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Craving a mini donut but don’t want to fire up the fryer?
This is your answer.
Plain Cheerios get toasted in butter and vanilla, then tossed in cinnamon sugar until they taste like the inside of a warm, fresh donut — no frying required.
It comes together in about ten minutes with ingredients you probably already have in the pantry.
Why You’ll Love This Cinnamon Sugar Cheerios Recipe
- Ready in 10 minutes: Melt, toast, coat, done.
- Tastes like a mini donut: You get that cinnamon-sugar, fair-food flavor without frying anything.
- Uses pantry staples: Cereal, butter, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt.
- Kid-approved and kid-helpable: Little hands can help toss and coat the cereal.
Ingredient Notes
Nothing fancy here, which honestly is half the charm.
You need granulated sugar — plain old white sugar, don’t overthink it — and ground cinnamon. A little salt is important too. I almost skip it half the time and then regret it, because it really does wake the whole thing up.
The butter should be salted, in my opinion, though my sister-in-law swears by unsalted butter with a pinch of salt added in. I guess that’s fine too, if that’s how you were raised.
Use vanilla extract, the real stuff if you have it. But I won’t tell if you use imitation — my mother used imitation her whole life and I turned out fine. Mostly.
And then there are the Cheerios. Use plain Cheerios, not Honey Nut, not multigrain, just the regular yellow box. The whole point is that the buttery cinnamon-sugar coating does the work.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar, a little more if you’re heavy-handed like me
- 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, or to taste
- A pinch of salt, about a scant 1/4 teaspoon
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- About 5 cups plain Cheerios, give or take
How to Make Cinnamon Sugar Cheerios
Step 1: Mix the Cinnamon Sugar
First, mix your cinnamon sugar.
In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Set it aside.
This part takes about thirty seconds, so don’t overthink it.
Step 2: Melt the Butter
Get a large skillet going over medium heat and melt the butter in it.
Not too hot — and I say that because I have, more than once, walked away to answer the phone and come back to butter that had gone past golden into something closer to burnt. There is no saving that. You just start over.
Once the butter is melted and bubbling a little, stir in the vanilla extract.
It’ll smell like something good is about to happen, and it is.
Step 3: Toast the Cheerios
Now dump in your Cheerios.
All of them at once. Don’t be shy.
Stir them in the butter mixture for about 3 to 5 minutes. And I mean actually stand there and stir. Don’t wander off to load the dishwasher like I did the second time I made this and ended up with a skillet of half-burnt, half-perfect cereal.
You’re looking for the Cheerios to turn a little golden and toasty. You’ll start to smell that toasted-butter smell, and that’s how you know you’re close.
Step 4: Coat with Cinnamon Sugar
Take the skillet off the heat.
This next part is the fun part. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture right over the warm cereal and toss it until everything is coated.
I usually use a big spoon and fold it like a salad so I don’t crush the Cheerios.
Step 5: Let It Cool
And then — this is the part everybody skips, including me half the time — let it cool.
Spread the cereal out on a baking sheet or a big plate if you can.
If you leave it piled up in the skillet, it can steam itself soft, and you’ll lose that crunch. The crunch is really the whole point.
Recipe Tips
- Use medium heat: Butter can go from golden to burnt quickly.
- Stir constantly: Cheerios toast unevenly if you walk away.
- Coat while warm: The cinnamon sugar sticks best when the cereal is still warm.
- Cool in a single layer: This helps the Cheerios stay crisp.
Variations and Substitutions
My daughter, Casey, makes hers with brown sugar instead of white sugar, which gives it more of a caramel thing going on. I’ve tried it, and it’s good, though I still lean toward the original because that’s what Nathan asked for that day, and I guess I’ve gotten sentimental about it.
There was one time I tried adding a little nutmeg along with the cinnamon. It was fine, not bad, but it kind of muddied the donut flavor I was going for. It made the cereal taste more like spice cake than a fair treat, so I don’t really do that anymore.
You could probably use Honey Nut Cheerios and cut the sugar in half. I haven’t tried it, but it seems like it would work.
My neighbor once told me she adds a handful of mini chocolate chips after it cools, which, sure, why not? Mine always melt into a mess when I try it, though, so I think you have to wait longer than I’m willing to wait.
How to Store Cinnamon Sugar Cheerios
Store the cooled cereal in an airtight container on the counter for about 4 to 5 days.
Though honestly, it has never once lasted that long in my house, so I can’t really vouch for what happens after that.
It doesn’t need reheating. Actually, don’t reheat it. It just gets soggy and sad, which kind of defeats the whole purpose.
If it does go a little soft, especially if it’s humid out, you can spread it on a baking sheet and pop it in a low oven for a few minutes to crisp it back up.
I’ve done that exactly once and it worked, so I’m calling it a tip.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Honey Nut Cheerios?
Yes, you probably can. Just reduce the sugar a bit since Honey Nut Cheerios are already sweet.
Can I make this recipe with unsalted butter?
Yes. Use unsalted butter and add a small pinch of extra salt to the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Do I need to bake this?
No. This recipe is made entirely on the stovetop in a skillet.
How do I keep it crunchy?
Spread the coated Cheerios out in a single layer while they cool. Don’t leave them piled in the warm skillet, or they may soften.
Can kids help make this?
Yes. Kids can help mix the cinnamon sugar and toss the coated cereal, but an adult should handle the hot skillet.
Final Notes
I made a double batch of this last week just to have on hand, and it was gone by Tuesday, which tells you something.
It’s good with a glass of milk. Good in a little baggie in somebody’s lunch. Good just standing over the pan eating it with your fingers before it’s even fully cooled, which I absolutely do every single time even though I know better.
Nathan’s seventeen now and still asks for it, though he’d probably deny that if you asked him directly.
I keep meaning to write the recipe down properly somewhere so I stop having to reconstruct it from memory every single time.
And here we are. I suppose I finally did.
Mini Donut Hot Buttered Cheerios
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 to 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon to taste
- 1/4 tsp salt scant, or a pinch
- 6 tbsp salted butter
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 5 cups plain Cheerios about
Instructions
- In a small bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- Melt the salted butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Once the butter is melted and lightly bubbling, stir in the vanilla extract.
- Add the Cheerios to the skillet all at once.
- Stir continuously for 3–5 minutes, until the Cheerios are lightly golden and toasted.
- Remove the skillet from the heat.
- Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the warm Cheerios.
- Toss gently until the cereal is evenly coated, using a large spoon and folding carefully to avoid crushing it.
- Spread the coated Cheerios onto a baking sheet or large plate.
- Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving so they stay crunchy.