Apparently not content with creating a sales rebound, and testing Chipotle’s hold on quality ingredients and McDonald’s stranglehold on breakfast, Taco Bell now is venturing out with new products in another huge part of the quick-food business: snacks.

Taco Bell is introducing a new desserts menu that includes a churro, the “Mexican doughnut” that is dusted in cinnamon sugar and served warm, and triangle-shaped chocolate-chip-cookie and ice cream sandwiches, to go with its caramel apple empanada.

Also new on the menu: XXL Steak Nachos, which feature lots of steak, cheese and other predictable ingredients on restaurant-size nacho chips. Also upcoming are “loaded grillers,” which are nachos, chicken or a loaded baked potato, all wrapped in a tortilla. And just for good measure, the Yum! Brands-owned chain is testing a double-steak quesadilla through its more upscale Cantina Bell menu as well as a smothered burrito.[more]

Like the Cantina Bell move into Chipotle territory, the expanded menu aims to woo more fast food lovers from the competition. “We continue to explore the best value propositions while making sure we appeal to what our core consumers tell us they want,” a Taco Bell spokeswoman commented.

The chain will introduce the new snacks with a “happier hour” TV campaign early next year. But it hasn’t wasted any time beginning to promote the new goods through social media. A handful of youth-skewing Twitter VIPs, including Andrew W.K. and Brian Logan Dale, already rendering their verdicts on some of the new items.