Copycat Disneyland Churro Toffee Recipe
I love a good copycat recipe, from PF Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps to Starbucks Lemon Loaf and Cracker Barrel Meatloaf. But this churro toffee is one of my very best recreations! It’s so similar to the Disneyland treat. Except my homemade version, in my humble opinion, is even better! Homemade usually is — I can’t tell you how many readers have told me they’ll never grab a Starbucks Double Chocolate Brownie again when they can make them at home. Disneyland churro toffee is toffee that’s been coated in melted white chocolate and dipped in cinnamon and sugar. It tastes like everything you love about a churro all in one toffee-centered bite! Crunchy, buttery, the sweet white chocolate, the thick cinnamon-and-sugar coating, this stuff is addictively good!
Even the biggest Disney purists will have to agree that this homemade churro toffee is nearly identical to the stuff you can buy at the park. However, I love that in my own kitchen I can add more or less white chocolate and cinnamon-sugar as I please since I’m making it myself. Disney’s Churro Toffee is perfect for treating yourself and your kiddos to when you’re missing your favorite treat, but don’t want to travel all the way to Anaheim to get it. Just put on your favorite Disney movie and enjoy every last bite of this sweet cinnamon sugar topped toffee. It’s also ideal for serving at holiday parties on your sweets table or for gift giving around the holidays. If there’s a teacher, neighbor, or friend that you’d like to gift a little something sweet to, this is the recipe to do so with. You can even use homemade Disneyland copycat churro toffee to impress everyone at your next cookie exchange. When everyone else is presenting their chocolate chip cookies, you can impress the crowd with your homemade Disneyland copycat treat! The fact that churro toffee is easy to make can be our little secret. I also share a way to make this recipe even faster and easier. I am all about timesaving shortcuts!
Ingredients for Churro Toffee
Did you know that you only need 4 ingredients to make the toffee itself? Yep! Homemade toffee only calls for butter, salt, sugar, and a dash of vanilla. Once you have your toffee, you only need Ghirardelli White Chocolate Wafers, cinnamon, and sugar to transform it into the fan favorite Disneyland treat. Toffee
Unsalted butter Granulated sugar Salt Vanilla extract
Churro Topping
Ghirardelli White Chocolate Wafers Granulated sugar Cinnamon
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Disney Churro Toffee
If you’re nervous about making your own toffee, don’t be. The secret to making the best churro toffee is all about using a candy thermometer. It’s the only way to ensure perfect toffee. This easy recipe can be condensed to just these simple steps – make the toffee, coat it in white chocolate, sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar… and enjoy!
Step 1: Prepare your baking sheet. You’ll need a standard cookie sheet or 9×13-inch pan lined with parchment paper and sprayed with non-stick spray ready to go before you start making your toffee. Step 2: Make the toffee. Heat the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla together in a pan over medium heat and bring it all to a boil. Use a candy or instant read digital thermometer to check the temperature.
Step 3: Pour It. Once it reaches 285°F, pour the toffee mixture directly onto the prepared parchment paper and smooth it out. Step 3: Break it up. Let the toffee cool for about 5 minutes, then use a knife or pizza roller to cut it into large squares. Once it’s fully cooled to room temperature, you can fully break the pieces apart.
Step 4: Microwave the white chocolate. Place the white chocolate wafers in a bowl and pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Stir the warmed chocolate together and make sure there are no lumps. If you do have lumps, simply zap it again for 10 to 15 seconds and stir again. Make sure not to overcook or burn the white chocolate.
Step 5: Dip the toffee. Lightly pat all of the butter off of the toffee and dip each piece of toffee in the melted white chocolate, making sure to coat both sides. Step 6: Coat the toffee. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar on both sides as well, move the pieces to a separate sheet of parchment paper so the chocolate dries, and repeat with all pieces. They should be good to go after an hour of drying.
Timesaving Shortcut
Rather than cutting the toffee into perfect squares and dipping each into white chocolate and then the cinnamon-sugar, simply pour a layer of white chocolate over the top of the toffee in your baking pan after it’s cooled for about 8 minutes, sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over the white chocolate, and allow the toffee to set up for a couple hours before breaking or slicing into pieces. Your toffee will only have white chocolate and cinnamon-sugar on one side rather than fully dipped and coated BUT this method saves a ton of time and tastes almost as amazing.
Do I Have to Use a Candy Thermometer?
Yes, always use a candy thermometer when making toffee. Why? Because the second the toffee mixture reaches 285°F, otherwise known as the soft crack stage (270-290F) in candy making, you need to pour the hot liquid onto your prepared baking sheet. If you accidentally leave it for too long, the toffee will continue to cook into what’s called the hard crack stage (290-310F). Some people don’t mind their toffee this hard but I like my teeth intact and don’t like toffee this hard. It’s more like trying to bite a sucker or lollipop than a piece of toffee so don’t take it into this range. There’s virtually no water whatsoever left at this point, no moisture, hence a very hard texture. I like to use a candy thermometer with a clip so that it clips into the pot and you’re not trying to dip a gloved hand holding a thermometer inside a furiously boiling vat of scaling sugar and butter. Takeaway: Do not attempt to make homemade toffee without a candy or instant read thermometer and boil it to 285F.
Why Do I Have to Slice the Toffee When It’s Warm?
In order to get those perfect little squares of churro toffee you can snag at Disneyland, you’ll need to slice the toffee when it’s still relatively warm. After you’ve let the toffee mixture cool for about 5 minutes, use a knife or pizza wheel to slice it into even squares. Run your knife or pizza wheel over the same line a few times to deepen the groove. You don’t even need to slice it all the way through. The goal here is to create lines that you can break once the toffee has hardened more.
Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes you can but note that you will need a very big, high-sided pot to allow enough room for all the bubbling the butter and sugar mixture does. Use a 10x15x2-inch jelly roll pan. And when you’re done with it for the toffee, make a pan of Pumpkin Bars in your jellyroll pan!
Why Is My Toffee Soft or Chewy?
Toffee tends to get chewy when there’s too much moisture in the mix. Tricks to combat chewy or softer than desired toffee:
Serving Suggestions For Disney Churro Toffee
Eat the whole pan. I’m only kind of joking! Churro Toffee is super cute to slice, toss into plastic baggies with a ribbon, and use as a gift for neighbors, teachers, and friends of all ages. You can also share it at your next cookie exchange when you get tired of baking batches of cookies throughout the Christmas season.
How to Store Churro Toffee
You can pop your Disneyland churro toffee into an airtight container where it’ll keep fresh at room temp for at least 2 weeks. No need to refrigerate it. If you’d like to freeze your Churro Toffee for later, you can do that too. Make sure it’s in a freezer safe food storage container and place it in the freezer, where it’ll stay fresh for up to 3 months. Don’t forget to date and label your container or zip-top baggie! Before you bite into a slice of frozen churro toffee (and possibly hurt your teeth), I recommend thawing to room temp on your counter for a couple hours.
Tips For The Best Churro Toffee (Disneyland Copycat)
Kitchen Safety: While it may seem fun to make this with the kids or grandkids, I personally would select another recipe. At the very least, only get little ones involved after the toffee has been made, cooled, and preliminary sliced, and is ready for dipping and coating. 285F is insanely hot and spills or accidents will cause horrible burns. It’s just not worth the risk. Thinner vs. Thicker Toffee: For the recipe as written (not doubled) I use a standard sized baking sheet or you can use a 9×13-inch pan if you want slightly thicker toffee. I don’t recommend making the toffee too thin because it’ll break apart far too easily.
Line the Pan: You have to use parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray to make toffee, no exceptions. Otherwise it will stick to your pan and you’ll quite literally never get it out! The cookie sheet sized parchment paper is handy. Do not use wax paper, butcher paper, aluminum foil, nor plastic wrap. Big Pot: Use a pot bigger than you think you will need because the mixture bubbles up significantly and the extra room is necessary.
Butter: Make sure to use unsalted butter. Also, use a good quality butter! The key to good toffee is that signature buttery flavor, which is accomplished by not using margarine or any other fake butter. The better quality your butter is, the better your final product will be. Something like Kerrygold is great.
Ghirardelli: I recommend using Ghirardelli White Chocolate Wafers for the melted white chocolate componen. They are creamier than most other options and just as important, they melt beautifully smooth, don’t resist melting, and don’t separate or seize (turn into a rock hard ball that you need to toss out) once warmed up in the microwave. Other melting white chocolates I’ve tried tend to not stay as smooth and can break apart, which makes a smooth layer of white chocolate on the toffee pretty impossible to achieve. White Chocolate Bars vs. Chips: If you’re not going to use the aforementioned Ghirardelli, I don’t recommend white chocolate chips because they have stabilizers in them which actually resist melting. Instead, use a high quality white chocolate bar. Types of Chocolate: While it won’t be a true Disneyland copycat version of churro toffee, some people are not white chocolate fans. Therefore, swap white chocolate for milk or dark chocolate if preferred. You can even buy a trio of milk, dark, and white chocolate melting wafers and make some of each kind of toffee if you’re feeling inspired. You’ll need three 10-ounce bags anyway.
Watch the Temperature: You’ve really got to keep a close eye on that thermometer. Once the toffee mixture heats to 285°F, it’s ready to be poured into your prepared baking pan. It’ll take about 2o to 30 minutes, depending on your pot. However, once it’s above 250F, the temperature can elevate very quickly so make sure to not get distracted and be ready to take it off the heat. Slicing: Make sure you make your first lines in the toffee when it’s still relatively warm, but has started to set, about 5 to 10 minutes. That way later on you can break it apart easier since you’ve sliced in some break-apart grooves once it’s fully hardened. Use a sharp knife or a pizza wheel. For the most authentic visual presentation, try to make sure the toffee is sliced into even pieces. You can either have 12 to 15 large squares, like they serve at Disneyland, or 24 mini squares.
Time Saving Shortcut: Rather than cutting the toffee into perfect squares and dipping each into white chocolate and then the cinnamon-sugar, simply pour a layer of white chocolate over the top of the toffee in your baking pan after it’s cooled for about 8 minutes, sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over the white chocolate, and allow the toffee to set up for a couple hours before breaking or slicing into pieces. Your toffee will only have white chocolate and cinnamon-sugar on one side rather than fully dipped and coated BUT this method saves a ton of time and tastes almost as amazing as when it’s fully dipped in white chocolate and fully dredged through cinnamon-and-sugar.
More Easy Toffee Recipes:
Graham Cracker Toffee – If you’re looking for a recipe that will disappear at holiday parties, cookie exchanges, neighborhood potlucks, or school bake sales, this graham cracker toffee is a guaranteed winner!! It’s EASY and everyone LOVES it!! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!
Melt in Your Mouth Toffee – Irresistible, buttery, ADDICTIVE, and just melts in your mouth!! EASY and perfect for holiday parties, gift-giving, or cookie exchanges!!
Spiced Toffee Cake with Brown Sugar Caramel Frosting – Looking for recipes using spice cake mix? Make this spiced toffee cake! It’s an EASY, soft, and fluffy spice cake with toffee bits inside and on top!! The frosting is AMAZING and takes this cake over the top!!
