Several Christmases ago, my aunt gifted me a small pocket notebook. “Little Pink Book” it says on the cover and I really wish Chapters still made them because it was perfect and now it’s completely filled with ideas from Ginger on The Loose and also, a million different recipe ideas. One of the very first ideas that came to me was Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal Cheesecake and I’ve finally developed a recipe!
Now, I must admit that this recipe isn’t perfect, nor will your final product look that amazing. (For example the 1:2 crumb to filling ratio isn’t exactly what I would call photogenic) However, I can assure you it is going to taste great and it is going to disappear before your very eyes.
The first thing I need to tell you is that you need a few hours to make this. Why? Because the recipes uses ricotta cheese and it needs to drain. The good news is, I drained it for one hour the first time and it had just the same effect as draining it for 6 hours. So one hour should be just fine. That being said, I bought Saputo ricotta and it wasn’t super liquidy – other brands might have more (or less) liquid. To drain the ricotta, I spooned it into a paper towel lined fine mesh strainer and left it on top of a bowl. If you spoon it in instead of plopping it in from the container, you have more control over how much liquid comes with the ricotta.
This recipe is made super easy with the use of a food processor. If you don’t have one, I would honestly just use a potato masher like I used to do! (If a food processor is on your wish list, make these crumbs in front of your significant other and make sure you make it look really difficult so they feel bad and decide to buy you a food processor…..) So while your ricotta is draining, you can bake the crust. I used a muffin tin and liners to make individual cheesecakes because a) I just feel like things are so much easier when they are baked or cooked by the serving and b) I don’t have a proper cheesecake pan anyways. If you look at the photo, the crust is a lot darker than what it will look like when it is first baked. I think this is because the ricotta still contains a lot of moisture and that goes into the crust when you bake it. Like I said, this recipe is not perfect!
Have you watched any of the new season of Chef’s Table on Netflix yet? I’ve only seen the first episode with Christina Tosi from Milkbar. I cried. But anyways. She bakes cake using CEREAL MILK! She literally steeps milk with cereal. So I figured I had to try doing this with the whipped cream. First try, I didn’t steep it long enough and second try.. well, I completely forgot to save myself some cereal and I didn’t have any leftover to steep in the whipping cream! So I highly encourage you to give it a try. Just add your whipping cream (before you whip it) to a cereal bowl and then add some cereal. I let it steep for 10 minutes and that wasn’t long enough, I’m just super impatient. So if you try it, maybe try for at least 20? Take a strainer and add the contents of your bowl to it to get the whipping cream out. Squish any cream out of the cereal that you can, and definitely eat the cereal now. What else are you going to do with it? If the steeping method is not for you, don’t worry, there are directions below (plus, a can of whipping cream from the grocery store isn’t going to hurt anybody either.. just be sure to sprinkle with cinnamon!)
To finish these bad boys off, dollop or pipe the whipped cream on top (or like I say, use a can). Add a sprinkle or two.. or three.. of leftover, unbaked crust and make sure you put a piece of cereal on top of each one, too! If you do put a piece of cereal in each, make sure you do that right before serving or else they will get soggy.
These cheesecakes will keep in the fridge for up to a week. (Not that they will last this long)
Enjoy!
Cinnamon Toast Cereal Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust
- 4 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal
- 3 tablespoons butter softened
Filling
- 500 g ricotta cheese drained
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Whipped Cream
- 237 mL whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Drain ricotta for one hour. Line a fine mesh sieve with paper towel and add the ricotta. Let drain over a bowl.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Add cereal to food processor and turn on to high until cereal becomes fine crumbs (about one minute). If you do not have a food processor, use a potato masher in a mixing bowl. This will probably convince you to start watching for a food processor to go on sale.
- Add room temperature butter to food processor and stir on low until butter is combined OR add crumbs to a bowl with melted butter and stir until combined
- Line a muffin tin with 12 liners
- Add 1 tablespoon of the crumb/butter mixture to each liner. Pat down with the back of a spoon (the bottom of a shot glass fits well, too).
- Reserve the extra crumbs for garnish
- Bake for 10 minutes
- Reduce heat to 250 degrees F when you take the baked crust out of the oven
- Once ricotta has drained, transfer it to a mixing bowl.
- If you are using a stand mixer, turn on to low-medium speed with the paddle mixer.
- Add sugar, eggs and cinnamon. Allow to combine.
- Once everything has combined, you should have enough to add 2 tablespoons to each muffin liner. I recommend adding 1 tablespoon at a time to ensure every liner is filled.
- Bake for one hour.
- In the meantime, make your whipped cream. (You can steep cereal in your whipping cream and omit adding cinnamon) or simply follow the rest of the directions
- Add carton of whipping cream to mixing bowl with cinnamon and vanilla. Whip on high speed for a few minutes until you've reached a good consistency. You want it a bit thicker so you can pipe it or make good dollops!
looks and sounds amazing!
Dumb question…. how do you steep something?!
Hi LT! Not a dumb question at all! It’s like making a cup of tea.. you will allow the cereal to sit in the whipping cream (steep) and in turn, the whipping cream will take on the flavour of the cereal. Just like when you finish all of the cereal in your breakfast bowl and the remaining milk tastes like the cereal!!