This post is part of the DFB #OnTheList series, where we feature eats you’ve GOT to have while you’re at Disney! Let us know what’s on YOUR Disney Food Bucket List @DisneyFoodBlog #OnTheList!
February may be well over, but you can celebrate Mardi Gras any time of year thanks to this week’s #OnTheList item: Beignets at Port Orleans Resort — French Quarter!
The lucky ducks on the west coast can find these Disneyland must-haves in the park at spots like Cafe Orleans and the Mint Julep Bar where they’re shaped as Mickey Mouse.
Mickey Beignets at Disneyland’s Mint Julep Bar
But over in Disney World, there’s only one place to grab them: Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory, the Counter Service restaurant in Port Orleans Resort — French Quarter.
Beignets From Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory
Okay, technically sometimes you can find a beignet at Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie in Epcot. But even when they are available, they’re quite different from what you’ll encounter at Port Orleans where the beignets are custom-made to match their New Orleans-themed setting.
Port Orleans French Quarter
Port Orleans French Quarter
Yep, inspired exactly by the gems in NoLa, the Port Orleans beignets are soft, fluffy pillows of fried dough.
Batch of three Beignets
Hot out of the fryer, they promptly receive much more than a mere dusting of powdered sugar.
Beignet
(Try as you might, it’s pretty much impossible not to get sugar all over your table. Not to mention your shirt… and basically your entire face. I just call it part of the experience and embrace it!)
The puffy shape of the beignets is quite impressive because inside, they’re mostly hollow, making the sugar-to-fried-dough ratio very high. Nice.
Cross-Section of the Beignets
Cross-Section of a Beignet
And since they’re so light, you’re going to want to keep the whole batch (you can choose 3 or 6) to yourself.
Beignets at Port Orleans French Quarter!
And — news flash!! — to make these sweet snacks even more delicious, Sassagoula is now offering Beignet Dipping Sauces!
Beignet Dipping Sauces at Sassagoula!
You have 3 different options: Caramel, Raspberry or Chicory Ganache. They cost $1.99 each and are snack credit eligible as well!
Beignet Dipping Sauce Mickey!
The dipping sauces come in small, coved plastic cups to make it easy to transport along with your beignets.
Beignets and Dipping Sauces!
The caramel is slightly transparent and not too thick. It is super sweet and tastes exactly like melted caramel. I would also love to try this one with other sweets from the pastry case! (Especially chocolate ones!)
Caramel Dipping Sauce
The raspberry dipping sauce is the same consistency as the caramel, slightly transparent and not overly thick. It is very flavorful and that perfect combo of sweet and tart. This sweet item will also be perfect for fruit lovers!
Raspberry Dipping Sauce
And the final dipping sauce for your beignets is chicory ganache. Just reading the name I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this one…
Chicory Ganache Dipping Sauce
Chicory is very popular in New Orleans and has a very bitter and nutty flavoring. It’s often combined with coffee in the au lait style. The best way I can describe it is like eating cocoa powder. The ganache consistency makes it thicker than the others. I love that they included this unique-to-the-resort dipping sauce, but note that the flavoring is a bit bitter. It’s perfect for the coffee-lovers out there.
Chicory Ganache Consistency
All three are definitely a great option and addition to make our #OnTheList favorite even more fun and delicious than they already were!
All 3 Beignets Dipped!
So make your way over to the French Quarter, and enjoy a slice — or batch 😉 — of life in the Big Easy!
Are Port Orleans Beignets on your Disney Food Bucket List? Please let us know with a comment below!
What’s On YOUR Disney Food Bucket List?
Port Orleans Beignets are featured on the DFB Disney Food Bucket List — #OnTheList! Check out the list for more must-eats, and tweet, instagram, and Facebook your Disney Food Bucket List items @DisneyFoodBlog with #OnTheList!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
As someone born and raised in nola, it’s totally possible and easy to polish off beignets without getting a drop on you. You just gotta know how 😉 And fyi- that’s what we would consider a *light dusting* of powdered sugar, not a lot like you think it is 🙂 Real beignets you have to dig in a small mountain of powdered sugar to find or even better- they serve with sugar shakers so you can dose out how much you like!
Chicory has a long history in New Orleans. We were taught in school slaves added it to their coffee rations to stretch it to last longer- it’s a root plant similar to that of endive or radicchio (hence the bitterness) I’m sure here they made more of a mocha ganache by mixing chicory coffee with it. But most people could drink chicory coffee and never know the difference- it tastes similar to espresso without being espresso.
The beignets and Port Orleans are decent, but less than authentic. They aren’t supposed to be mostly hollow.
For comparison…
https://foodtable.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/dscn2344.jpg
Agree with lebeau- the ones I had in Florida were more hollow than those pictures above, however the beignets I had in Disneyland were wonderful, far superior to their Florida counterpart
Yeah, last time we got the beignets at PO, they were not as good as when we first got them, oh.. 15 years or so ago.. then, they were more like the photo that @lebeau linked to, and less like the one here.
That being said, I will likely still try to get them next time I am at WDW.
I had a batch of the beignets at WDW in June of 2014. (I know, forever ago. D:) And we actually didn’t like them at all. My mom had RAVED about them, so I was really excited. I think I was expecting more donut than what we received, which was kind of like cardboard with sugar. My dad disliked them so much that he went back and got a cup of chocolate syrup from somewhere and we ate them like that.
I don’t know if our beignets were a fluke, but they were definitely a let down. :/
Are these beignets on the ddp? Snack?
Made a special trip to POFQ for beignets last time we visited Disney and I was not disappointed! It was Oct.2016 and the temporary Sassagoula Floatworks was set up. I had to wait a bit for my order, so when they delivered it they gave me free dipping sauce. We loved it! All of them!
Best Beignets at Disneyland are at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney. BTW, Cafe Orleans beignets suck.
Did French quarter change their recipe? We first had them in 2013 and they were so good, we made a point to get them in Disney land in 2015( outside the park close to the Disney store) and they were even better there. So in 2017, we went back to the French quarter and they were not good. Tasted like they were whole grain.
I’m with Rachel… They were very different than before and I was disappointed to not get the beignets I had been craving for so long. They were very dense, no hollow spot in the middle. Basically a donut… We ordered 6 of them to split before heading to the Flower & Garden food booths but they were so heavy and filling, we weren’t hungry for hours….