These Mickey Mouse Vanilla Cake Pops are part of the three variety series. See the intro post here!
Let your young bakers help cut out shapes, dip chocolate, and decorate the cake pops. If you want your ears to be more precise, you might want to take over that part, or let older bakers help.
These Mickey Mouse Red Velvet Cake Pops are part of the three variety series. See the intro post here!
Let your young bakers help cut out shapes, dip chocolate, and decorate the cake pops. If you want your ears to be more precise, you might want to take over that part, or let older bakers help.
There are now multiple ways to get your churro fix at Disneyland beyond an actual churro (like churro toffee or a churro marshmallow wand), and today we’re over in Fantasyland for their latest one: Churro Gears, AKA Churro Doughnuts. Yes, you’re going to make doughnuts (or donuts if you prefer) at home today. And it’s going to be so easy.
First, let’s talk about the doughnuts. At the park you get them served to you WARM, which, honestly is the only way to eat these. Although, coming in a strong second is cold and hours old. That is also a delicious option. These are yeasted doughnuts which means, unfortunately, there is some waiting. However, I’ve outlined below the best option for making these and having them for breakfast that does not include waking up at 4am.
Yeasted doughnuts though provide for a chewy, soft interior with a slightly crisp outside. Similar to the style of a churro, and these too are covered in cinnamon-sugar and hence the name Churro Doughnuts. The dough itself is twisted to look like a “gear”, and while that might not be necessary with your homemade batch, what that does do for your doughnut is provide lots of pockets for that sprinkling of cinnamon-sugar to fall into. YUM.
Can kids help with this recipe? Absolutely, but know your kids first. Older kids with some experience in the kitchen might find it a fun challenge to roll out and shape the dough. And younger kids can flip the cooled doughnuts around in the cinnamon-sugar. Just beware of the very hot oil on the stove, and also the doughnuts stay warm for awhile, so test them out before handing them off for sugaring.
BONUS: This recipe only calls for a handful of ingredients and with just one change, swapping out the milk for a non-dairy alternative, means you can also have VEGAN doughnuts too. I tried this recipe with almond milk and got excellent results. Also, extra bonus, any small chunks of dough leftover can be rolled into balls and made into doughnut holes! See notes below for instruction.
I believe that making a batch of these Churro Doughnuts at home is easy for a few reasons. First, it’s a small, doable amount of ingredients and I bet you have most, if not all of them, at home (and if instant yeast is not in your pantry I’ve linked to that below in the ingredient list). Second, the steps to making them are pretty straightforward. There isn’t a technique here that is only going to be taught in pastry school. YOU GOT THIS. If the dough is sticking to everything (that can happen), and you’re not getting perfect circles, don’t worry they’ll still taste amazing. And third, it’s mainly hands off time. Yes, from complete start to finish it’s a few hours. But if you break it up and start the night before, and fill the wait time with something else, making the actual doughnut is fairly quick! And you’ve got doughnuts! At home! And they’re fresh and warm!
Ok let’s make doughnuts! Churro doughnuts!
Are your eyes deceiving you? Is that the iconic Mickey Cookie… on a rice krispie treat?! Disney sure knows what they’re doing with the treats. Combining two of my favs from the parks, and then covering them in peanut butter and chocolate? YES please! And besides being so tasty, our latest recipe is so easy to make too.
With most all of the holiday treats cleared out of the cases now, most of us treat lovers have been anxiously awaiting what’s next. Well, it seems every day something new is slowly trickling in. This crispy rice treat is the standard treat pop, with a thin layer of peanut butter coating on the front to represent the Mickey Mouse cookie, and chocolate icing and sprinkles (instead of the nonpareils like the cookies) for decoration.
Kids can help a lot here too! From dipping the rice krispie treats to adding sprinkles. All levels of experience can participate.
BONUS: if you really love peanut butter and you want to make this even more peanut butter-y, go ahead and add in about a 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips (you’ll have extra left over from the bag) when you mix in the crisped rice cereal.
So, if you’re a peanut butter chocolate lover, I really think you’ll love this recipe. There’s a great balance so that one ingredient doesn’t necessarily overpower the others (sometimes peanut butter can do that). And they just come together so quickly and easily, that you can double or triple this if you’re in need of a class treat or something for a pot luck (please take photos and send them to me if you bring these to a pot luck). And remember, lots of helpful tips below the recipe, so please read it all the way through before starting.
Welcome back and Happy New Year! Are you in need of a comforting treat? Me too. Sometimes January can feel like someone let the air out of the balloon. There’s the big let down after all the holiday food and decorations have been put away for the year. And yeah, maybe there’s still a little of that, but now January marks the cozy season for me. Also, my youngest celebrates a birthday at the end of the month…. so I’m still party planning even after I put away the Christmas decorations.
Our first treat of 2020 is like a warm sweater by the fire in cookie form: the Hot Cocoa Macaron! This oversized cookie was part of the Festival of Holidays celebration at DCA and you could have found this at the Making Spirits Bright kiosk.
It really did remind me of the flavors of a cup of hot cocoa, I think part of that was the combination of chocolates, especially the milk chocolate filling with semisweet ganache center. The mound of mini marshmallows on top didn’t hurt either.
I love making macarons. (We have two other recipes on the site if you’re looking for more after this too!) They require a little patience and technique but honestly, they’re pretty quick to put together and they definitely wow people when you tell them you made them. If you’re looking ahead towards Valentine’s Day presents, these would be a pretty special gift (I might just gift myself another batch…).
I have a whole new set of tips and tricks with these, as the addition of cocoa powder to the macaron mix changes the consistency and texture a bit. So please read through all those before starting the recipe. They will ensure you will have a good batch (and not need to make them 4 times to be perfect… like some people I know *coughcough*).
BONUS! As a special gift to all of you who want to try this recipe, first, thank you, and second, I’ve made a printable template for perfectly shaped macarons. You really need both halves to match up in order to sandwich the filling, and this template will help you make sure that happens.
I’m so excited to kick off a whole new year of treats with all of you! If there’s anything at the parks you’d like to see made on here, drop us a line in the comments below or shoot us an email!
Of all the treats this holiday season, the Mickey Mouse Gingerbread Man cookie was THE COOKIE to have. In fact, it was probably one of the most sought after TREATS in general at the parks. These last few weeks I’ve gone looking for the cookie inside the parks only to have it sell out before I could buy it by 11am (it may have even sold out sooner!). Of course, I could always wander into the Grand Californian and get it there too, but the premium price tag just meant I’d try again another day at the parks. Or, of course, make it at home! Which is what I did and now you can too!
Let me preface this post with this one caveat, if you turned over the back of the packaging the gingerbread cookies came in, you would see that, well, there’s a lot of ingredients listed there, probably because they’re trying to preserve the cookies a bit before they can be sold (although, come on, I watched a guy buy all the cookies from the tray that were being brought to replenish the cookie cart—at the Grand Californian no less!). I don’t have a cabinet of preservatives; I have eggs, flour, sugar, and the like. So, this cookie will not taste exactly like THAT cookie—but I think it comes close!
The original cookie has some rather unique characteristics for a gingerbread cookie. For one, it’s thick and soft. Not the usual thin and crisp cookies you find for decorating houses. It is heavily spiced of cloves (clove is actually listed first before ginger), and the design work on it is done with chocolate, not the royal icing that you might get on any other holiday cookie. It’s also big, coming in around 7 inches.
Now, you don’t need a Mickey Mouse gingerbread man cutter if you don’t already own one. If you have a gingerbread man cutter and a circle cutter, you could easily Frankenstein the design together once the shapes are on the sheet pan. However, this will work only if you’re pre-cutting the shapes and then baking them, which is definitely the more routine way to go, although, with this recipe, I found more luck in getting sharp outlines if I baked squares of the cookie dough first, and then used a cutter on the baked dough. And that’s because this dough is really soft.
With the pre-baking method you’re going to have more scraps (which you can keep in an airtight container and eat when all the gingerbread men are gone). However, a little pre-planning will mean less of them. I would suggest measuring out the shapes of your cutter and trying to roll out smaller sections of the dough so that you’re only going to have small sections around the cookies that will become scraps. If this seems like a lot of work just keep in mind you’ll be chilling dough with the pre-cut shapes several times. It’s the nature of these soft cookies!
Once you have your cookies baked and cooled, the fun part of decorating can begin (and kids can help here!). The cookies at Disneyland had a sugar glaze over the center. Personally, I think that glaze helped keep this super soft cookies from falling apart (take a close look at anyone holding up a cookie on IG and you will probably see a few cracks from handling them). I also included a glaze here, but that can be optional for you. The colorful decorations here are done with candy melts, which you can get in the colors needed, so for convenience you won’t have to buy additional food coloring. Only melt one bag of the candy melts at a time for decorating! It hardens quickly so you only want to handle a single bag at a time. To smooth out bumps in the chocolate, or to round out and smooth shapes, a scribe or a toothpick will be handy. But even here you’ll want to move quickly as the small amount of the candy melts will start to harden upon contact with the cookie.
Even though so far I may seem a bit cautious with this recipe, you should make this cookie. It’s soft, slightly chewy, with all the deliciously warm baking spices you want in a gingerbread cookie. And if you spend the time cutting these out and decorating them for a loved one, it really shows and makes a great present.
I’ve covered lots of tips in the post above today, but I’ve summed them all up in the notes below. Happy baking and happy holidays everyone!
What?! Another new series this week on the site?! YES! Today we’re launching what I hope will be a new series that will appear on here from time to time: 5 Minute Treats. And today we’re starting with this Peppermint Affogato.
What is an affogato? An affogato is an Italian dessert that consists of two delicious things: ice cream (or gelato) and espresso. And while it may be a simple recipe, the end result is anything but simple. Over at Schmoozies! in DCA, they regularly have the classic vanilla topped with a large pour of espresso, but this holiday season, they had both a peppermint ice cream and a cinnamon-sugar (churro!) ice cream option.
The peppermint ice cream affogato was just pure deliciousness, with the hot espresso slowly melting my peppermint candy specked pink ice cream, it came a whole other flavor once combined. The slightly bitter espresso was tamed by the sweetness of the ice cream and I found myself slurping up the whole thing unaware, or caring, who was watching me enjoy it.
But here’s why I’m giving you this “recipe” today. It’s holiday time, but that doesn’t mean you have to make complicated desserts. Especially when something simple like this tastes just so good. If you’re neck-deep in cookies and just want something easy to make, this is it. Bust this out after a meal and no one is going to ask you how long it took to make, or “is this it?”, because they’ll be too busy scarfing it down.
My hope with these “5 Minute Treats” is that you give yourself the space to not always feel like treats need to be complicated. They can be simple, but these recipes will always be good. I hope you enjoy one of these Peppermint Affogatos tonight or this weekend. Maybe treat yourself while you start wrapping presents and need an extra boost of caffeine (and that’s exactly what I did this week). Enjoy!
We love making churros around here. As of this week we have SIX churro recipes on the site (and we only just started here in May). And while we have lots of tips and tricks on each recipe page, the style of churro you want to create was taken into consideration, and so we have our first tip post today.
Tip as in advice, and tip, for today, as in pastry tips. Through these churro recipes I’ve come to find that I enjoy two styles of churros: thin and crunchy, and fat and crispy. And then there are the churro nuggets too, but those I usually just like for small bites, not so much for recipes on this site. So today I thought I’d show what you’ll expect with the two types of pastry tips used here on the site.
The Wilton 1 M tip is a smaller, open star tip. It produces a thin, crunchy churro with a hollow center. The ridges are more shallow, and the churro becomes more fragile after it has sat under refrigeration.
The Ateco #847 pastry tip is a closed star with a wider opening. It produces a thicker churro with a more spongy inside and crispy, not crunchy exterior. The ridges on the outside are deeper, which are useful for recipes where the churro is rolled in extra ingredients (i.e. cookie crumbles). This size churro is also sturdier after refrigeration.
Just two sizes up from the #847, the Ateco #849 pastry tip produces an ideal size for churro bites. As with the #847, churros produced with this tip are crispy with deep ridges, however, due to their width, they become oversized when piped out longer than an inch or two. This results in the possibility of a raw center with a burned exterior. However, when using this tip to make a churro bite smaller than an inch, it cooks perfectly at 6 minutes total, similar to the other churro recipes on here.
It’s up to you now which style of churro you’ll want to try. And I hope we have at least one recipe on the site you’ll have fun trying!
Got a question on baking, technique, or Disneyland in general? Drop us a comment below!
I haven’t counted, but I would bet there are more holiday churros out there than candy apples or rice crispy treats this year. There are just SO many to choose from, and narrowing down which I was going to choose came down to two things: flavor and nostalgia. And that churro was the Christmas Tree Churro.
Here’s the weird thing about this particular churro, it was made differently from the posted photo, and I’ve seen it look different even from other people’s photos of it. So, I have to approach this recipe with a caveat: it might be different from what you had, but one thing everyone had in common was that it came with the cherry dipping sauce.
Now, it’s this cherry dipping sauce, with a very jelly-like consistency reminiscent of a doughnut or pie filling, that filled me with nostalgia. When I was younger, my Grandmother would make mini cheesecakes topped with jarred cherry jelly for every occasion. I’m talking birthdays, holidays, baby showers, pretty much any gathering we attended in the ’80’s and ’90’s always included a tray of these treats. And I loved them. Really, really loved them. I could probably eat 10 of these if no one was looking. I think I can pinpoint to these treats starting my obsession with cheesecake that still is going strong decades later.
Anyways, these churros are the classic churro rolled in cookie crumbles and sprinkled with green (and apparently sometimes red) sanding sugar. The side comes with it (as opposed to costing extra), and altogether make for a classic looking holiday treat. I really love the buttery flavor the cookies impart here (similar to those Banana Pudding Churros from earlier in the year), and the tart cherry flavor cuts the sweetness back a bit, so combined it’s well balanced.
After these are fried up, kids can lend a hand to help decorate. Rolling in cookies (even crushing the cookies), and sprinkling toppings are all kid friendly here.
So, find some holiday music, heat up the oil, and start frying these tasty holiday treats! Enjoy!
Peppermint is a very holiday time flavor. From candy canes to chocolate bark to all manner of baked goods, you cannot escape this refreshing addition to treats this time of year. At Disneyland, there is an obvious peppermint theme going on… there are even Mickey Mouse peppermint candy shaped pillows this year. And they smell of peppermint, and yes, I’ve bought a couple for Christmas decorating. So of course I also had to try a batch of the holiday time favorite at the park, the Mickey Mouse shaped Peppermint Beignets.
What I love about these is that they don’t go overboard on the peppermint. It’s a nice balance between the sweet powdered sugar with enough of a “touch” of peppermint so that you can taste and see it (pink powdered sugar!), but your mouth isn’t overwhelmed by the bracing coolness that can accompany peppermint.
Making these at home you can adjust that up or down to your preference. I kept my peppermint addition close to what I feel you get at the parks but if you looooove some peppermint flavor, you’ll definitely want to up the candy canes here. And yes! We’re using ground up candy canes to flavor the powdered sugar!
These beignets follow the same recipe as the classic beignets, or any of the other flavored ones on this site. It’s the addition of the peppermint that gives these the unique holiday twist.
One question I got last time was about freezing the dough. The short answer is yes, you can do the 30 minute proof in the bowl, roll it out, cut the shapes, and then freeze in plastic wrap. You can keep it frozen up to a month. When ready to use, you can remove from the freezer, and let thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Then unwrap from plastic, move to your counter, cover with a towel, and let rise two hours. I found that they did not puff up as well in the oil, but I only did one test of these so there could have been other factors here I haven’t taken into consideration. If you’ve frozen and then fried, let me know how yours turned out!
Also, remember to read through all the notes after the recipe for some helpful tricks and notes! OK, now let’s get that oil hot and make some holiday beignets!
