Few things are more boring than cornflakes, but when included in this recipe, cornflakes shed their blandness.
Amish families often celebrate Christmas in the kitchen with colorful candies, beautifully baked goods, and simple scratch-made goodness. And sometimes, like everyone else, they'll tear open a box of cereal or cake mix and find a use for that. This corn flake candy recipe came to me from an Amish woman in Daviess County, Indiana. Reader Barbara tested it for us and here is what she had to say:
"Kevin, I was doubtful when starting to try this, however, very, very pleasantly surprised. Easy, easy, easy and is just like a crunchy, peanut butter fudge taste. Mr loves it and I will be making again to take to our family Christmas in the next week. I did use chunky peanut butter because that is what I had! Great recipe!!!!"
I had a box of cornflakes in my pantry. I can't even remember why I bought it because neither of my girls really eats cornflakes and I definitely don't. So rather than have the box sit there for another eternity, I remembered this recipe for cornflake candy and thought maybe I'd have a go at it. I made some changes to the original recipe and, wow, everything turned out so good. The only bad thing is I can't stop eating it!
📋 Step-By-Step Cinnamon Cornflake Candy Crunch
So, there you go. This recipe is easy and a sure holiday home run. It definitely was a treat for me. I'll offer a few tips, but this is a tough recipe to mess up.
The recipe calls for a "dutch oven", but I don't really have one, so I just used a deep saucepan and that was fine. It sure didn't take long, though, for the mixture to start boiling over high heat. I was stirring it constantly and it started boiling around the edges within 5 minutes. You could use medium heat or medium-high heat to decrease risk of a quick scorch. I let it boil a few more minutes while stirring and then took it off the heat and transferred the liquid to a big bowl.
Also, if you do not have pancake syrup or just don't want that sugary sweetness, you can (I am not sure if you really are coming out ahead in the calorie and sugar department or not) replace with light corn syrup.
This is one of my daughters pouring the cornflakes into the bowl full of the syrup. We also used broken-up pretzel pieces to put into the mix, but you can also use peanuts. And here's a pro-tip: the recipe calls for 1 1 /2 cups of peanut butter, but we used 1 cup of peanut butter and a ½ cup of Cinnamon Toast Crunch spread. That added more cinnamon goodness to the mix. You definitely need to like cinnamon for this recipe. But if you are one of those people that don't like cinnamon you could make this completely without it and you'll get a really nice, sweet cornflake candy.
I've not tried this with any other cereal than cornflake cereal, but I suppose you could try something else. I think if you tried a sweet cereal like Apple Jacks the whole thing would just be too sweet. Maybe Cracklin' Oat Bran?
Anyway, mix the pretzel and cornflake mixture, and syrup really well until everything is evenly coated.
I buttered the pan before pressing the mixture into it, but you could also line it with parchment paper or wax paper. And then let the candy just sit and set for a time. Within a half hour the candy cut nicely but, really, it was the best, letting it sit and set overnight.
For a more festive Christmas flair, you could add some colorful candies like M&Ms to the mix. Perhaps some chocolate chips or mini marshmallows. The prep time for this is almost nil and the total time (not counting the setting) is probably like 15 minutes. Very quick and easy and if you love cinnamon or peanut butter flavor, this is for you!
🍬 More Amish Candy Recipes
The Amish celebrate the season through candy, here are some ways!
Three Amish Candy Recipes From the Settlement in Oakland, Maryland
Butterscotch Cornflake Candy sounds amazing, but so do all three of the recipes!
Quick Amish Christmas Candy Recipes
Quick Christmas wreaths, rice candy, and more!
🖨️ Full Recipe
Cinnamon Cornflake Candy Crunch
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup pancake syrup
- 1¼ cups peanut butter
- 6 cups corn flakes
- 1 cup pretzel twists, broken up
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine sugar and syrup in a dutch oven.
- Bring to a boil.
- Remove from heat.
- Stir in peanut butter.
- Add corn flakes and pretzels and stir until all are coated with syrup mixture.
- Spread the mix out into a 13 x 9 dish and cut into squares.
- Let set before cutting.
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