Cinnamon Toast Crunch Macarons are filled with a Cinnamon Toast Crunch Buttercream, they are absolutely delicious, and taste like the delicious cereal, but better, because they are in the macaron form.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, French
Keyword cereal, macarons
Prep Time 2 hourshours
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours40 minutesminutes
Servings 22macarons
Calories 140kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Powder
1cupCinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites3.5 oz
100gramsgranulated sugar3.5 oz
105gramsalmond flour3.7 oz
105gramspowdered sugar3.7 oz
2gramscocoa powderfor color
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frosting
1/4cupcream cheese softened56 grams, 2 oz
2tbspunsalted butter softened28 grams, 1 oz
1/3cuppowdered Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3/4 to 1cuppowdered sugar93 grams, 3.28 oz
1/4tspcinnamon powder
1/2tspvanilla extract
Instructions
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Powder
Place the cereal in a small food processor, and process it until powdered. You can sift the large pieces out, and return them to the food processor and process them a little longer to break them up into a finer powder. Set it aside.
Macaron Shells
Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/2” diameter tip. Set aside.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it. You can make your own or print it from the internet, and just place it under silicon mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicon mat.
Measure out all of the ingredients.
Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set it aside.
Place the egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of barely simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.
Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.
With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to high for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending to the side.
Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
Add the food coloring at this point, if using.
How to know when to stop folding the batter: It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this.
First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.
Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds.
Test again.
Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it's ready.
You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
Transfer the batter to the piping bag.
Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.
I have also made small 1 inch macarons to make them a cute size for a cereal bowl.
Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.
Before the macarons got a chance to dry, I sifted some of the cereal powder on on top of the shells. You want to make sure the powder you are sprinkling on top of the shells is sifted, because large pieces may weigh the shells down and cause cracks.
Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF. (However, if baking the mini 1 inch macarons, please reduce the oven temperature considerably. I had to bake the mini ones at 280ºF, so they wouldn’t crack.)
Bake one tray at a time.
Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.
Bake for 5 more minutes. Rotate again.
I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.
When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.
Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frosting
Add the butter and cream cheese to a bowl, and cream with a mixer for about 2 minutes, until fluffy.
Add 3/4 cup of powdered sugar, Cinnamon Toast Crunch powder, cinnamon, and vanilla, and mix on low until incorporated, then raise the speed to medium-high and beat until creamy.
If the frosting is too stiff add one teaspoon of liquid (milk, or water) at a time, until you achieve a smooth consistency.
And if the frosting seems too runny, add a bit more sifted powdered sugar, up to 1 cup as necessary to adjust the consistency.
To assemble
Place the frosting in a piping bag. Pipe the filling on half of the shells. Top with another shell.
Storage
Store these Cinnamon Toast Crunch Macarons in the fridge for 5 to 7 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 months, in an air tight container.
Notes
Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring. I use Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring Set. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter your batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage.Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy.Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.Storage:This is the Storage Container I use to store my macarons.