without burning it.
PS. Sue, the B. stands for Bernardi! 😀
Sounds Yummy! It does remind me of the puffcorn recipe I make a few times a year. Here is the puffcorn recipe:
Puffcorn Caramel Corn
Prep Time: 60 min | Servings: 12
Ingredients
1 Bag of Old Dutch Puffcorn
1 Cup of Butter (Not Margarine)
1 1/4 Cups of Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup of Light Corn Syrup
1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
Preparation
Preheat oven to 250°F.
Combine butter, brown sugar, and light corn syrup in a 2 quart sauce pan.
Cook on medium heat until mixture has melted.
Once mixture has melted add the baking soda. (Note: This will cause the mixture to foam)
In a large roaster pan pour Old Dutch Puffcorn and pour caramel mixture over the Old Dutch Puffcorn and stir until mixed.
Place in oven for 45 minutes, stirring at least every 10-15 minutes.
Remove from oven, pour on wax paper and break apart. Be careful at this part. I always have my hubby help me break the pieces apart. This has to be done when the mix is still hot or the pieces don’t break cleanly.
Let cool. Eat several handfuls 🙂
From: http://www.olddutchfoods.com/recipes/category/3/view/15
Hmmm, “Backwards Soirée Toffee.” I like it…
I think I messed it up the first time, it was way too sugary/crusty and didn’t even need breaking up. The second time I might have messed up slightly but I think the second try was the better of the two. It’ll probably be a bit sticky (Might have needed to have had it boiling for a tiny bit more…)
I just made this and OMG!!! Its almost gone in 20 mins
I have been making this for years and we also call it cheerio crack, but I use 3 cups cheerios and cook about 15 minutes. Gets a golden brown color and breaks up better.
When it cools, does it harden so its crunchy? What about adding a few mini chocolate chips, or even heath toffee bits?
I used to make this when my children were small. I had forgotten how addictive it is! Thank you for sharing! To make my husband and me feel a little less guilty, I cut the butter to 1 stick (1/2cup) and increased the cheerios to 4 cups.. And I quit cooking right after it ‘recombined’. It is still delicious; almost impossible to leave alone, until it is all gone. Thanks again!
Can I use peanut butter cheerios? Ive tried to find a recipe using them. I haven’t found any.