This Pumpkin Spice Churro Toffee recipe will bring the taste of one of Disneyland's most popular treats to your home! Pumpkin spice adds a fun twist to this sweet, buttery, and crunchy fan favorite.
Disney introduced churro toffee back in 2018, and it quickly became one of Disneyland's most popular treats up there with dole whips! The toffee was originally only available at California Adventure's Pixar Pier. Still, it became so popular that it can now be found throughout both parks and in different flavors, including pumpkin spice churro toffee.
Luckily, if you aren't visiting the parks soon, you can still get your hands on this tasty treat at home, this time with a pumpkin-spice twist.
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🥘 Ingredients
- Butter
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Baking soda: Baking soda creates tons of tiny bubbles in the toffee to give it a lightly crunchy, rather than hard, consistency.
- Almonds: Almonds can certainly be omitted, but true authentic Disneyland churro toffee does include them.
- Salt
- Ghirardelli white melting wafers: Unless you're in a pinch, do not substitute chocolate chips for the melting wafers. Chocolate chips are created to keep their shape when exposed to heat, so naturally, they don't melt as well as "melting" wafers.
🔪 Instructions
- Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan.
2. Heat to boiling and allow to reach 290F.
3. Add almonds, vanilla, and baking soda.
4. Spread toffee in a pan and allow to set until hard.
5. Coat toffee in white chocolate and pumpkin spice sugar mixture.
6. Allow to cool until the chocolate is hardened.
☑️ Tips for Making Toffee
If you haven't made toffee before, I want to warn you that toffee-making can be pretty temperamental. But, if you follow my tips exactly you'll be able to make perfect toffee every time!
- Melt the butter and dissolve the sugar completely before turning up the heat. This step is crucial in guaranteeing that your toffee doesn't crystallize at the end. Allow the butter to melt and the sugar to dissolve completely over low heat before you turn up the heat. This step usually takes about 10 minutes or so.
- Keep the cooking temperature steady. Increasing the temperature too fast because you might be impatient to get your hands on that tempting toffee can "shock" the toffee and lead to butter separation. Slow and steady will always win the race here.
- Don't over-stir the toffee. While you should constantly stir the toffee mixture in the beginning, when the butter and sugar are still coming together, once it starts boiling, put down the spoon. When the mixture is boiling, you'll want to still stir, but occasionally rather than constantly, as over-agitation can cause the mixture to crystallize or separate.
- Pay attention to the temperature. Toffee should not be cooked past 290F to 300F. This temperature range is the sweet spot for making toffee with a nice crunchy texture, but it's not so hard that it breaks your teeth.
💭 FAQs
Disneyland's toffee contains nuts, so I decided to add it to my recipe to make it more authentic. You are welcome to omit it if you aren't a fan.
No! Toffee should have a nice crunchy texture. If toffee is chewy, it is not good toffee and has most likely been exposed to moisture (i.e. if you live in a humid climate.)
Baking soda reacts to the acid sugar in the toffee to make tons of tiny bubbles. Those bubbles contribute to a light, crunchy texture that makes the toffee easier to eat.
🍰 More Dessert Recipes
- Homemade Mexican Churros
- Dutch Stroopwafels
- Homemade Cannoli
- Mexican Hot Chocolate Lava Cakes
- Pumpkin-Spiced Baklava
If you make this recipe, let me know what you think! I’d love it if you could add a star rating ★ and a comment below. Be sure to follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, too!
Print📋 Recipe
Pumpkin Spice Churro Toffee
This Pumpkin Spice Churro Toffee recipe will bring the taste of one of Disneyland's most popular treats to your home! Pumpkin spice adds a fun twist to this sweet, buttery, and crunchy fan favorite.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Additional Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 pieces 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: GlutenFreeDiet
Ingredients
Toffee
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup almonds
topping
- ½ cup Ghirardelli White Melting Wafers
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tablespoon orange decorating sugar
Instructions
- Prepare the sugar topping by whisking together ½ cup granulated sugar, 1-2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice, and orange decorating sugar.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Chop almonds using a knife or chopper and spread them on a baking sheet. Bake for 3-5 minutes or until fragrant and lightly browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Prepare a quarter sheet pan or 9x13" pan by lining it with parchment paper.
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter and sugar over low heat, stirring constantly. Continue stirring over low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved; this takes about 10 minutes.
- Increase the temperature of the sugar-butter mixture to medium until it starts boiling. Continue stirring, but only occasionally. Be diligent at checking the temperature, as it can increase quickly at this point.
- Once the mixture temperature reaches between 290°F and 300°F, remove the pan from the stovetop.
- Stir in the vanilla extract (the mixture will bubble), salt, baking soda, and almonds.
- Use a spatula to spread the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Allow the toffee to cool for a minute or two before cutting with a knife into 12 squares if desired. Otherwise, toffee can simply be broken into pieces after cooling.
- Place the toffee in the freezer and allow it to cool completely for about 15 minutes.
- Break the cold toffee into pieces.
- Place melting wafers in a microwave-safe bowl and cook in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. This usually takes around 1-2 minutes.
- Dip each piece of toffee into the white chocolate, using a spoon to help coat each side.
- Hold the chocolate-coated toffee over the bowl of spiced sugar and use a spoon to sprinkle the sugar on the toffee.
- Place toffee pieces onto parchment lined baking sheet and allow to cool. Refrigerate or freeze the toffee to speed up the cooling process.
Notes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 398
- Sugar: 48
- Sodium: 431
- Fat: 22
- Saturated Fat: 12
- Unsaturated Fat: 9
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 52
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: 2
- Cholesterol: 41
Keywords: churro, toffee, candy, pumpkin
Tristin says
This looks to good not to make! If it's got pumpkin spice flavors I have got to try it.
Healing Tomato says
We had this drink when we were at Disneyland. It's so nice to have a copycat version that I can make at home. Your recipe is very easy to make.
Enri Lemoine says
Toffee and churros? What can be better than these? Loved your recipe, and I have already shared it with a friend of mine who's everything Disney. Thanks for the inspiration!.
Ann says
What a great twist on the usual toffee! This sounds like a great fall sweet! Thanks for the recipe share!
Erin says
I've never had the Disneyland stuff but made this and oh my! So addictive! What an amazing treat. 🤩
veenaazmanov says
This Toffee recipe is surely a must try one for sweet lovers. Perfect dessert after any meal. A box on the Dinner Table would be perfect.
Amy Liu Dong says
Such an easy and delicious treat to make for everyone.
I am sure they will love this!
Jamie says
This churro recipe looks incredibly delicious and yummy! It's crispy on the outside with a delicious filling on the inside makes this so enticing and tempting! Loved it!
Veronika says
I've never been to Disneyland and never tried this dessert there but wow, so many of my favorite flavors and desserts combined into one! Saving to make it later this weekend.
Heather says
Oh I adore homemade toffee! And this pumpkin spiced toffee version would definitely not last long in this house. Can't wait to try!