Raise your hand if you are a fan of sugary, sweet cereals! Sure, you can fix up a bowl of cereal and splash some boring, ol' milk over it .......... OR ..... you can mix up a batch of cookies using CAP'N CRUNCH Cereal! Yumm - Yummm! I bought a couple of boxes a couple of weeks ago and forgot about them! Apparently, noone else forgot about them because by the time I came around to baking the cookies there was exactly 3 cups left! Luckily ......... that's just enough!
One thing I don't quite understand, though ....... if CAP'N CRUNCH already has a Peanut Butter flavor ..... Why do they make Peanut Butter CAP'N CRUNCH?? I guess that's one of those things I'll just never figure out, eh? As a kid, I loved to put some in a baggie and eat them as a snack .... still do! C'mon! Don't tell me you don't stand against the kitchen counter (while noone's looking), with a cereal box in one hand and your other arm elbow deep in the box, absently-mindedly munching on the cereal! Yeah, I know you're grinning ......... that's what I thought. ; ) When it comes to Cereal ...... We are all KIDS at HEART! (.....just don't let me catch you drinking out of the Orange Juice carton!)
So, these cookies were calling me and as usual, I googled a handy-dandy recipe. Now let me explain ........ I never claimed all my recipes are my own inventions, and I'm quite certain that there are others out there who can do the recipe better justice than I can ever do .... but, I Love to get INSPIRATION from others thoughts, ideas, recipes, and so on. With that said ...... I found a bevvy of delicious recipes that after reading them, I made up my own version (so, I can't give credit to any one baker..... which I am always happy to do.) With recipe in mind, I moved on to the cereal. Have you ever realized how many choices of CAP'N CRUNCH flavors, alone, you have? There's Original, Peanut butter, Crunch Berry, Crunch Berry Berries, Chocolate...... the list goes on .... is your mouth watering yet?
Not only did the Scrumptious flavors jump out at me, but on the box was this cool offer of a FREE retro t-shirt! How Exciting!! FREE?? WoW! How could I pass up this offer? I'd be the envy of all my friends! Especially after all the Bedazzling I'd do to it! I carefully cut the box tops out so I could order it..... Yes, I am serious! All I had to do was send in 3 box tops and $4.95 S&H plus Postage & not to mention the $12.00 I spent on the 4 boxes of cereal ...... in 10 - 12 weeks I could have this t-shirt. Then reality hit me! You'd think spending almost $20.00 for a "FREE" .... long awaited .... retro .... t-shirt would sway me from it. Nope, It was the fact that I put on my reading glasses to see where to send it ........ and ....... the DATE had expired 2 months ago!! Grrr!! If I had been able to see the fine print in the first place, I wouldn't have gotten so EXCITED!! ....... It sucks to get old!!Alright! I'll quit blabbin' ..... Preheat the oven to 350* In a large bowl, sift 3 cups flour and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Next, beat 1 cup butter (or margarine), softened at room temperature, 1/2 cup brown sugar & 1 /2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides. Mix in 2 teaspoons vanilla and 2 eggs. Beat in the flour just until all the dry is wet. Fold in the 3 cups of cereal & 1 cup chocolate chips or white chocolate chips Or Get Crazy Wild and put half and half! It would really look pretty if I had used Crunch Berry!
Here's a tip .... don't let this mix sit for too long. You know what happens to cereal when it gets moist ........ yep, it loses it's CRUNCH!! So, be quick about it. Ok, you know I hate when this happens but I ran out of parchment paper to line the sheet and as I'm frantically looking around my kitchen, I only found wax paper. Here's another tip ...... wax paper works in a pinch, but you don't want to use it to bake with if you don't have to. Here's why: I dropped Tablespoonfuls onto the sheet and stuck it in the oven to bake for 9 minutes. As I'm filling the next sheet ... I start daydreaming of being a kid again, but this time I'm at the zoo! Do you remember those machines that molded souvenier animals? I loved those! I'm standing there, practically pressing my nose against the glass watching every detail of how it's made. Then, I'd ooh & ahh over it all the way to the car. By the time we got to the freeway, I'd notice that little knob of wax on the bottom that's messing up my perfect souvenier so I pick at it .... just a little. Before you know it, the whole thing is in crumbles because it was so fun to pick apart and I just couldn't stop!! I even had to bite a couple of pieces to see if it tasted the same as those wax lips! HaHa! It doesn't ..... Please tell me you did that too and I'm not alone in this world! It's so real that I start smelling the wax melting ..... OY VAY!! I look at the oven and smoke is coming out! No, it didn't catch on fire and the cookies didn't burn but ........ the wax paper has started smoking! And that, my friends, is why you don't want to use wax paper. Yeah, I couldn't have said, "The wax melts and it gets smokey" but what would have been the fun in that? ..... you didn't really come to this page for a recipe, did you??
Remove the cookies and let sit about 5 minutes before moving to a rack to cool completely. Really, they do taste better when cooled .... but I know you won't listen. So go ahead, Eat some warm. I don't have to tell you to repeat for the rest of the batch, do I? So, get busy! Bake these Crunchilicious Cookies! Or ..... you can call me and I'll do it for you. Just remind me to put in the chocolate chips! After I was done, I realized they were still sitting on the counter. Oh, well ...... next time.
Happy Baking & ............ Don't forget your Apron!
