One of our favorite holiday treats in Disney World is the Chocolate Chestnut Pinecone, and we have a copycat recipe here! Found at both Trolley Car Café and Backlot Express in Disney's Hollywood Studios, this dessert is absolutely stunning and tastes even better.
Disney Parks Blog's description of this dessert reads:
"Chestnut mousse on top of milk chocolate sweetened crepes with powdered sugar snow."
The chocolate chestnut mousse is very much akin to the chocolate mousse we have enjoyed our whole lives in Epcot's France pavilion. However, unlike the French variety, this mousse has a hint of chestnut.
Our version is also minimally grainy due to real chestnuts (even after softened, pureed, and run through a sieve). We didn't mind this, and we love the holiday flavor of the chestnut praline!
As for this chocolatey, crunchy praline nest, it's just as good as the mousse! Although various online reviews speculate that the nest is made of "soft baked nuts," or cereal, you can see in the description above that the nest is made of crepes. More specifically, feuilletine. So what exactly is feuilletine? They are delicate and crispy crepes that taste like a sugar cone, but way better. Feuilletine is used in many fancy French pastries to add crunch.
You may purchase feulletine, or make some yourself. An easy ratio of 1:1:1:1 egg white, powdered sugar, melted butter, and flour is all you need. (See this video from Cooking Fantasies for baking instructions.)
When we made our own feuilletine for this Disney chocolate chestnut mousse copycat recipe, we required 3 egg whites to make enough (baked in 3 batches). If you do not wish to purchase or make feuilletine, we also successfully substituted cornflake cereal. Although we haven't tried this substitution yet, it's also possible broken sugar cones might work!
How does Disney make the shape of the Chocolate Chestnut Pinecone Mousse?
So how in the heck does Disney get this dessert in the shape of a pinecone? Well, let me introduce you to Silikomart brand silicone molds (affiliate link)! Just like the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse recipe from Pandora, Disney uses these molds to form their desserts into perfectly-shaped masterpieces. The nice thing about mold desserts is the mousse is easy to prepare. One just needs time to allow the mousse to freeze before removing it from the silicone mold.
Disney finishes its Chocolate Chestnut Pinecone recipe with milk chocolate velvet spray. That way, you can still see all the crevices in the pinecone.
Should you choose not to purchase milk chocolate velvet spray (we didn't this time around), dusting with cocoa powder is a nice substitute. The only downside to this is that as the cocoa powder moistens, it gets darker. So your chocolate chestnut pinecone may have areas of darker and lighter brown. Nothing a little powdered sugar snow can't help make less obvious!
If you're trying to copycat Disney's pinecone mousse to a tee, Disney likely finishes their dessert with green color dust, which can be purchased online (affiliate link). For our recipe, we skipped the green dust. While this saved us money, we think the addition of the green color dust could take this at-home version to another level.
We hope you enjoy this dessert that will knock the socks off your guests! If you make our Disney Chocolate Chestnut Pinecone copycat recipe, please take time to give it a rating below share a photo on your favorite social media platform using #diznify. We love seeing your creations. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!
Ingredients
- Mousse ingredients:
- 5.2 ounces roasted chestnuts, whole and peeled (affiliate link)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon powdered gelatin
- 2 teaspoons water
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Nest ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons butter, unsalted
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1.5 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 2 cups feuilletine flakes/ paillete feuilletine (affiliate link) or crepes dentelle, broken into smaller pieces. We made feuilletine using this recipe. Or, substitute: cornflake cereal or broken sugar cones. It will taste different, but have a similar look.
- Decoration ingredients:
- milk chocolate velvet spray (affiliate link). Or substitute: cocoa powder
- powdered sugar
- optional: green color dust (affiliate link)
- Special supplies:
- Silikomart Foresta silicone pinecone mold (affiliate link)
- 3.125" ring molds (at least 1 of these. 5 is best) (affiliate link)
- small food processor
Instructions
- We'll start by making the chocolate chestnut mousse. To begin, finely chop the chestnuts in a small food processor.
- Add the chopped chestnuts to a medium-sized saucepan.
- Wipe or wash the small food processor to remove any remaining chestnut pieces. Then, add the chocolate to the food processor and pulse it into smaller pieces.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the gelatin and water. Set the mixture aside for the gelatin to bloom.
- Add the milk, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt to the chopped chestnuts in the medium-sized saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking frequently, to prevent the milk from burning. Once the milk is bubbing, cook for another 5 minutes, then remove it from the heat.
- Immediately add the bloomed gelatin to the hot chestnut/milk mixture, making sure to scrape the bowl of gelatin clean with a spatula, and whisk until dissolved in the chestnut/milk mixture.
- Pour the hot chestnut/milk mixture into the food processor with the chopped chocolate. Allow to sit for a minute or two, and then puree until combined.
- Strain the chocolate mixture through a wire mesh sieve and into a bowl. Set aside. DO NOT throw away the chocolate chestnut paste that won't pass through the sieve. You will need at least 1 tablespoon of this chocolate praline paste for the nests. Put this paste in a separate, small bowl and store it in the fridge until later.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, beat the heavy cream just until soft peaks form.
- Add 1/3 of the whipped cream to the strained chocolate/chestnut mixure and stir. Then, add the chocolate/whipped cream mixture to the rest of the whipped cream and fold until incorporated. You have your chocolate chestnut mousse!
- Spoon or pipe the mousse into the pinecone silicone molds, making sure not to overfill the molds. Tap the mold on the counter after filling to remove air bubbles in the mousse. Then, put the chocolate chestnut mousse molds in the freezer at least 8 hours (overnight is best).
- A note on making feuilletine nests: We recommend preparing the feuilletine nests the same day you plan to eat the mousse. You have to work quickly, so it helps to be prepared. This is a lot like making rice krispie treats.
- Start by adding the feuilletine flakes to a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
- Take the chocolate chestnut paste that you reserved out of the refrigerator and set aside.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and put the tart rings on top of the parchment. Set aside.
- It's time to begin making the nests. Start by adding the butter to a small saucepan and melt on stovetop over medium-low heat.
- Once the butter is melted, stir in 1/3 cup granulated sugar and the corn syrup. Turn the heat up to medium on the stove. Cook on medium heat until bubbling, stirring frequently, approximately 2 minutes. Then, whisk in 1 tablespoon of the reserved chocolate chestnut paste until just combined.
- Working quickly, remove the mixture from the stove and pour over the bowl of feuilletine flakes. Quickly stir until the feuilletine is well-coated.
- Then, spoon the feuilletine mixture into the tart rings to line the inside bottom and sides of the rings with feuilletine (this forms a nest). Once slightly cooled, use your fingers to press the mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the mold. Let sit for 5 minutes and then gently separate the tart rings from the feuilletine nest. Note: if you don't have five tart rings, make as many nests as you have tart rings. Remove nest from tart ring, and repeat until all five nests are made.
- Get the frozen pinecone-shaped mousses out of the freezer and immediately remove from the silicone molds. We found this was easiest when we first loosened the lip of the bottom of the pinecone and then forcefully pressed the top of the pinecone with our hands to pop them out and onto a plate.
- Immeditely coat the sides of each frozen pinecone mousse with milk chocolate velvet spray. Or, if using cocoa powder, tip the pinecones onto their sides and use a fine mesh strainer to dust with cocoa powder, rolling to coat all sides. Tip the pinecones back upright and give them a little jiggle to remove excess cocoa powder. Note: cocoa powder will darken as it moistens. Your pinecone may have spots where the cocoa powder has moistened, and other lighter areas, where it has not.
- Using a serving spatula, carefully transfer the frozen pinecones to the praline nests. Using your hands, shape the nest so that it hugs the chocolate pinecone. The nests should still be pliable, within an hour of preparation, to do so.
- Transfer the chocolate chestnut pinecones to the fridge to thaw for at least 4 hours before serving.
- Immediately before serving, dust with powdered sugar and Wilton green color dust. (Note: Powered sugar dissolves as it moistens, so make sure to do this just prior to serving.) Enjoy!
Notes
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