Location: Jolly Holiday Café – Mainstreet, U.S.A – Disneyland Park – Disneyland

Source: www.rumblytummy.com

 Hi hungry bakers!

          Whenever I think of Disneyland I instantly get a smile on my face. This incredibly warm wave of happiness rushes over me. You know the feeling I’m talking about. I imagine strolling down Mainstreet U.S.A, one hand holding my husband’s hand, and the other holding a Mickey Ice Cream Bar. Goodness, I love those things.

            Pharrell Williams said “clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth,” and that’s exactly what I feel like when I’m there. Truthfully, honestly, and happy.

          Located right on Mainstreet is a Mary Poppins themed Café that opened in 2012; The Jolly Holiday Café. It should probably be noted that I’m a huge Mary Poppins fan. Gigantic Mary Poppins fan actually. When most little girls were playing with Cinderella dolls, all I wanted to do was hang out with the nanny with the cheeky attitude. She is my girl. For the record I know Julie Andrews is not actually Mary Poppins but I would totally fangirl out if I met her on the street. Ok, more like cry. I would 100% cry.

            You’ll find this turn-of-the-century café on the far west end of Main Street near Adventureland. This newish quick service serves house specialties like the Jolly Holiday Salad, Chicken Waldorf on brioche and Ham and Cheese Quiche. Those are great but let’s get to what we really care about; the baked goods.

            They are serving up scones, fruit tarts, and white chocolate macadamia nut cookie just to name a few. Their most famous pastry is our recipe for today; the Matterhorn Macaroons. Guests can’t get enough of this thing. People love it.

            There are a million different versions of this macaroon online. I couldn’t find an official one but I did find one on http://www.rumblytumbly.com that is closer than any other I’ve tried. All credit goes to them for figuring it out.

            I should probably confess here that I don’t love these. I know most people can’t get enough of them but it just tastes like a shortbread and macaroon mix that’s okay. I don’t hate them, I just don’t get what the fuss is all about. With that being said, try it before you take my word for it. Always decide for yourself. Speaking of that, let’s get to baking everyone.

            This recipe will make 12 macaroons, but it really just depends on how big you make them. If you want to be a rebel, make one huge one and confuse your family.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup room temperature butter

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• ¼ cup granulated sugar

• ¼ tsp. vanilla extract

• ¼ tsp. almond extract

• ¼ tsp. coconut extract

• 1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• ¼ tsp. salt

• 1 bag of white candy melts

• Icing sugar for decorating

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325F. This recipe doesn’t require greasing your pan ahead of time. Whenever a recipe calls for an ungreased baking sheet or pans it makes me nervous that things will stick.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar together until it’s light and fluffy. Make sure it’s really well mixed before continuing. I like to let butter and sugar cream for quite sometimes.

3. Add salt, flour, and all three extracts to the bowl and mix until just combined. Start with the speed on low or you will end up with a face of flour.

4. The finer the coconut is chopped the better the macaroons will turn out. I put mine in a food processor and ground it as fine as possible. Plus I secretly just really like using it.

5. Fold in one cup of the finely ground coconut.

6. Form your macaroons into mountains. The batter will be dry and crumbly but with a little practice, your Matterhorn’s will take shape. Place on your cookie sheet.

7. The recipe says to bake for 15 minutes but I left mine in for a couple more minutes. They still seemed a little light to me but I was scared to burn them. They seem like the type of cookie that goes from raw to burnt in the blink of an eye.

8. Place on a wire rack to cool. You have to let them cool completely before continuing or they will fall apart when you try to dip them. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

9. Once cooled completely, melt candy melts as directed on package and dip macaroon top in it.

10. Sprinkle some icing sugar on top right away so it sticks to the candy melt. Then let cool completely.

Note: I also found this recipe on disneyfoodblog.com, but they referenced they got it from rumblytummy.com so that’s why I put them as the source.

Happy baking everyone!