I don’t know if you recall Post Grape-Nuts cereal? It was one of the first ready-to-eat cereal products ever made available to the public. Developed by C.W. Post in 1897, Grape-Nuts was so named because of the glucose, which he called ‘grape sugar’, that formed during the baking process. This, combined with the nutty flavor of the cereal, is said to have inspired its name. Originally the cereal came out of the oven as a rigid sheet. He then broke it into pieces and ran them through a coffee grinder to produce the ‘nut’ sized nuggets.
In addition to being the first wide spread product to use a coupon ( Posts’ penny-off coupon was a game changer at that time), Grape-Nuts was also there for several famous moments in world history.
The cereal was made of wheat and malted barley. A unique muffin recipe I had used during some of my commercial food service years, made use of this particular cereal. It gave the muffins such a wholesome, nutty taste and was always enjoyed by customers.
Somewhere, in the late 90’s the cereal became discontinued here in Canada for whatever reason. I suspect with the dozens of cereals available these days, grocers ran out of shelf space. Anyway, I got an idea to re-invent that great tasting muffin recipe into a coffeecake. I understand that ‘Kashi 7 Whole Grain Nugget Cereal’ would be a good replacement. When I read the ingredients of oats, wheat, rye, brown rice, triticale, barley, buckwheat and sesame it sounded great or maybe even better.
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- 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup Grape-Nuts OR Kashi 7 cereal
- 1/2 cup oatmeal
- 1/4 cup cornmeal
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tsps baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup apricot preserves, divided
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter a 12-cup bundt pan.
- In a large bowl, combine first 7 ingredients & allow to stand for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda & salt. When wet mixture is 'soaked', combine wet & dry ingredients, stirring ONLY until moistened.
- Spread 1/3 of batter in bundt pan. Place dollops of apricot preserve (about 1/4 cup) over batter; carefully spreading evenly. Repeat again then ending with the top layer being cake batter. Bake until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean, about 45 minutes to an 1 hour. Remove from oven; cool slightly before removing from pan. If you wish, coffeecake can be dusted with powdered sugar or drizzled with a cream cheese glaze.
- In a small bowl, whisk 60 grams of cream cheese with 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 2 Tbsp butter & 1/2 tsp vanilla until drizzling consistency. If necessary, add a little milk. Drizzle over coffeecake.
As a child during the fifties and sixties, I remember making a coffee cake from a receipe printed on the Grape-Nuts box. It did not have oatmeal or cornmeal in it. Do you know of this receipe? I would love to have it.
Regards,
Holly Reid
Hi Holly,
This is a recipe from a box of Post’s Grape-Nut cereal. Grape-Nuts were on the market in the 1800’s (1897), so that would date this recipe to the late 1950’s or early 1960’s.
Grape-Nuts Bread
1 1/3 cups milk, scalded
2/3 cup Grape-Nuts
2 cups sifted flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg, well beaten
3 Tbsp shortening, melted
Pour milk over cereal & let stand until cool. Sift flour once, measure, add baking powder, salt, sugar & sift again. Add egg & shortening to cereal mixture & mix well. Then add flour mixture & stir enough to dampen flour. Turn into 10x5x3″ loaf pan, lined on bottom with paper. Bake in moderate oven (350 F) 1 hour, or until done. Wrap in waxed paper & store several hours or overnight before slicing.
Hope this is the recipe you remember Holly. Thanks for reading & commenting on my blog.
Alice
Thank you for the recipes and history! I ate grape-nuts as a child growing up in the USA, in the 1960-70s.
I’m reading The Overstory by Richard Powers, and towards the end of the book, one of the characters made a coffee cake w Grape-Nuts. So I googled it!
Hi Margaret, I’m reading OVERSTORY this very minute and did the same Google search!
I just made a batch of muffins using this recipe. I also threw in a hand full of raisins. Will definitely make again.