20 April, 2015
Clean Version Star Crunch Cookies (Only 6 Ingredients)
Oh, Little Debbie, how I miss you. It has been sooo long since I unwrapped one of your delicious treats. I am sorry, but you just don’t fit into my real food, clean-eating lifestyle. For a long time I’ve wanted to recreate some of my favorite treats as a kid, but improve them with healthier ingredients. Little Debbie’s Star Crunch cookies were a particular favorite of mine. It was such a special day when I opened my lunch box and found one waiting for me.
This month’s Recipe Redux challenge was to do some kitchen spring-cleaning. Sometimes items get lost in the pantry. An ingredient or spice that doesn’t get used gets slowly pushed to the back of the cabinet until we forget it was even there. With the Recipe Redux, I pulled ingredients in my pantry out of the darkness and into the light.
I bought a box of brown rice cereal a while ago thinking that I was going to make a healthier version of rice crispy treats, but never got around to it. I hate to admit it, but this box of brown rice cereal was in my kitchen for so long that it had a “Use By” date of some time in 2014. I hate for things to go to waste, and the cereal still tasted fine, so I knew this challenge of recreating Star Crunch treats was going to be the push I needed to finally put it to good use.
I am always reading ingredients lists so, out of curiosity, I took a look at was I was eating when I happily enjoyed eating a Star Crunch. Scary…
Sugar, Corn Syrup, Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Whey, Salt, Malted Barley Flour, Wheat Flour, Dextrose), Palm and Palm Kernel Oil, Whole Grain Oats, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil with TBHQ to Preserve Flavor (Contributes a Trivial Amount of Trans Fat), Water, Dextrose, Palm Kernel and Soybean Oils. Contains 2% or Less of Each of the Following: Whey (Milk), Cocoa, Raisins, Molasses, Salt, Emulsifiers (Soy Lecithin, Mono- and Diglycerides, Sorbitan Monostearate, Polysorbate 60), Colors (Caramel Color, Red 40, Titanium Dioxide, Annatto Extract, Beta Carotene, Yellow 5, Turmeric, Blue 1), Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate), Natural and Artificial Flavors, Eggs, Corn Starch, Soybean Oil, Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Citric Acid, Pectin, Egg Whites, Sodium Citrate, Coconut (Sulfite Treated to Preserve Color), Dried Apples (Sulfite Treated to Preserve Color), Nonfat Dry Milk, Carrageenan, Spices.
That’s one turn off of an ingredients list. Kind of makes you not want to eat one…
It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a Star Crunch, but I still remember what they taste like: crunchy, soft, and chocolaty. While it is challenging to recreate processed foods in a clean way, I think my healthy take on the Little Debbie Star Crunch recipe is the perfect reminder of what used to be. Plus there’s no baking required! What was your favorite childhood treat? Have you found a healthier version that you can make? I’ve also got healthy, clean dessert recipes for Snickers, Twix, Three Musketeers, and Milky Way.
Clean Version Star Crunch Cookies (Only 6 Ingredients)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1/3 cup sun butter or almond butter
- pinch sea salt
- 3 tablespoons raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 cups brown rice cereal
Instructions
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In a medium sauce pan over medium low heat add the brown rice syrup, coconut oil, sun butter, salt, and cacao powder.
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Whisk together until everything is melted and the cacao powder is well incorporated, about 3-5 minutes.
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Add in the brown rice cereal and mix with a spatula until the cereal is evenly coated with the syrup.
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With a 1/2 cup scoop, scoop out the mixture onto lined baking sheet. Be careful - the mixture may be hot.
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Scoop all of the mixture out (mine made 10 rounds) and put in the fridge to set for about 5 minutes.
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Remove from fridge. The mixture should be cool enough to flatten with your hands and form into desired shapes.
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Put back in the fridge for another 30 minutes - 1 hour until fully set and ready to eat.
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If it is hot out or you want a firmer treat store in an airtight container in fridge.
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If is cool out or you want a softer treat store in an airtight container on the counter for up to one week.
Recipe Notes
Choose organic ingredients when possible.
44 Comments
What an awesome idea! I used to love these. It’s always scary to look at the ingredient list for some of the things you used to eat. It makes me shutter to think about how much crap I used to accidentally eat!
Couldn’t agree more.
I don’t even need to taste these to know they are 10000xxxxx better and more amazing than processed!
OK, I never hear of Little Debbie Star Crunch (granted, I grew up in Philly and we are all about local Tastykakes here.) Anyway, this is like much more delicious version of rice krispie treats! What a great use of that expired box of cereal 🙂
For sure these are like healthy Rice Krispie treats too.
I love the idea of recreating a childhood treat and this is definitely a much healthier version that the bought one. It’s scary how many ingredients are in some of these things!
Agreed too many ingredients and a lot I can’t pronounce.
Oh I haven’t thought about or eaten a star crunch in forever. They were my favorite for packing my lunch as a kid. Love it!
These are clean but I bet they don’t taste like it! They also taste so much better than processed with all of those amazing ingredients! Well done my friend!
This recipe reminds me of how I used to love eating Zebra Cakes! I can’t wait to try this out and revel in the nostalgia.
I hope you enjoy it! I remember those Zebra Cakes too…I may have to try to recreate those too.
I just made these and they are delicious! I substituted the rice corn syrup with maple syrup. I used to eat these (little Debbie) every day during my freshman year in high school…you brought back some good memories. I’m so happy that I get to share a healthier version with my son.
I am so glad that you loved them as much as I do! It warms my heart that I could bring back some good memories for you but in a healthier way!
How exciting!! I am going to try this recipe tonight! Can i use Maple Syrup instead of the Rice syrup? Mahalos (thank you) from Maui 🙂
I have not tried that but I have other readers than have tried with Maple Syrup instead and had success. Hawaii?? So jealous! Enjoy!
This looks great! Is there anything with a lower sugar impact that I can substitute (easily) for the brown rice syrup? I’m new to healthy eating. :-/
At the end of the day sugar is sugar so it would be hard to replace with something lower in sugar. I have had readers use maple syrup and honey with great success.
We are currently on an elimination diet, could I use Carob Powder instead of Cacao and leave out the Coconut oil?
Yes I am sure you can. They might not stick together as well because the coconut oil once set really helps them form but I bet they would still be good.
Thank you I’ll let you know how I go 🙂
Boy those look good! I’ve never seen brown rice syrup, but I’m thinking of trying these by melting a 1/2 cup of Enjoy Life chocolate chips in place of the brown rice syrup and cocoa powder.
I think that would work! They just may not be as “sticky” and pull apart the same way but should taste delicious.
Curious if you know nutritional info for these yummy treats?
Thanks!
Sorry but I don’t. You can easily plug the ingredients into an online nutrition calculator.
Yummy! These look great. I still haven’t used brown rice syrup much in recipes, I always use maple syrup but I guess you need the brown rice in something like this for it’s consistency as it’s more sticky? Anyways, they look great.
I don’t use brown rice syrup much in recipes but you are right I was going for a stickiness. I have had readers use maple syrup and honey will with success. Thanks for the kind words!
Do you think regular crisp
Rice would work?
Sure…I don’t see why not.
But where’s the caramel of the Star Crunch?
The brown rice syrup is there to act like the caramel. A gooey and sticky sweetener.
I’ve made these twice now and can’t get them to stick together. They fall apart super easy ( so I used it for yummy cereal). I think I may need to add more of the brown rice syrup to get that sticky effect.
I recommend scooping the mixture into balls onto a lined baking sheet (I usually do this with an ice cream scoop). Let them set up in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes. Then take them out and flatten them out into rounds with your hands. Cooling them down before handling them will help hold them together.
Star Crunch were my fave!! Making these today, thanks!!
I hope that you love them as much as I do!
I feel bad even posting this because they look so delicious! It was a nice attempt, but I was sad because mine didn’t really taste anything like the sugar-filled, process-filled Star Crunches we ate as kids. The biggest issue was the rice cereal. It didn’t stay crispy the way Star Crunches are. They were soggy and a little stale-like from the syrup & sun butter. The flavor, too, wasn’t really like a Star Crunch. I truly didn’t expect them to be just like a real Star Crunch since these are clean and unprocessed, but based on the end result texture and flavor, we won’t be making them again. They did LOOK like Star Crunches though! 🙂
You are correct. It is very hard to recreate fake food to taste exactly like the real thing. As a blogger you hope everyone will love all of your recipes but you can’t win them all. Thank you for giving them a try.
Delicious! I used honey and added about a tablespoon of flax meal because there were a couple comments about the treats falling apart. Next time I would use the brown rice syrup since I believe it’s not quite as sweet as honey. These were very sweet, but good. I also made mine 1/4 cup scoops instead of 1/2 cup and they were pretty big! Next time I might make them smaller balls and make them lollipop-style.
I am so glad you enjoyed these! I love seeing how other people make recipes their own.
OK second run. I used date paste instead of honey or brown rice syrup. The taste is good, but I didn’t realize that my puffer rice was stale. This recipe doesn’t fix stale rice puffs 🙂 I would use the date paste again, but I’ll check the cereal a little closer next time!
Haha! Yes using a fresh cereal is great advice!
Hello! I LOVE this recipe, but have been having problems lately and was hoping you could give me some thoughts on what I might be doing wrong?! It turned out great in the past, but lately the mixture has been ending up so thick that it’s almost impossible to add the rice krispies…any thoughts? I hope I can figure it out because this is one of my go-to snacks! Thank you!
Are you using different brands? Sometimes that makes a difference. Is the mixture cooling off too quickly?
I made these tonight using agave because I couldn’t find brown rice syrup. They’re great, and my boyfriend said he liked them better than the original. However, this recipe only made 7 cookies for me, and according to My Fitness Pal, they have 292 calories while the original only has 150.
I am so glad everyone loved these! I always prefer calories from real ingredients vs calories from processed ingredients and your body does too.