Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream

Was cinnamon toast crunch your favorite breakfast cereal as a kid? It was definitely mine. Well, that and Reeses Puffs. But this is cinnamon toast crunch ice cream so we’ll leave the breakfast cereal debate for another time. This recipe may sound complex, but I assure you – any ice cream novice can make this with the right ingredients.

This is an ice cream I have been trying to perfect for a long time. In fact, it was one of the first ones I wanted to make when starting this ice cream blog. Yet my very first version was so disappointing I gave up for months. Thankfully I had a lot of time last week to work it out so I guess you can say this is my cinnamon toast crunch ice cream #8.

Unlike most ice creams that use mix ins, this ice cream didn’t work with my simple ice cream base. The flavor felt…lacking. Mainly, while I was able to get the cinnamon and sugar taste there, I had a hard time balancing that toasty-bready flavor you taste when crunching down on some of the cereals. However you could churn the cereal into a regular chocolate ice cream base for a somewhat Mexican hot chocolate flavor.

So, I had to formulate an entirely new method just for this ice cream – although will take some of what I learned and redo my simple milk base…eventually. While cereal milk ice creams are quite a modern trend, nothing makes the history of ice cream without first being something no one has tried before.

What You’ll Need

As with all of my ice cream recipes on Scoops of Delight, you need an ice cream machine. The exact style and brand does not matter too much but you do want one that is decent quality. I personally use the Smeg ice cream maker. The only issue with it is that you need to already have a Smeg stand mixer – which can be quite pricey. While there are plenty of recipes for no-churn ice creams, I often find a properly churned ice cream magnitudes better.

Some other things you will need for this homemade ice cream recipe are:

• Mixing Bowls
• Whisk
• Steel Pans (I personally find steel the best for making ice cream, but you can use any as long as you are careful about the temperature.
• Rubber Spatula
• Sealable Container (The best thing to use to store homemade ice cream is plastic in my opinion. You want something that is more flat than tall as it provides more surface area to quickly freeze in a home freezer).
• Kitchen Scale (optional, but recommended as almost all of my recipes use metric as it is more precise than imperial for most home cooks).

How To Make Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream

Even with all the ingredients, the main star of the show is still the cinnamon toast crunch cereal. It is also known as cini-minis in Europe – so if you want to find it there, that’s the name. In total there are 11 ingredients, and yes I do use stabilizers. If you follow this blog at all you should know by now that stabilizers are not ‘evil’.

Ingredients

45 grams Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal (if for some reason you cannot find it in the store, you can buy it online here)

500 ml Heavy Cream (36%)

250 ml Milk (full fat, I use one that is 3.8% but 3.5% will work as well)

70 grams Sugar (white sugar, sucrose)

40 grams Glucose Syrup (or 32 grams Dextrose if you prefer to work with dry powder)

16 grams Milk Powder

7 grams Sunflower Lecithin Powder

2 grams Vanilla Powder

2 grams Ground Cinnamon (use the cheap cassia cinnamon, not the good ceylon cinnamon as the former is more similar to the cereal.)

2 grams Salt

0.8 grams Xantham Gum

Ice Cream Method

To begin making this cinnamon toast crunch ice cream pour the milk and cereal in the same bowl. Let it sit for a half hour so the milk gets fully infused with the cinnamon toast crunch flavor.

Move the milk to a saucepan and place on low heat. Pour in the glucose syrup and whisk to combine.

When the glucose is dissolved add in the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla powder, and milk powder. Whisk to combine. Once the powders and sugar are fully dissolved into the milk turn off the heat.

Move the contents of the pan to a large mixing jar. Add the lecithin powder and blend until the powder is fully dispersed.

Pour in the heavy cream and salt and xantham gum and blend until homogenous. You want to look for a frothy mix, but do not mix so much you end up whipping or separating the fat from the liquid. Place the jar in the fridge to chill completely.

Churning The Ice Cream

After a few hours in the fridge you will notice the base has thickened. It will still be pourable, but you will want to use a rubber spatula to get everything out of the jar. Pour the mix into your ice cream maker and churn according to the machine’s instructions.

Once the ice cream reaches a soft serve consistency you can mix in some cereal. This is optional, so feel free to leave it out. I personally just like the ‘breadiness’ factor it adds when the cereal gets a bit soggy in the ice cream.

Move your freshly made cinnamon toast crunch ice cream to a plastic sealable container and place in the freezer.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through the links it allows the site to make money at no additional cost to you. For more information please see Scoops of Delight Policy.