treat

Maple-Bacon Churro

July 15, 2019 by Elana Lepkowski Leave a Comment

Where can I find the original treat?

This specialty churro was part of the “Get Your Ears On” celebration found in Grizzly Peak in California Adventure at the Disneyland resort.

We’re back today with another of our favorite churro recipes for #ChurroMonth here on the site. We just love anything with maple but when you add some salty bits of bacon… WOW! And we weren’t the only ones who were big fans of this treat. Many followers let us know that this churro was also a hit for them. So maybe we should start a #bringbackthemaplebaconchurro hashtag??

Anyway, this churro takes the classic cinnamon sugar recipe and dresses it up with a maple glaze and salty bacon bits. If you’re a fan of sweet and savory treats, this is definitely for you.

If you’re new to making churros, or any fried foods, please read through the notes below. I’ve tried to cover many issues that might arise while making these, but if you don’t see your question answered, leave us a comment below and we’ll get back to you (and you might even help another reader out!).

Ok, enough chatting for now… let’s make some churros!

Maple-Bacon Churro

★ 5 Stars ☆ ★ 4 Stars ☆ ★ 3 Stars ☆ ★ 2 Stars ☆ ★ 1 Star ☆ No reviews

Author: Elana Lepkowski
Yield: 14–16 churros 1x
Category: Treats

Print Recipe

Description

A sweet maple glaze and salty bacon bits top this classic cinnamon sugar churro found at Grizzly Peak in Disney’s California Adventure Park from the “Get Your Ears On” celebration. A Disneyland-inspired treat.

Ingredients

Scale

Toppings

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3–4 pieces of bacon
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 cup powdered sugar

Churro:

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
big pinch of salt
1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
vegetable oil for frying

Tools:

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Instructions

For the toppings:

Line two half sized sheet pans with parchment, set aside. Mix together 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and cinnamon in a long shallow bowl or loaf pan, set aside.
Cook the bacon until crispy. Depending on the type of bacon you have, this can take about 8-10 minutes on medium high, flipping halfway through cooking. Drain on paper towels, cool, chop into small pieces and set aside.
Make the maple glaze by combining maple syrup, butter, and milk in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a boil and whisk for two minutes. Remove from heat. Slowly pour in powdered sugar, whisking continuously until combined and smooth. Set aside until ready to use or funnel into a squeeze bottle. (This will make more maple glaze than you need for just drizzling on your churros! This will keep refrigerated up to two weeks. Warm before using.)

For the churros:

In a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat, combine water, butter, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, or until butter has melted.
Turn burner to low and pour in all the flour at once. Stir until there are no visible flour lumps and dough has begun to stick together in a ball and pulled away from the sides of the pan.
Remove pan from heat and let sit 5 minutes. Then stir in each egg until incorporated. Dough will appear to break or become lumpy. Continue to stir until it forms a smooth, sticky dough.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a Wilton 1 M open star tip half full with batter (see notes below on filling pastry bags) and pipe 8″ long dough onto the sheet pan. I was able to fill two sheet pans with all the batter.
Refrigerate dough at least 30 minutes and up to two days. Batter will stiffen the more it sits, so let the dough come to room temperature before frying. (Note below for frying immediately after making dough)
Fill a dutch oven or deep frying pan with vegetable oil at least 2″ up the side of the pan (I found a 1/2 gallon of avocado oil worked for me in my large dutch oven. See note below about reusing oil.). Heat oil to 340-350°f, using a candy thermometer to keep the temperature constant. You may need to adjust heat up or down during cooking.
Place churros 2-3 at a time in the cooking oil for 6 minutes, turning after 3 minutes with a spatula or spider. Wait until oil comes back to temperature before adding next batch.
Using a spider or large spatula, remove churros from oil and drain on a cooling rack over parchment or on a paper towel. Wait at least a minute and then toss the churro in the cinnamon sugar, tapping off any excess.
Place sugared churros on a cooling rack with parchment or a sheet pan underneath to catch drips and then drizzle maple glaze onto each churro. Immediately sprinkle with bacon bits so they adhere to glaze.
Allow to cool slightly and enjoy!

Notes

Do not overfill your pastry bag! Fill in two to three batches. If there is too much dough, it will seep out the top and will be hard to pipe.
Slowly pipe out dough all of a consistent size, smaller spots on the churro can cause them to become more fragile while handling and can break in the oil or while coating in sugar.
Churro dough can be piped out onto parchment and covered in the fridge up to 48 hours.
If you want to make you churros immediately after making dough without the chilling time, once oil has reached temp, starting about one inch above the oil, pipe a small line of dough down into oil and either snip end with scissors, or break the dough off the pastry tip on the side of your pan. Follow directions above for frying.
Thicker churros will require a longer cooking time to fully cook through the center. Test one churro first to adjust your cooking time.
Cooking oil can be fine strained and stored again for another use. I strain back into the bottle it came from. Well strained oil can be stored in a cool, dry place and used up to several times.
Churros curling? That could be one of a few reasons. One is that it will naturally shrink and change shape as the dough hits the oil and puffs up. I found that the stiffer dough from sitting in the fridge resulted in straighter churros while fresher dough tending to curl more. Also, if you’re using a circular pot like a dutch oven, churros may rest against the inside edge of the pan while cooking causing them to take on the curved shape of the pan. To prevent this, nudge your churro with the spider or spatula immediately after placing in oil when it pops back up to the surface. Continue to nudge gently back and forth for about 20-40 seconds or until the dough has gotten stiff in the oil.

Keywords: churro, treat, maple, bacon

Fantasia Mickey Churro

July 9, 2019 by Elana Lepkowski Leave a Comment

Where can I find the original treat?

This specialty churro was part of the “Get Your Ears On” celebration found in Frontierland at the Disneyland resort.

Welcome to CHURRO MONTH! While there is nothing quite like the classic Disneyland churro (and our Facebook poll told us you LOVE the classic one), Disney has put out quite a number of fun and delicious churros this past year that are deserving of some attention here. Whether it was a sweet topping, or a sweeter dipping sauce, we’ve picked out four recipes to highlight this month that are sure to please!

Since we’re starting this in July, our first recipe up today is the Fantasia Mickey Churro from the “Get Your Ears On” celebration (and yes, we did just conclude a month of our favorite dishes in June but we withheld the churro recipes so we could indulge in a whole MONTH) with its red, white (I’m counting the paper wrapper here), and blue color scheme. This was a sugar bomb that dyed your mouth and hands red. I thought it was super pretty to photograph and the kids liked it because… well, sugar bomb.

The Fantasia Mickey Churro is also one of the chocolate churros that pop up and I love the flavor of these. If you’re not a fan, go ahead and make this without the cocoa powder! It will still be good!

Lastly, these were paired with a bright red, marshmallow dipping sauce adorned with a teeny-tiny sorcerer hat that is worn by Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. Quite possibly I spent the whole day at the park with stained hands and a red tongue due to this dip. Also, that tiny hat fell right to the bottom of my dip before I even got to look at it so I’m going to say it’s not worth the effort when recreating this unless you really want it to be an exact replica of the dessert (it was white chocolate with a printed overlay of the hat and yes I fished it out of the dip and licked it clean so I could check out the design thus staining my hands red that day). It was a lightly flavored vanilla marshmallow creme type of dip which we’ll recreate in a minute. My recipe below is for more than you might need for this recipe, but it keeps in the fridge for a few weeks and you can always make more churros. Or maybe dip some fruit in it.

I have lots of notes and tips on making these churros so please check out the “notes” section right below the actual recipes. These will be repeated on all the churro posts because I think it will help make the churros a breeze. If you have any questions on these, drop a comment below or shoot us an email!

Fantasia Mickey Churro

★ 5 Stars ☆ ★ 4 Stars ☆ ★ 3 Stars ☆ ★ 2 Stars ☆ ★ 1 Star ☆ No reviews

Author: Elana Lepkowski
Yield: 16 – 8” churros 1x

Print Recipe

Description

This sparkly red and blue chocolate churro with red marshmallow dipping sauce was part of the “Get Your Ears On” celebration found in Frontierland. A Disneyland-inspired treat.

Ingredients

Scale

Chocolate Churros

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
red sanding sugar
blue sanding sugar
edible glitter stars
vegetable oil for frying
1 cup water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs

Marshmallow Creme

3/4 cup glucose or corn syrup
1 ounce egg white
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons vanilla extract
1–2 tablespoons milk (start with one and increase if needed)
red food dye

Tools:

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Instructions

Chocolate Churros:

Line two half sized sheet pans with parchment, set aside. Mix together 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and cocoa powder in a long shallow bowl or loaf pan, set aside. In a 9×12 baking pan, pour red sanding sugar on one side, and blue sanding sugar on other sprinkling stars over all the sugar, set aside.
In a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat, combine water, butter, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, or until butter has melted.
Turn burner to low and sift in all the flour and cocoa powder. Stir until there are no visible flour lumps and dough has begun to stick together in a ball and pulled away from the sides of the pan.
Remove pan from heat and let sit 5 minutes. Then stir in each egg until incorporated. Dough will appear to break or become lumpy. Continue to stir until it forms a smooth, sticky dough.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a Wilton 1 M open star tip half full with batter (see notes below on filling pastry bags) and pipe 8″ long dough onto the sheet pan. I was able to fill two sheet pans with all the batter.
Refrigerate dough at least 30 minutes and up to two days. Batter will stiffen the more it sits, so let the dough come to room temperature before frying.
Fill a dutch oven or deep frying pan with vegetable oil at least 2″ up the side of the pan (I found a 1/2 gallon of avocado oil worked for me in my large dutch oven. See note below about reusing oil.). Heat oil to 340-350°f, using a candy thermometer to keep the temperature constant. You may need to adjust heat up or down during cooking.
Place churros 2-3 at a time in the cooking oil for 6 minutes, turning after 3 minutes with a spatula. Wait until oil comes back to temperature before adding next batch.
Using a spider or large spatula, remove churros from oil and drain on a cooling rack over parchment or on a paper towel. Wait at least a minute and then toss the churro in the chocolate sugar, tapping off any excess, and then moving the churro in the red and blue sugar mix, keeping the colors separate while mixing.
While churros cool slightly, make the marshmallow creme dip.

Marshmallow Creme:

Combine glucose or corn syrup, egg white, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on high for 5-10 minutes until doubled in size.
Once doubled, move speed to low and pour in powdered sugar in a constant stream and mix until fully combined. You may have to stop and scrape down sides of bowl. Add in one tablespoon of milk. Add in additional milk if you’d like the creme runnier. Mix in vanilla extract.
Remove 1/2 cup of mixture into a separate container and add in 3-4 drops of red food dye until desired color is reached.
The rest of the marshmallow creme can be sealed in an air-tight container and refrigerated up to two weeks.
Dip churros in marshmallow creme. Enjoy!

Notes

Do not overfill your pastry bag! Fill in two to three batches. If there is too much dough, it will seep out the top and will be hard to pipe.
Slowly pipe out dough all of a consistent size, smaller spots on the churro can cause them to become more fragile while handling and can break in the oil or while coating in sugar.
Churro dough can be piped out onto parchment and covered in the fridge up to 48 hours.
Thicker churros will require a longer cooking time to fully cook through the center. Test one churro first to adjust your cooking time.
Cooking oil can be fine strained and stored again for another use.
Churros curling? That could be one of a few reasons. One is that it will naturally shrink and change shape as the dough hits the oil and puffs up. I found that the stiffer dough from sitting in the fridge resulted in straighter churros while fresher dough tending to curl more. Also, if you’re using a circular pot like a dutch oven, churros may rest against the inside edge of the pan while cooking causing them to take on the curved shape of the pan. To prevent this, nudge your churro with the spider or spatula immediately after placing in oil when it pops back up to the surface. Continue to nudge back and forth for about 20 seconds or until the dough has gotten stiff in the oil.

Keywords: treat, churro, chocolate

Mickey Mouse Butterscotch Beignets

June 10, 2019 by Elana Lepkowski 1 Comment

Find these butterscotch beignets at the Mint Julep Bar in New Orleans Square.

We’re continuing our series of favorites from the “Get Your Ears On” celebration from Disneyland with these fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth, butterscotch beignets. These actually *might* be our favorite flavor of beignets, even more so than the original version. And lucky us! Even though these appeared as part of the “Get Your Ears On” celebration, they are still being served at the Mint Julep bar… we just don’t know until when!

Since these could go away at any moment, the recipe had to be cracked ASAP. And recipe test we did! The secret to that butterscotch flavor is in the topping, not the actual beignet. At the park, the beignet itself tasted no different than an original one, it was the flavored sugar that imparted that buttery sweet butterscotch flavor. But how to do it?

We tried a few methods: first, trying to flavor the powdered sugar. But, when you add a liquid to powdered sugar, it melts. So the next step was to coat the beignets with butterscotch syrup and then coat with powdered sugar. This definitely added a little flavor to the beignets, but not as strong as what we wanted. So lastly, we made a butterscotch powder using blitzed butterscotch candies. And there we seemed to get the right flavor. Now, I doubt they are crushing hard candies at the parks to get that flavor, and after doing some additional research, I’ve found you can purchase a butterscotch flavoring powder, so if you’re so obsessed with these and you want to make them every week, maybe you should check that out.

Timing of applying the butterscotch powder here is crucial. Applying too late after they’ve cooled and the butterscotch powder along with powdered sugar just slides off the beignets and doesn’t really coat. Apply it too soon and it melts the butterscotch powder and hardens it back into a crunchy state (my husband actually really liked getting some crunchy bits in his so you might too). The key here to getting an even coating is to let the beignet rest a few minutes after it comes out of the oil, coat a little with butterscotch syrup and then dust with the butterscotch powder and powdered sugar.

Ok, we’ve got the topping, but what about the actual beignet part? Well, this dough is a beauty to work with. It requires very little kneading (and if you’ve got a dough hook at home then all the kneading will be done in the machine for you), and it produces a shiny, smooth, easy to roll out dough. I barely needed flour to roll it out! What it does require is time. Since this is a yeasted dough, it needs to sit in total for a few hours, or overnight if you decided to make these in the evening and fry off in the morning. But if you need to have them that day, the nice thing is it is just only a few hours of waiting.

Now, let’s say a few things about deep frying at home. First, it’s super easy as long as you have a few tools to help you (and I’ll list them in the recipe below). Second, none of the tools are fancy or expensive and you don’t need some sort of special frying machine. Lastly, you don’t need to be outside or in a specially ventilated area. If you don’t like the smell, open some windows, light a kitchen candle, and immediately deal with your oil as soon as it is cool enough to touch. Tip, you don’t need to toss out the oil after one doughnut frying session either. I bought a half gallon of avocado oil (it does well at high temps) and kept the container it came in. Once my oil was room temp, I strained it back into the bottle, sealed it, and used it again the next day for another batch of recipe testing. The number one rule though with working with hot oil: be safe and be aware! Wear an apron, closed toe shoes, and get a glove out if you’re afraid of oil splatters.

OK! That’s all my tips and notes for this yummy treat. If you’ve always wanted to enjoy those Mickey Mouse beignets, but were nowhere near the park that day, I highly encourage you to try this at home.

Mickey Mouse Butterscotch Beignets

★ 5 Stars ☆ ★ 4 Stars ☆ ★ 3 Stars ☆ ★ 2 Stars ☆ ★ 1 Star ☆ No reviews

Author: Elana Lepkowski
Yield: 15 Mickey Mouse shaped beignets 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Sweet, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth Mickey Mouse butterscotch beignets. Part of the “Get Your Ears On” celebration at Disneyland. Adapted from the Disney Parks Blog.

Ingredients

Scale

15 hard butterscotch candies
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105º)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (I used refined coconut oil)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 egg
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup boiling water
Vegetable oil for frying, like avocado
3/4 cup butterscotch syrup
Powdered sugar

Specialty Tools:

heavy bottomed dutch oven
candy thermometer
Mickey Mouse cutter
mesh strainer bag (I use these reusable straining bags for everything!)

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Instructions

For the butterscotch powder:

First, break up the butterscotch candies in a ziplock bag using a rolling pin or rubber mallet. You do not need to fully crush them, just break them into small pieces.
Next, transfer to a food processor or spice grinder. Pulse until candies are a find powder. Set aside.

For the beignets:

Sprinkle yeast over warm water in a small bowl, gently stirring to dissolve. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Combine sugar, shortening, salt, heavy cream, egg, flour and boiling water in a large bowl. Mix until everything is just combined and then stir in yeast mixture. With the dough hook attachment of an electric mixer on medium speed, mix the dough just until combined and smooth. About 3-4 minutes. Let dough rest for 30 minutes in the bowl.
Flour your surface and roll to 1/4-inch thickness. Using the Mickey Mouse cutter, cut dough pieces, twisting slightly, and carefully removing dough from around cutter before releasing. You may have to combine dough and roll out again to cut more shapes out. Cover with a towel and let dough rise until doubled in size in a warm, draft-free area, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
Pour enough oil into a deep-sided, heavy bottomed pot until it reaches 2 inches up sides; heat oil over medium heat to 370°F.
Add 2-3 beignets to oil; fry until golden brown on both sides, about a minute each, turning once.
Remove from hot oil with a slotted spoon and place on a baking sheet lined with paper towels.
Let cool about 5 minutes, coat with butterscotch syrup and then dust with butterscotch powder and then powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Notes

Dough may have to be recombined and rolled a second time if you have a lot of scraps
Wait for oil to come back to temperature before adding next batch of beignets to the pot
Let hot beignets rest 5 minutes, but no more than 30 minutes, before coating with syrup and powdered sugar
No dough hook attachment? Knead dough until smooth and shiny, about 5-8 minutes and then proceed with the recipe
Want to make these at night for the next morning? After cutting Mickey Mouse shapes out. Transfer to a baking sheet and let rest, covered with a towel, in the refrigerator overnight. Let come to room temperature before frying in the morning
Strain your oil after it reaches room temperature. It can be used again!

Keywords: Mickey Mouse, beignets, butterscotch, treat, doughnuts

Mickey Mouse Celebration Whoopie Pies

May 27, 2019 by Elana Lepkowski Leave a Comment

Where can I find the original treat?

These specialty treats were found at the Grand Californian Hotel.

Disneyland’s “Get Your Ears On” celebration is sadly coming to a close this week at the parks, but that doesn’t mean the celebration has to stop in your kitchen! We’re popping back in to White Water Snacks at the Grand Californian Hotel to recreate their massive Mickey Mouse Celebration Whoopie Pie. Bonus: there’s sprinkles involved.

I consider myself a bit of a whoopie pie master. A few years back I decided to make some for a friend’s party and they were such a hit I feel like I haven’t stopped making them for friends and clients ever since. (I even made an adult’s only version with Kerrygold Irish Cream that is definitely worth checking out if that’s your thing.) The cakes are not super sweet because HELLO! they’re filled with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles; it’s a great balance that prevents them from becoming too sweet.

Now let’s talk about the white chocolate medallion. This was purely an optional step on my part to really recreate what you get in the parks. The Mickey Mouse design on there is done with a printer outfitted with edible inks!! I have one!! If you are considering purchasing one, they’re not really that expensive. But unless you are doing lots of decorating that requires such a thing (or, *coughcough*, starting a side project based on a certain theme park’s foods), this is definitely not something you need to get. My kids didn’t even bother eating the medallion because they found the artwork too interesting to destroy.

One tool that I do find helpful for making the whoopie pies is a disher. Dishers are used a lot by institutions for serving food that needs to be a certain amount. They are usually color coded to help identify them in the kitchen. However, they are excellent products to have in your kitchen since they scoop perfect sized cookies, or ice cream, or meatballs, or anything else that needs to be measured. A blue handled, #16, 2 ounce disher is the perfect way to dish out the batter for each whoopie pie half (yes, there is FOUR OUNCES OF CAKE you’re getting per whoopie pie). Feel free to size this down though if you’d like more petite whoopie pies. You’ll need to reduce baking time though depending on how small you go.

Ok, I feel like I’ve written enough here, let’s make some whoopie pies!

Mickey Mouse Celebration Whoopie Pies

★ 5 Stars ☆ ★ 4 Stars ☆ ★ 3 Stars ☆ ★ 2 Stars ☆ ★ 1 Star ☆ No reviews

Author: Elana Lepkowski
Yield: 5 cakes

Print Recipe

Description

Rich chocolate whoopie pies are filled with sweet vanilla buttercream, sprinkled with Mickey Mouse decorettes, and topped with a white chocolate Celebration Mickey Mouse. A Disneyland-inspired treat from the “Get Your Ears On” celebration.

Ingredients

Cakes: 
1/2 lb. butter 
1 cup light brown sugar, packed 
1 egg 
1 teaspoon baking powder
 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
3/4 teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1/2 cup cocoa, dutch-processed 
10 ounces all purpose flour 
1 cup milk (or milk substitute like almond)

Filling (this filling can be doubled if you want extra filling): 
1/2 stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
 1/2 pound powdered sugar 
2-1/2 tablespoons heavy cream

Mickey Mouse celebration decorettes
2-1/2 ounces white candy melts, optional (for medallions)

Tools:
#16, 2 ounce disher

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Instructions

Filling:

Prepare the frosting by creaming together the butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
Pour in the heavy cream until incorporated. Filling can be kept refrigerated in a sealed container up to three days.

Cakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Make the cakes by creaming the sugar and butter together until smooth. Add in the egg and mix until incorporated.
Next add in baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
Sift in cocoa powder and mix until combined.
Mix in 1/2 of flour and 1/2 the milk, and then mix in second half of flour and then the rest of the milk. Stir until just combined.
Scoop out a 1/4 cup of mixture (or use the #16 disher) onto a sheet pan covered in parchment. You can fit 5 scoops on each sheet pan. Bake 18-22 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
Cool on sheet pan and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Store in an air tight container until ready to use.
To assemble, spread filling on flat side of one half of the cakes. Top with second half of cake.
Sprinkle Mickey Mouse decorettes to sides of whoopie pies.
Set any extra frosting aside to attach medallions if making.

Medallions (optional)

Melt the white candy melts in a microwave safe container like glass for 30 seconds, stir, and then continue to microwave in short bursts of 15-20 seconds, stirring between times, until fully melted and smooth. Optionally, melt using a double boiler.
Next, line 5 standard muffin tins, covering bottoms and all the way up the sides, with cling wrap.
Pour in candy melts among the 5 tins, making sure it is evenly distributed.
Let set about 30 minutes and then, using the cling wrap, gently remove the discs and set aside.
If using a chocolate transfer design, follow the directions on the package and adhere to medallion.
Use remaining frosting to add a dot to the top of each assembled whoopie pie and adhere the medallion to the top.

Notes

A disher will help get even, rounded whoopie pies that are also consistent in size.
Frosting can be made ahead of time and kept refrigerated up to 3 days.

Keywords: chocolate, Mickey Mouse, cake

Minnie Mouse Rice Krispie Treat Pops

May 20, 2019 by Elana Lepkowski 1 Comment

Minnie Mouse Rice Crispie Pops // magicaltreatsathome.com

Where can I find the original treat?

These treats can be found at the Candy Palace on Main Street in Disneyland.

Since we covered Mickey Mouse doughnuts last week, I figured it was definitely time to give Minnie Mouse a turn. If you’re looking for a nostalgic treat, these Minnie Mouse Rice Krispie Treat Pops fit the bill!

Chewy, Minnie Mouse shaped rice krispie pops are dipped into red and light cocoa candy melts and decorated with red sprinkles, white buttons, and Minnie’s signature red bow. The trick to getting that chewiness is with the butter; don’t skimp on it or the rice krispie treats will turn rock hard. Still edible, but rock hard.

Also, try not to use too large of a sauce pan to melt the marshmallows in. If there’s too much space once you add in the cereal, what happens is the marshmallows have too much space to move around in, and will start to dry out and form strings, making it harder to mix together. I used the red candy melts to also make the bows in addition to the dipped lower half. If you are more advanced with your chocolate, go ahead and use high quality white chocolate here with red food dye and temper.

There are lots of variations of these rice krispie treats throughout the parks. If you have a favorite one, let us know in the comments below, or shoot us an email at hello@magicaltreatsathome.com and we’ll add it to our list of treats to make.

With this post, I’ve also started to note which recipes kids can participate. A big reason for starting this site, apart from having Disneyland treats whenever I want them, was to get my kids more involved with baking and cooking projects at home. I started helping in the kitchen at an early age (maybe four?), and that helped cement a life long love of creating with food. Many people find baking intimidating because they did not do it at home, or had parents who didn’t do it or let them help, and because baking is, well, more specific, it can seem daunting. So, if you’re a little uneasy with the idea of baking, these kid friendly recipes are a great place to start!

Kid Friendly tips:

Older kids can complete this recipe from start to finish. Have an adult supervise when using the stove.
Elementary age kids can help cut out shapes, dip in chocolate, and put on the sprinkles and decorations.
Very young kids can help sprinkle on the sanding sugar. Sprinkling on decorations is always a good task for the very little ones! (If the sanding sugar on these looks a bit uneven that’s because my two year old helped me with that!)

Minnie Mouse Rice Krispie Treat Pops

★ 5 Stars ☆ ★ 4 Stars ☆ ★ 3 Stars ☆ ★ 2 Stars ☆ ★ 1 Star ☆ No reviews

Author: Elana Lepkowski
Yield: 3 Minnie Mouse Pops

Print Recipe

Description

Crispy, chewy, chocolatey Minnie Mouse shaped rice krispie treat pops. A Disneyland-inspired treat.

Ingredients

For the rice krispie treat:
2 tablespoons butter, unsalted
157 g ( 2 cups) mini marshmallows or 10 jumbo marshmallows, ripped apart
1-1/2 cups crisped rice cereal

For the chocolate dips:
2 ounces light cocoa candy melts
2 ounces red candy melts

For the bow:
8 red candy melts
1/2 ounce white candy melts

Decorations:
red sanding sugar
white M&Ms

Tools:
Minnie Mouse cutter
parchment
9″ bread loaf pan
Minnie Mouse bow mold
lollipop sticks

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Instructions

For the rice krispie treat:

Before beginning, line a 9″ bread loaf pan with parchment.
Combine the butter and marshmallows in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly until marshmallows have melted and mixture is smooth.
Immediately dump in the crisped rice cereal and mix to combine.
Pour into the prepared loaf pan and gently press mixture into place with a rubber spatula. Set aside for at least an hour in the refrigerator so that the mixture can firm up enough to cut shapes.
Once firm, use parchment to lift out rice krispie treats. Use a Minnie Mouse shaped cutter to cut out shapes and set aside.

To decorate:

First, melt the light cocoa candy melts in the microwave inside a microwave safe bowl, like glass, for 30 seconds. Stir and microwave again for an additional 30 seconds. Keep stirring and microwaving in short bursts of 15-20 seconds until melted and smooth. Use can alternatively use a double boiler for melting.
Once melted, dip top half of Minnie ears into the light cocoa. Set aside on parchment. Repeat for all treats.
Using the method above, melt the red candy melts. Dip the lower half of the Minnie Mouse treat, letting any excess drip off. Immediately sprinkle with red sanding sugar and press 5 white M&Ms into the sanding sugar. Set aside.
Make the bows by melting the remaining red candy melts using the method above. Pour into bow molds and set aside for 15 minutes.
Melt the white candy melts in a microwave safe piping bag using the method above but kneading instead of stirring.
Gently pop out bows and pipe small white polkadots on them. Set aside.
Pipe a small amount of the white candy melts onto the center head part of the rice krispie and press the bow to “glue” on.
Let everything stand for about 30 minutes and then enjoy!

Notes

The chocolate will be smoother if you use the flat side as opposed to the bumpy rice krispie side.

You can combine some extra rice krispie treat scraps into the mold to shape a third Minnie Mouse if you could not cleanly cut out 3 from your batch.

Treats can be kept in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.

Keywords: chocolate, rice krispies, Minnie Mouse, crispy treat, rice crispies, treat

Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts

May 13, 2019 by Elana Lepkowski 1 Comment

Where can I find the original treat?

These vanilla cake doughnuts can only be found at Craftsman Bar and Grill (formerly White Water Snacks) inside the Grand Californian Hotel in Downtown Disney.

I found myself googling “does Mickey Mouse wear pants or shorts?” this morning to make sure I was getting the title correct for this treat. Answer: most definitely shorts.

And these are most definitely delicious and easy to make. My #1 easy tip for this is that you most certainly can use store bought doughnuts to make these. The actual treat from White Water snacks reminds me of grocery store doughnuts (like Donettes!), but today I’m also providing a super quick (and I mean quick!) recipe to make baked doughnuts. So put that vat of hot oil away for another day (like churro making day… we have a lot of those recipes coming up!).

One surprise after dissecting my doughnut to find out all the components… Disneyland uses M&Ms to make all their buttons for treats! Who knew? Well, maybe you if you’re like me and need to know how they make everything.

If you can find chocolate wafers, go ahead and use those for the ears, however since my chocolate wafers were on the small side, I used the same candy melts chocolate to make rounds in a mold, and then that chocolate was used again to coat the ears and doughnut.

Mickey Mouse Shorts Doughnuts

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Author: Elana Lepkowski
Yield: 6 doughnuts 1x

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Description

Vanilla cake doughnuts dipped in chocolate look a lot like Mickey Mouse’s shorts. A Disneyland-inspired treat!

Ingredients

Scale

Vanilla Cake Doughnuts
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

2 tablespoons butter
25g (1/8 cup) vegetable oil (or refined coconut oil)
49g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
35g (1/4 cup) brown sugar
1 large eggs
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
159g (1-1/3 cups) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
113g (1/2 cup) milk (or milk substitute like almond milk)

Chocolate Discs

1–1/2 ounces light cocoa candy melts

Decorating

5–1/2 ounces light cocoa candy melts
3-1/2 ounces red candy melts
12 yellow M&Ms

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Instructions

For the doughnuts:

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease one standard doughnut pan.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars until smooth.
Add the eggs, beating to combine.
Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla.
Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.
Spoon the batter into the lightly greased doughnut pans, filling the wells to about 1/4″ shy of the rim.
Bake the doughnuts for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven, and wait 5 to 7 minutes before turning them out of the pans onto a rack.

For the Chocolate Discs:

Melt candy melts in a microwave safe bowl (preferably glass) or piping bag for 30 seconds. Stir, and continue to microwave in short bursts until fully melted and smooth. (I found once more at 30 seconds and then again at 20 seconds worked for me, but your microwave may be different)
Pour melted chocolate into round molds about 1/8″ high or alternatively, pipe out into rounds on parchment.
Wait 10 minutes and then remove from molds. The discs are ready to use.

For assembly and decorating:

Start by cutting two slits for the chocolate discs in each doughnut for the ears along the seam line of the doughnut. Insert the discs halfway into the doughnut. Set aside.
Melt the light cocoa candy melts following the method above. Alternatively you can do this over a double boiler as well.
Dip the doughnut half including the “ears” into the melted light cocoa candy melts. See note below if you have trouble keeping the discs in place.
Set the dipped doughnuts down on parchment and melt the red candy melts using the same method above or in a double boiler. Dip the bottom half of the doughnut in the red candy melts, overlapping with the light cocoa candy melts. Immediately press two yellow M&Ms into the red to make Mickey’s buttons. Set aside.
These take about 30 minutes to fully set and can be eaten then, or stored in an air tight container for up to 3 days.

Notes

Several components can be purchased instead of made. The doughnuts and chocolate discs can be store-bought and assembled.
If the discs pop out while dipping the doughnut into the melted chocolate, remove them and dip the doughnut separately, and then they can be dipped separately in the melted chocolate and inserted into the doughnuts.
Never rest items that have been dipped into candy melts on a wire rack. Always use parchment paper or you risk the melted chocolate fusing onto the wires and ripping off once cool.

Keywords: chocolate, doughnuts, Mickey Mouse

Chocolate Covered Pineapple Spears

May 6, 2019 by Elana Lepkowski Leave a Comment

A Disneyland-inspired treat!

Disneyland Inspired Chocolate Covered Pineapple Spears // magicaltreatsathome.com

Where can I find the original treat?

These treats can be found in Disneyland, DCA, and Downtown Disney!

This treat might seem a bit odd to kick off a site devoted to making all the delicious foods found at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. Sure, I never gave this treat a second look when I was visiting the park until I saw a photo on Instagram. And then it soon became one of my FAVORITE treats and I don’t even feel like I’m particularly indulging because… well, FRUIT. The combination of tart pineapple with rich, dark chocolate is just so delish.

Eating this can kinda be a bit of a HOT MESS at the parks too, especially while trying to act totally casual in front of crowds of people while juice runs down your face and hands. And arms. And maybe even your shirt. At home you can eat this over the sink with or without a shirt on. You can also make them small, or even use pineapple chunks and just pop a few at a time. Actually, that sounds so good I’m going to go and do that right now.

But first, of course, the recipe. To create that snappy exterior, the chocolate must be tempered and I have an easy microwave how-to below with a few tips at the end. However, if you just want to enjoy that pineapple spear dipped in chocolate, then just go ahead and melt some chocolate and dip away!

Tell me, have you tried one of these chocolate covered pineapple spears? Was it love at first bite?

Chocolate Covered Pineapple Spears

★ 5 Stars ☆ ★ 4 Stars ☆ ★ 3 Stars ☆ ★ 2 Stars ☆ ★ 1 Star ☆ No reviews

Author: Elana Lepkowski
Yield: 6–8 chocolate covered pineapple spears 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Juicy pineapple spears enrobed in rich, bittersweet chocolate. A Disneyland-inspired treat!

Ingredients

Scale

6–8 pineapple spears about 4″-5″ in length
8 ounces (227 g) 70% bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped and divided
2 ounces (60 grams) white candy melts
6″ lollipop sticks

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Instructions

First, pat your pineapple spears to remove any excess juice on the outside and set aside.
Next, temper the chocolate. In a microwave safe bowl, add 2/3 of the chocolate. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, microwave for another 30 seconds. Stir again and microwave in short bursts of 15-20 seconds until chocolate has uniformly melted and has reached between 114° – 118°F. Then add in some of the remaining chocolate, stir to completely melt and then add more (I did three batches). Continue to stir the chocolate until it has cooled to 88° – 89°F. The chocolate is now tempered and ready to use.
Working quickly, dip each pineapple spear in the chocolate and use a fork to turn it around and remove the spear, letting any excess chocolate drip off before placing onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
Next, in a microwave safe pastry bag, pour in white candy melts and microwave for 30 seconds. Knead the bag and microwave in 20-30 second bursts, kneading in between each round. When fully melted, snip end of bag to make a small hole for piping. Pipe across pineapples to make stripes.
Insert a lollipop stick into each pineapple base. Will keep refrigerated up to 3 days.

Notes

Tempering Chocolate tips:

Tempering chocolate creates a glossy sheen and a crisp snap
Using short bursts of time makes controlling the temperature easier
Keep all moisture and liquids away from the chocolate while tempering
Use an instant read candy thermometer with a clip (we like this one)
If chocolate starts to cool, microwave for 5-10 seconds
If you do not have a candy thermometer, read this article on tempering without one: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-temper-chocolate-without-a-thermometer-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-196475
And if you don’t have the time to temper your chocolate, just melt and dip and eat!

Keywords: chocolate, pineapple, tempering

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A Disneyland-inspired treat!

Where can I find the original treat?

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