Gluten-Free Homemade Grape Nuts

I got pregnant a month after going gluten free. All I wanted was to wake up to starchy comfort food, but being new to the world of GF buying and cooking, I had a hard time finding anything I wanted to eat. I wrote an entire post a while back on gluten-free breakfast ideas hoping to help newbies out. I have found quite a few hot breakfast cereals that I love: Bob Red Mill's GF Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal and Creamy Buckwheat Cereal. I also eat a lot of quinoa and popped amaranth and the occasional bowl of oatmeal.

But I've really missed cold cereal since going gluten-free. I used to start every day with wheat flakes, Cheerios, and Grape Nuts all mixed together with raisins and chopped almonds. Yum. I've been less successful in finding satisfying gluten-free cold cereals. Perky O's sort of taste like Cheerios but not really. Nutty Rice and Nutty Flax similarly sort of approximate the consistency of Grape Nuts but not really. And all the Peanut Butter Panda Puffs-type cereals? They all have tons of sugar and/or no fiber. I have nothing against sugary cereals, but I at least want a healthy option.

Flakes are a little beyond the home baker, but I've discovered that people do make their own Grape Nuts (and, of course, load them down with sugar). Since Grape Nuts in the box are pretty simple--just flour, salt, and water--I decided to just leave out the sugar in my own recipe. You do have to bake them twice (once as a cake and once as crumbles to dry them out), but you could double the recipe easily. I had a bowl with raisins and almonds the next morning, and they really do taste just like Grape Nuts!

Grape Nuts
This recipe makes one quart.

3 1/2 c. whole-grain gluten free flours (I used 1 c. GF oat flour, 1 c. sorghum flour, 3/4 c. brown rice flour, 3/4 c. teff flour)
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2 c. milk

Combine the dry ingredients and mix in the milk. The mixture should be something like cookie dough (not the pudding consistency of GF yeast bread). Spread it 3/4-1" thick on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 20-25 min. Remove the tray from the oven and cool for 20-30 min.

Break up the baked bread into large chunks and pulse in food processor until the pieces are the size of Grape Nuts. Spread over two jelly roll pans and bake at 300 for 1 hour. Stir every 15 min. Let them cool before eating or storing.