The Croissant Cereal Trend That's Taking Over The Internet

Croissant cereal. Take all the time you need to wrap your head around that one. This viral breakfast food is the latest in a trend of mini cereals that gained traction during quarantine and is showing no sign of stopping. The craze began with mini pancake cereal and we thought it may have truly ended with sushi cereal (ew?), but then miniature donut cereal became a thing too, according to Delish. Now, croissant cereal has swooped in, looking more adorable than we ever knew cereal could (via Yahoo!).

TikTok user and chef @wijayaachristine shared a video showing how they made the tiny cereal, and as you might expect, it's totally drool-worthy. In the short video, you can see the chef simply start by rolling out croissant dough (yes, you can use a pre-packaged kind, like Pillsbury, according to Yahoo!), slicing it into itty bitty triangles, then shaping the triangles into tiny croissants. Just bake the mini pastries, add milk, and... viola! Croissant Cereal. The TikToker also warmed up some Nutella and Biscoff cookie butter in the microwave to stir into the bowl of baby croissants. According to Delish, other TikTok users have embellished their croissant cereal with toppings like sliced strawberries, syrup, and sprinkles (obviously). While these trendsetters make croissant cereal look like a cute, fun DIY activity, the original recipe isn't quite as simple as these TikToks appear.

Croissant cereal may have entered the zeitgeist via social media but Insider reports the original recipe came from the team at ChefSteps, an innovative cooking and recipe site that focuses on combining food and science. ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly told Insider he and his team believe that "anything worth doing is worth overdoing" — which sounds like it could be the mission statement of the entire internet, but Crilly's tiny croissants definitely fully embrace that notion.

To start, the ChefSteps team made croissant dough from scratch. Already a lot going on here for a trendy bowl of cereal, right? Next, they sliced and rolled the dough into tiny snail shapes, brushed each mini croissant with egg wash, and baked them until they're golden brown. Then, using a homemade cinnamon simple syrup, the team glazed the croissants to give them a shiny sheen. Finally, the mini croissants were dehydrated to help them maintain a long-lasting crunch (via ChefSteps). The result is a collection of perfect, cereal-sized croissants that are total hashtag material and worthy of imitating, even if you do take a few shortcuts à la TikTok. Croissant cereal is going to be a hard trend to top, but we're sure all the social media savants out there will find its successor sooner or later.