The Best Way To Add Cereals To Cookie Dough According To Christina Tosi

Any home chef in a baking slump knows to check in on Christina Tosi for some much-needed inspiration. The James Beard Award-winning chef and owner of Milk Bar has built a baking brand based on positive vibes, DIY energy, and cookies — lots and lots of cookies. Tosi partnered with McCormick for its Cookie Quest event and contributed a recipe for candy cane pretzel bark cookies.

These minty, sweet, and salty cookies showcase her penchant for incorporating the candies and snacks around us into bigger and better baked goods. Her cookbook Bake Club demonstrates her talent for putting pantry staples to good use, especially in cookie dough, so it's no surprise that breakfast cereal often finds its way into her mixing bowl (she's the creator of Cereal Milk, after all). But how do you get those crispy flakes to play nicely with all the kneading and rolling that goes into making perfect cookies? To answer that question, Tosi spoke to Chowhound about the best ways to add cereals to your cookie dough.

"I'm a fan of making a cereal crunch," she says. To follow suit with your cereal of choice, she recommends mixing it with some melted butter, sugar, salt, and a bit of milk powder. Once that's complete, pop it in the oven for a light toasting before it goes into the dough. "It gives the cereal a louder flavor moment and texture," she notes.

Nailing the perfect crisp texture is one of the challenges that bakers are constantly up against, so the extra crunch from toasted cereal is welcome. The breakfast staple already has a wide textural variety, so a bit of experimentation will surely yield tasty results. If you're looking to incorporate some into your cookie dough, Christina Tosi's recommendation is to "be cautious of the flour in the dough based on how much cereal you add." Since it's a dry ingredient, too much can create an equally dry cookie. "A tester cookie is always a good idea," Tosi adds.

When asked about her preferred cereal/cookie combination, she replied, "I'd go cuckoo for a chocolatey cookie with chocolate cereal crunch — bonus points for some peppermint extract, maybe even a little ground coffee." For her, it's all about sticking with what you like. "Think about the flavor story you want to tell!" If there's a variety you adore, think about the ways it could fit into a cookie and then make it happen, Cap'n Crunch.

Keep in mind that some cereals have stronger flavors than others, so you'll want to consider how much of a punch you want to pack with your addition. However, with these professional tips at your disposal, you'll be ready to explore the wide world of baking cookies with cereal. Before you know it, you might be adding the breakfast food to all kinds of baked goods.