Cookies with Charm-We’re so Lucky
Cookies made with cereal have popped up on my feed lately and the one that caught my attention was Buttermilk by Sam’s Lucky Charms Cookies. For lack of a better word, these cookies are Happy! And we all know we could use some HAPPY right now. The cookies have crispy edges, chewy centers, and gooey, with iridescent marshmallows adding pops of color. The marshmallows in the cereal are colorful but after baking the cookies, the colors morphed into bright, almost neon tones. So surprising! The colors scream, pick me, pick me. BTW, Buttermilk by Sam is an amazing site, her desserts are scrumdiddlyumptious. One of my favorites is her Butter Cake, SDD, so damn delicious and easy to make.
I was surprised at how much I liked them. They aren’t as sweet as I thought with the 2 cups of charms, but the cookie part is a “not too sweet” foil for the marshmallows. The dough is a combination of AP flour and ground Lucky Charms cereal. Genius use: What would you do with the cereal without the marshmallow bits?
Back to the cookies, I baked a batch and immediately packed them for the 3Jamigos, Jeff & Jorge, who live in The City.
Confession Time
I bought into the healthy cereal movement when my kids were little—the classic path, Cheerios (PLAIN) as a snack. I perused the cereal aisle of our market, studying the ingredient label of each box I picked up. I didn’t bother picking up any box that had colored bits or chocolate in it. Sugar content had to be in single digits. Yes, I was THAT mom, the no-fun mom. If you opened my pantry doors chances are you would find Special K, Rice Krispies, and/or Honey Bunches of Oats. As they got older I made certain allowances, Frosted Flakes (only on trips to Lake Tahoe) and Cinnamon Toast Crunch (thanks to their childhood friend Spencer, who only ate CTC).
I caught a lot of grief when I inadvertently outed myself one day, a casual remark that I LOVED Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms when I was a kid. Immediately, my kids glared at me and exclaimed, WHAT? So busted. I came clean, I loved Fruit Loops, Sugar Pops, and of course Frosted Flakes…They’re grrreat! And to make matters worse I threw Pau Pau (Grandma) under the bus…she bought them.
To show the error of my ways, I rescinded the sugar cereal moratorium but by that time they were out of the cereal-eating age range. My job was done.
Cerea-us-ly?
The irony of my family cereal rules? The kid’s favorite cookies are Wes’s Good Cookies, made out of crushed Cornflakes, and Life Cereal—the college finals week cookie of choice. Every care package had to have Good Cookies in them. I have also atoned for my stringent cereal stand, I make Rice Krispy Treats, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Butter Mochi, and now Lucky Charm Cookies. I’ll find a way to use Captain Crunch one day too.
The tedious part of this recipe is separating the charms from the cereal bits. My advice, turn on your favorite rom-com, holiday movie, k-drama or C-drama, plop yourself down to watch and sort. Do not turn on the news, trust me. A small box of cereal will barely fill 2 cups, so no snacking.
Grind cereal bits in a processor or crush them with a rolling pin. Easy peasy. I fold in most of the charms reserving 1 for each ball of cookie dough that I press into the dough before baking. Dunzo. Use a #40 scoop which yielded about 20-22 cookies. Shorten baking time to 10 minutes. Cookies should be crisp and golden brown on the edges.
They went straight into our holiday box.
Lucky Charms Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 box lucky charm cereal smallest box will barely give you 2 cups
Butter-Sugar Mixture
- 2/3 cup unsalted butter 150gm
- 1 cup brown sugar 200gm
- 1 large egg +1 yolk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar 40gm
- ¾ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tablespoons malted milk powder or milk powder optional (for flavor)
Four + Cereal
- 1-1/2 cups + 1T ap flour 200gm
- 1-1/2 cups cereal bits from about 1 ½ cups cereal 60gm
- 2 cups marshmallow bits
- 2 cups brown cereal bits
Instructions
- Grind the brown cereal bits in a food processor and separate them so you have 60g (this will go into the dough). Place the remaining crumbs into a bowl and set aside. You can crush up some of the colorful marshmallows with your fingers to create more 'rainbow dust' for the topping.
- Make the cookie dough
- In a large bowl, melt the butter in the microwave until it’s almost but not fully melted. Add in the brown sugar and whisk, very well. The butter will be separated from the sugar, whisk it until it’s fully combined.
- Crack in the egg and the egg yolk and whisk until the batter is smooth and light colored. Stir in the vanilla
- Add the powdered sugar, salt, milk powder, baking powder and soda and whisk well.
- Add the flour, ground cereal and marshmallow bits and switch to a rubber spatula to mix until fully combined. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 greased cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Use a cookie scoop to divide the dough, I made big cookies that were about 3 tablespoons each but you can make smaller ones if you like.
- With each cookie dough ball, dip face down into the bowl of leftover ground cereal bits pressing to get them to adhere.
- These cookies spread so ensure you have enough space between them, at least 1.5 inches between each dough ball. If you are making bigger cookies don’t do more than 5 on a sheet.
- Bake for about 12 minutes, until the edges are golden. If you like a bit more crunch on the sides you can bake for another 2 minutes. If you’ve scooped the smaller cookies, check them at the 10 minute mark. Sprinkle on some more cereal/rainbow dust when they come out of the oven.
- Store in an airtight container.
Notes
Prep Time 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time 14 minutes minutes
Chill Time 2 hours hours