Cold cereal?

Cold cereal was something I did away with many moons ago. I have been making Tyler granola for a few years, which is good in yogurt, but leaves something to be desired as a cold cereal replacement. Then I ran into a recipe for raw, dehydrated cereal while searching through the plethora of raw food cookbooks from the library. I actually found several recipes with the same concept, but I modified it a bit, mostly to reduce the sugar and add more fat.

I call these Cereal Crispies. What a treat to have quick, cold cereal again. A handful topped with raw milk and fresh berries….yummmm!! I make these about every 2 weeks now. The recipe below makes a lot (I doubled the original recipe because we go through it so fast); it makes about 3 dehydrator sheets worth.

4 cups buckwheat groats (raw are green), soaked for at least 1 hour (I usually do more, like 4 to 6 and then have been sprouting them a little, which is just leaving them out in the strainer and using the sprayer on them with water a few times until I see little nubs)

½ cup maple syrup

3 to 4 tsp vanilla extract

4 heaping Tbsp cocoa powder

4 Tbsp + coconut oil (soft or melted)

4 tsp sea salt (sounds like a lot, but it does taste good)

Place the soaked groats in a fine-mesh colander to drain. Rinse with water to get rid of extra starchiness. Place in the bowl of a good processor and add the remaining ingredients. Pulse until well combined but not thoroughly pureed. It should look somewhat like soupy oatmeal. Divide between lined dehydrator trays spread about 18 inch thick. Dehydrate at 115 degrees for 8 to 12 hours or until the top is dry to the touch and the liner peels away easily. The crispies should be quite brittle at this point, flip pieces over to continue drying on the other side for an additional few hours or until they are completely dry and crunchy. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container, or keep in the fridge to maintain maximum freshness, they should last up to a few weeks. Adapted from a recipe in Raw Food Real World Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis.