Cinnamon Toast Crunch Muffin Mix, reviewed

Cereal – usually with fresh fruit on top – is my go-to breakfast on weekdays. Honey Nut Cheerios are one of my staples (because they go so well with bananas and berries), but I have a weakness for Cinnamon Toast Crunch and will occasionally sneak a box into my shopping cart at the grocery store. I liked it as a kid and still like that cinnamon toast flavor to this day. Recently, I spotted the logo for this cereal in an unexpected place outside of the cereal section of the market: on a box of muffin mix the baking aisle. Cinnamon Toast Crunch Muffin Mix is made by Betty Crocker and seems to be part of a new line of breakfast cereal-inspired muffin mixes. Of course, I couldn’t resist giving it a try to see if it captured the flavor of the cereal.

The muffin mix is easy to make with the addition of oil, water and eggs to the dry mix. The mix includes lots of chunks of cinnamon cereal bits, all with a good natural cinnamon flavor to them. It also comes with a streusel topping, which is also packed with the cinnamon bits. The muffins smell like Cinnamon Toast Crunch when they’re baking and look great when they come out of the oven, thanks to a high rise and a generous amount of streusel topping. They’re moist and fluffy, and they have cinnamon swirls running through the interior of the muffin – just like the cereal. Did they capture the essence of the cereal? They came close. Their good cinnamon-sugar flavor and a bit of crunch from the streusel was enough to evoke some of that same childhood fun that the cereal does.