Mickey Pecan Linzer Cookies with Apple and Pumpkin Butter

Mickey Pecan Linzer Cookies with Apple and Pumpkin Butter

Written by: Christine | November 18, 2022

Ingredients

Cookies:

2 1/4 C. AP flour

1 C pecan halves (toasted-don't skip this step!)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1 C. butter, softened

1/3 C. sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

 

Apple and Pumpkin Butter:

1 can Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie filling)-29 ounce can

3 Tbsp. maple syrup

3/4 C. packed brown sugar

3/4 C. apple cider

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ginger

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

 

Directions:

 

Butter can be made ahead (up to a week).

 

1.      Combine all butter ingredients in a small pot. Bring to a light simmer over medium heat. Lower to low heat and let barely simmer for 45 minute. Let cool completely

 

Cookie dough needs to cool overnight:

 

1.       Grind the toasted pecans, flour and spices in a food processor until finely ground and combined.

2.      Cream the butter and sugar for a minute then add the egg and yolk one at a time.

3.      Gradually add in flour mixture.

4.      Split the dough into two balls, wrap and refrigerate overnight.

5.      Take the dough out about 5 minutes before you plan to roll it out. Heavly flour your surface, rolling pin and Mickey cutters. Roll out to about 12x 12 square.

6.      Cut out your cookies and lift using offset spatula to a parchment lined pan.

7.      Place in the freezer for 10 minutes while you shape your other dough ball.

8.      Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

9.      When the first batch is chilled, cut out your inner mickeys and lift out. (you can chill and reroll these or bake them (dipped in chocolate after would be so good!)

10.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden around edges.

11.  Cool for 5 minutes on the pan and then completely on a rack

12.  Spread your apple and pumpkin butter on your bottom Mickeys and sprinkle powdered sugar on your hole-y Mickeys.

13.  Place your sandwich cookies together. Enjoy!

Caramel Goat Cheese Board with Mickey Pie Chips

Caramel Goat Cheese Board with Mickey Pie Chips 

Written by: Christine | November 22, 2022

Ingredients: 

Spread/Dip:

8 ounce goat cheese log

4 ounces of cream cheese

1/3 cup caramel sauce

1 tsp. kosher salt

Dippers:

2 Green Apples

1/2 cup candied pecans

1 premade pie crust

1 roll crescent dough

cinnamon and sugar for dusting

2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

Roll out your doughs, cut your mickeys and brush with butter and cinnamon sugar. Bake as directed on box/tube.

Whip up all the ingredients in a bowl with a hand mixer. Taste and add more salt, caramel or any add ins (orange zest, cinnamon, whatever you like) to your taste. Use a small scoop to put dollops on your board and an offset spatula to create these little pillows.

Surround your dip with all of these tasty snacks and add whatever you like to dip (pretzels, dried fruit, crackers etc.). Enjoy!!!

*Even if goat cheese isn't your thing, don't sleep on making "chips" out of store bought pie crust dough! They are so simple and yummy!

Mickey Cranberry and Orange Scones

Mickey Cranberry and 

Orange Scones

Written by: Christine | November 20, 2022

Ingredients:

          2 C. all-purpose flour

½  C. Sugar

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

½  tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon

3 tsp. orange zest 

½ C. frozen unsalted butter

½ C. cold buttermilk

1 large egg

½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean

1 cup fresh cranberries

½  cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar

1-2 Tbsp.  fresh orange juice

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 400°F

2.      Split the vanilla bean with a sharp knife. Scrape the seeds from the bean. In a small bowl, rub the sugar, vanilla seeds and orange zest together until fragrant and combined

3.      Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.

4.      Grate the frozen butter using a cheese grater or the grater attachment on your food processor. Add it to the flour mixture and combine your fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs.

5.      Whisk the buttermilk, egg and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Pour into a well in the dry mixture. Use a wooden spoon and then your hands to mix until almost combined, add in cranberries.

6.      Pour onto a floured surface and with floured hands, work dough until you can press into an 8 by 8 square. Flour your Mickey cutter and cut out Mickeys. Place on a parchment lined sheet pan. I got about 13 small-medium scones.  

7.      You can brush the scones with cream and sprinkle with sanding sugar if you like.

8.      Bake for about 16-18 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool on pan for 5 minutes. Move to a rack to cool completely.

9.   Whisk the freshly squeezed orange juice and vanilla into the powdered sugar. Add more sugar or juice to reach desired texture. Drizzle using a fork over scones. ENJOY!

Mickey Pumpkin Waffles

 

Mickey Pumpkin Waffles

Written by: Christine | September 22, 2022

Ingredients

1½ C. AP flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp. Cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. ginger

¼ tsp cloves

½ tsp salt

1 C. canned pumpkin puree 

2 eggs

3 Tbsp. melted butter

1⁄4 C. brown sugar

1 C. Buttermilk

 

¾ C. chopped walnuts

1 C. heavy cream

2 Tbsp. maple syrup

½ tsp. salt

Cinnamon for dusting

Instructions

Heat your waffle iron. Melt a TBSP. of butter for greasing your iron between batches.

Toast your walnuts on 375 for 5-7 minutes watching to make sure they do not burn.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

In a medium bowl whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar and buttermilk until well combined.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Mix until almost combined. Add butter to until just combined. Try not to overmix. If the mixture is too dry to pour, add ¼ cup of milk to loosen.

Brush some butter on the iron. I use an ice cream scoop to fill each mickey shape and it’s the perfect amount. Pour batter into waffle iron, and cook according to waffle iron directions.

While your waffles are cooking, whip your heavy cream with a hand mixer until it has thickened. Add the syrup and salt to your taste.

Place 2 waffles on a plate, pour syrup over, sprinkle with the toasted walnuts, top with a dollop of maple whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon. Enjoy the season!

Hidden Mickey Loaf Cake

Hidden Mickey Loaf Cake

Written by: Christine | September 2, 2022

For the Chocolate Loaf Cake:

Ingredients

·        1 C. AP Flour

·        ½ C. unsweetened cocoa powder

·        2 tsp. baking powder

·        1 tsp. ground ginger

·        ¼ tsp. salt

·        2 large eggs

·        1 C. granulated sugar

·        10 Tbsp. unsalted butter

·        ½ C. milk

·        1 tsp. vanilla

·        ¼ C. hot coffee (can sub hot water here)

Instructions

1.     Let your ingredients come to room temp.

2.    Preheat the oven to 350°F

3.    Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl.

4.    Spray a loaf pan with baking spray or brush with butter and flour. Cut a long piece of parchment that lines the bottom of the pan and overhands the short sides by a few inches (don’t worry about the long sides if you grease them well)

5.    Sift the flour, cocoa, bp, salt and ginger into a large bowl.

6.    Whisk eggs and sugar in a medium bowl until the sugar starts to look less grainy, add butter, milk and vanilla. Stir to combine.

7.    Add the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir until just combined.

8.    Pour in the hot liquid and mix.

9.    Pour batter into the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean.

10. Let cool in the pan on a rack for about 30 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool totally. (while cooling you can measure out the pumpkin loaf ingredients)

11. Slice into ¾-ish inch slices and use a Mickey cutter to stamp out your hidden Mickeys.

For the Pumpkin Loaf:

Ingredients

·      2 C. AP flour

·      ½ tsp. salt

·      1 tsp. baking soda

·      ½ tsp. baking powder

·      2 tsp. ground cinnamon

·      ¼ tsp. ground cloves

·      ¼ tsp. allspice

·      ½ tsp. ground ginger

·      ½ tsp. ground nutmeg

·      12 Tbsp. unsalted butter 

·      2 C. Sugar 

·      2 large eggs

·      1 15-oz can 100% pure pumpkin

 

Instructions

               1.    Let your ingredients come to room temp.

2.    Preheat the oven to 325°F

3.    Spray 2 loaf pans with baking spray or brush with butter and flour. Cut a long piece of parchment that lines the bottom of the pan and overhands the short sides by a few inches (don’t worry about the long sides if you grease them well)

4.    Sift the flour, spices, salt, baking powder, baking soda into a large bowl

5.    With a stand mixer using the paddle attachment or a hand mixer in a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together for 5-7 minutes.

6.    Add the eggs one at a time until combined.

7.    Add the pumpkin (may look like its separated, it will come back together after the dry ingredients are added)

8.    Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined (don’t over mix)

9.    Pour out about 1-1 ½ C. of the batter into the bottom of the pans.

10. Line hidden Mickeys up in the batter, press down a bit so they stand on their own (leaning on one another).

11. Top with the batter and smooth out leaving some room at the top ½-3/4 inch of the pan for rising.

12. Bake for 60-70 minutes *remember to test the cake on the sides as to not slice the mickeys!

13. Top with the ganache (recipe below) when totally cool (I let cool overnight).

 

For the Chocolate Ganache:

½ C. heavy cream

½ cup good quality chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Put the chocolate in a glass bowl. Bring the cream to a scald in a small sauce pan. Pour over the chocolate. Let stand for a minute or two. Stir until smooth. Let come to room temp on counter. Refrigerate until totally cool and spreadable. Stir.

 

 Magical Pumpkin Spice Treats

Written by: Christine | September 1, 2022

You have to try making these magical beauties! The look on our kids faces when they saw these was priceless. 

We are ready for fall already and decided to give the classic Mickey Rice Krispie Treat the autumn treatment! Of course, we went with pumpkin spice and then using some candy melts created darling mickey pumpkins and "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo" added Cinderella's Carriage too!

Even if you don't make this version follow these few simple tips to make any rice krispie treat next-level good:

* Toast your krispies- about 5 minutes on medium heat in the pot you plan to melt your mallows in.  *Use the best butter you can find, the butter is one of the main flavors, so make sure its very good quality! 

*Add 1/2 tsp. of salt, this sets all the flavors off! 

*Use one extra cup of mallows than the box recipe calls for, toss them in when the heat is off and right as your adding your cereal. )Who doesn't love finding a mallow glob in their treat?!?)

*Bonus tip: brown your butter (we didn't do that for these since we wanted the pumpkin spice to shine through, but for a plain krispie treat, the nutty flavor of browned butter is unreal!

Ingredients: 

6 cups of toasted Rice Krispies 

6.5 C. miniature marshmallows

3 Tbsp. good butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. pumpkin spice

Melt the butter in a large stock pot over medium-low heat. When it has just melted add the salt, vanilla and pumpkin spice. Stir to combine. Add the marshmallows , stir. When they have almost completely melted turn off the heat add the last cup of mallows and the cereal.  Stir until the cereal is coated. Pour out into a buttered 9x12 cake pan. Press with buttered fingers until you have an even layer. Let set for about 30 minutes. Turn out onto a cutting board or counter. Use cookie cutter to make Mickeys. Press the scraps back together to cut more treats. 

For decorating:

1/2 C. white chocolate chips

1/2 C. chocolate chips

1/2 C. green candy melts

1/2 C. blue candy melts

1 C. orange candy melts

Melt chocolate and melts according to directions on the bag in microwave safe bowls. Pour melted chocolate into small zip locks. Draw a circle and curved lines to make your pumpkin (orange) and carriage (blue). Let set. Draw your wheels. stems, and leaves on a parchment lined sheet pan (draw on the other side and flip for guide). Let these set for a few minutes in the fridge. Carefully transfer with offset spatula to the treats to create pumpkins and carriage. 

*We also inserted popsicle sticks with the tip coated in white chocolate to help little (and big) hands from getting sticky while enjoying these. 

Coco Inspired Mickey Ears

Written by: Christina | August 20, 2022

We are leaving for Disney in 2 days and we will be going to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! My sister and I decided we wanted to go with a Coco theme for our outfits.  I had some left over plain Mickey ears from my daughter's birthday party and used them as the base and these were SO easy!

 

What you need:

Mickey ear headband

Battery operated lights

Faux Flowers

Hot glue gun

 

How we did it:

1. I glued the battery pack for the lights in the center of the headband (between the ears). Don't worry, the flowers will cover it, just make sure you can get to the switch to turn lights on and off. 

2. I then glued the lights around the ears, I put a drop of hot glue on each light.  Leave the remaining lights hanging for now.

3. Glue the flowers in place. I put flowers on the front and back.

4. Take the remaining lights and tangle them in the flowers.

And that's it!!!!