SALT LAKE CITY — In the song “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s 1991 animated film “Beauty and the Beast,” Lumiere tells Belle, “Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious.”
The “Grey Stuff” has since become a beloved treat served at Disney Parks around the world, and the Disney Parks Blog recently released an at-home recipe inspired by the dish.
Several Disney Parks recipes have been released amid park closures during the coronavirus pandemic, from Churro Bites to Dole Whip.
Here is my attempt at making the Disney Parks Blog’s “Grey Stuff” recipe:
I started with 1.5 cups of cold whole milk and one 3.4-ounce package of instant vanilla pudding mix. I poured the milk into a large mixing bowl, added the instant vanilla pudding mix and whisked them together for two minutes.
It didn’t take long for the mixture to thicken up as I whisked the cold milk and pudding mix, but I kept going for the full two minutes to make sure it was fully combined. Toward the end of the two minutes, it became harder to stir and the whisk was forming soft lines in the mixture.
After I was done whisking, I put the bowl in the refrigerator and let it set for two hours. The refrigeration time in this recipe is a good time to whip up some sugar cookies, if you don’t already have some on hand.
While the vanilla pudding was refrigerating, I worked on the next step in the recipe. I put 15 chocolate sandwich cookies in a food processor.
I pulsed the chocolate sandwich cookies in the food processor until they had been pureed into small crumbs. Some of the small crumbs stuck together to look like large crumbs, probably because of the white cream filling that was in the cookies, but they broke up easily. I set the pureed cookies aside until the vanilla pudding was done refrigerating.
After the vanilla pudding had firmed up in the refrigerator for two hours, I folded in the pureed cookies and stirred until the two were fully mixed.
The mixture started to look like “Grey Stuff” as the color became dark gray, and the consistency was fairly thick.
At this point, I added one thawed 8-ounce container of whipped topping and 3 tablespoons of instant chocolate pudding mix and stirred until the three were fully combined.
The finished product was lighter in both color and texture. At this point, the “Grey Stuff” mixture is complete and just needs to chill for one more hour. I placed the bowl back in the refrigerator, set a timer for one hour and finished making my sugar cookies.
After the “Grey Stuff” had set for one hour in the refrigerator, it was time to get the mixture ready to pipe. I trimmed with scissors the tip of a piping bag from a set I bought at my local grocery store and fit it with a coupler and a star tip, to give the “Grey Stuff” ridges around the edges as I piped it. Then, I filled my prepared piping bag with some “Grey Stuff.”
An easy way to fill a piping bag is to place the prepared piping bag tip first inside a tall glass and then fold the open end of the piping bag inside out over the rim of the glass. This will hold the piping bag open and leave your hands free while you fill it. Then unfold the piping bag, help the mixture settle toward the tip (push the mixture down slightly or give it a careful shake or two if needed), and then close and twist the open end of the piping bag around the mixture, trying to avoid as much as possible leaving excess air within the bag.
At this point, it’s time to pipe the “Grey Stuff” onto 12 scalloped sugar cookies. I started on the outside edge of each of six cookies and piped in a spiral toward the center to cover the surface of the cookie, holding the piping bag and pushing down from the twisted end and twisting tighter as needed.
The consistency of the “Grey Stuff” was light enough that it was easy to pipe, but thick enough to hold the shape of the ridges left by the star tip. I just piped one layer of “Grey Stuff” onto each cookie, but you can pipe on as much as you want. If you’ve seen pictures of the real thing, the “Grey Stuff” is sometimes stacked inches high on top of a cookie.
The last step is to top the “Grey Stuff” on each cookie with sugar pearls. I used a few chocolate pearl candies from my local grocery store on each cookie.
The elegant final product is as tasty to look at as it is to eat. The “Grey Stuff,” a chilled fluffy chocolate sandwich cookie pudding, is a perfect complement to the sugar cookies, and the pearl candies make for a beautiful decoration and fun added crunch.
Lumiere was right. The “Grey Stuff” is delicious.
Here is the full recipe from the Disney Parks Blog:
‘Grey Stuff’
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cold whole milk
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
15 chocolate sandwich cookies
1 (8 ounce) container whipped topping, thawed
3 tablespoons instant chocolate pudding mix
12 scalloped sugar cookies
Edible sugar pearls
Directions:
Pour milk into large mixing bowl. Add instant vanilla pudding mix and whisk for 2 minutes until smooth and slightly thickened. Place in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, until firm.
Place chocolate sandwich cookies in food processor and pulse until pureed.
Fold pureed cookies into pudding mix. Stir until fully mixed.
Add whipped topping and instant chocolate pudding. Stir until fully mixed.
Place in refrigerator and chill for one hour.
Spoon grey stuff into piping bag fitted with desired tip. Pipe grey stuff onto cookies. Top with sugar pearls.