{ Disney World Inspired Recipe: The Grey Stuff }

"Ma chère mademoiselle. It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight. And now, we invite to relax, let us pull up a chair, as the dining room proudly presents... your dinner."  -Lumière

As I mentioned in my last post, one of my favorite things we did at Magic Kingdom was take in dessert at Be Our Guest restaurant. It is situated under the Beast's castle and is just so much fun.

We all (except Bean) chose a Master's Cupcake for our desserts. During lunch hours you can only get The Grey Stuff on top of a cupcake. If you go to dinner you can order just The Grey Stuff. It comes on a plate proclaiming, "Try the Grey Stuff!". The Master's Cupcake, however, is lovely. Not only does The Grey Stuff top it, the center is filled with it too. That's a GOOD thing. It's pretty delicious, right, Lumière?

It's a creamy, whipped, cookies and cream panna cotta, and it is divine! It's light and airy. Not too sweet, it's just delish.

Here's what the cupcake looked like.

The serving at night looks the same, sans the cupcake. Just a swirl of grey on your plate.

I'd of been perfectly happy without the cupcake, personally!

I've seen a lot of recipes for The Grey Stuff using pudding mix and Cool Whip. This is a true Panna Cotta recipe & I think you will be very surprised just how easy it is.

Making this should take you under 10 minutes not including chill time.

While quick and oh, so easy, Panna Cotta is a very decadent dessert consisting of nearly all heavy cream (so you know it's got to be good!). Give it a try. You won't need to ask the dishes either!

This is easily thick enough to top a cupcake. I did make this twice, once with half heavy cream and half 1/2 and 1/2. While I actually liked this flavor a little better, it wasn't thick enough to pipe. If you are going to serve it in a dish (and not try to unmold it like you would a panna cotta), it it great!

If you want to pipe it or unmold it, I suggest using all heavy cream.

As I'm sure Lumière would say- "C'est Magnifique!"



Ta for now,

To find out more about Be Our Guest and New Fantasyland, see my post here: New Fantasyland & Festival of Fantasy Parade.



The Grey Stuff
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

2 cups heavy cream*
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 packet unflavored gelatin
3 Tablespoons cold water
1 cup chocolate sandwich cookies (re: Oreos)- finely crushed
Sugar Pearls, optional.


Place 3 Tablespoons water in a large bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over and allow to 'bloom' for 5-10 minutes.

In a heavy saucepan, add 1/4 cup sugar to 2 cups heavy cream. Allow to heat until sugar is dissolved, but do not boil.

Once sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and add vanilla extract.

Pour the warm mixture over the gelatin and stir until dissolved.

Add crushed cookies to mixture and stir well.

Chill for at least 4 hours.

The cookies will fall to the bottom and create a sort of crust. You will need to stir the panna cotta create The Grey Stuff look. I used a whisk for a couple minutes. Return to fridge for 30 minutes. Pipe onto plates just before serving and garnish with sugar pearls.

*for a looser set (not for piping), use 1 cup Half and Half and 1 cup heavy cream. Serve in bowls.



Adapted from David Lebovitz