What Is Cereal and How Can I Use It?

Crisped (or puffed) rice refers to a method of cooking rice which leaves the grains with a crisp, airy texture.

It is created in much the same way as popcorn; in short, the reaction of both starch and moisture when heated within the shell of the grain.

Unlike popcorn, rice kernels are naturally lacking in moisture and must first be conditioned with steam.

Crisped rice can be created by heating the steam-conditioned kernels either with oil or in an oven. The latter process is used to produce Rice Krispies breakfast cereal as well as the crisped rice used in Lion Bars, Nestlé Crunch, Krackel, and similar chocolate bars. 

Though not as dramatic a change when compared to popcorn, the process and end result are the same.

Bran flakes are a crisp breakfast cereal made from the outer bran layer of the wheat kernel, rolled and toasted into thin, nutty flakes. That bran is the part of the grain milled away to make white flour, which is exactly why the cereal is a fiber heavyweight.

In the bowl they taste toasty and lightly sweet, sturdier and less fragile than corn flakes. Most boxes are whole wheat plus added sugar and malt, sometimes fortified with extra vitamins.

Cooks reach for bran flakes for two reasons: a quick high-fiber breakfast, and a ready way to fold bran into baking without buying loose wheat bran. Crushed or softened, they slip into muffins and quick breads, and even into pancake batter.

All-Bran is a high-fiber breakfast cereal made from wheat bran, the tough outer husk of the wheat kernel. Kellogg's launched it in 1916, and the name has since become shorthand for any dense, twiggy bran flake or stick cereal you eat for the fiber.

It comes in a few shapes. Original All-Bran looks like little brown sticks, while Bran Buds and Bran Flakes are pellets and flakes of the same idea. All of them deliver the same thing: a very high fiber count in a small serving.

Worth a quick note on names. All-Bran the cereal is not the same as plain wheat bran or oat bran, the loose milled brans sold in bags for baking.

The cereal is pre-sweetened and toasted, so it behaves a little differently in a recipe.

Grape-Nuts is a breakfast cereal made of small, dense, gravel-like nuggets. They stay crunchy in milk longer than almost any other cereal. Despite the name there are no grapes and no nuts in it.

The cereal is baked from whole wheat flour and malted barley, then broken into those hard little kernels. The flavor is mildly sweet and nutty with a toasty, malty edge.

The texture is the whole point: a hard, granular crunch that softens slowly. That durability is why cooks reach for it well beyond the cereal bowl, as a topping, a binder, or a baked-in crunch.

Cream of Wheat is the most familiar brand name for farina, a hot breakfast cereal ground from the inner part of wheat kernels, the endosperm. Cooked with water or milk, it turns into a smooth, mild, slightly sweet porridge with almost no graininess once it swells.

It is finer and softer than two cousins it often gets confused with. Grits are made from corn. Semolina comes from hard durum wheat ground coarser, so it cooks up chewier.

Cream of Wheat sits at the gentle end: pale and creamy, quick to thicken. That smooth-thickening quality is why it shows up in far more than the breakfast bowl, from dumplings and cakes to a crisp coating for the pan.

Raisin bran is a breakfast cereal that pairs crisp wheat bran flakes with whole raisins, usually sugar-coated to keep them plump. The flakes bring a toasty, faintly bitter wheat flavor and plenty of fiber, while the raisins add chewy pockets of sweetness.

Most cooks meet it in the bowl. Its real second life is in baking, where a scoop of raisin bran is a ready-made bran-and-fruit mix. That is why it turns up in so many muffins and quick breads.

Oat bran is the outer layer of the oat groat, milled off and sold on its own as a soft, sandy meal. Cooked with liquid it makes a hot cereal with a creamier, finer texture than rolled oats.

It is the part of the oat richest in soluble fiber, which is why it shows up in so many breakfast and baking recipes aimed at heart health.

It is not the same as oatmeal or rolled oats. Rolled oats are the whole flattened grain; oat bran is only the bran layer, ground fine, so it cooks faster and breaks down softer while packing more fiber per spoonful.

Shredded wheat cereal is whole-wheat that's been cooked, pressed into thin strands, then baked into a dense, pillow-shaped biscuit. The classic version is nothing but wheat: no sugar and no salt, unlike the sweetened cereals around it.

It comes in a few forms. Big rectangular biscuits go in a milk bowl, while smaller bite-size squares and very fine spoon-size strands are the same plain baked wheat in a different shape.

Eaten dry it's crunchy and faintly nutty. Add milk and it softens fast into a porridge-like mush, and that split personality, crisp when dry but binding when wet, is what makes it handy in the kitchen.

Rice Chex is a breakfast cereal of small, crisp, waffle-weave squares made from puffed and toasted rice. Lightly sweetened and very plain on its own, it is built to stay crunchy in milk longer than most flake cereals.

That plainness is exactly why it earns a place in the pantry beyond the breakfast bowl. Its neutral flavor and sturdy crunch make it the workhorse base for savory snack mixes and no-bake candies alike.

In the United States it is also a go-to for gluten-free cooks, since the rice variety is made without wheat or barley.

Still, read the box to confirm the gluten-free label, because formulas change.

Seven grain cereal is a coarse blend of cracked and rolled whole grains sold as a hot breakfast cereal and as a baking mix. The exact lineup varies by brand, but a typical bag combines wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn, rice, and millet, sometimes with flax or triticale standing in.

The grains are cracked rather than ground, so the texture stays chewy and rugged.

The flavor is nutty and toasty, with far more character than plain oatmeal. That mix of whole grains is also why bakers reach for it: a handful adds fiber and chew along with a deep grainy taste that white flour alone cannot give.