Adorable Thanksgiving turkeys made with store-bought or homemade cookies, candy corns, Reese’s miniature peanut butter cups, and malted milk balls. A fun treat for the kids!
Ingredients
1 (11-ounce) bag candy corn or harvest corn
16 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (see note*)
16 malted milk balls such as Whoppers or Maltesers (see note**)
32 candy eyeballs (see note ***)
1/4 recipe Royal Icing or about 2 cups prepared royal icing from a mix, thick consistency for piping
red food coloring or tube of red icing or frosting
orange food coloring or tube of orange icing or frosting
brown food coloring
32 1-3/4 to 2-inch diameter cookies such as Oreos (see note ****), the round Nutter Butters, or your favorite homemade peanut butter cookie (see note*****), do not crosshatch
Directions
- Prepare royal icing according to the recipe or package directions. Keep it of piping (not filling) consistency, fairly thick. If using royal icing for the face and feet, tint small amounts red and orange for the feet and wattle. Divide the remaining white icing in two and tint half of it brown. If you have the brown harvest corn or are using chocolate cookies, you can tint the entire batch brown. Place icings in piping bags or a plastic zip-loc bags with a tiny tip snipped off a corner with a scissors.
- The photo shows 10 candy corns per turkey, but depending on the size of your cookie you may want to use fewer candy corns in his tail. Turn half of the cookies upside-down and with the royal icing, glue the tips of the candy corns to the cookie in a fan shape, to make his tail. Do not disturb these until the icing has set.
- While the icing is drying, unwrap your peanut butter cups. Cut a small slice off of each cup, so that when turned sideways as in the photo, it has a flat bottom to sit on the bottom cookie. With royal icing, brown if you have it, glue peanut butter cups to the bottom cookie, leaving enough room for “feet” in the front, and enough room for the tail cookie in the back. Do not disturb until the icing has set.
- When icing has set, glue the tail onto the back of the cookie. Attach the two cookies together, the tail standing up on its edge, with the brown or white icing as shown in the photo and also glue the tail cookie to the peanut butter cup. Allow to set until stable. Set these up against something to support them while they are drying.
- While the icing is drying, set aside 16 candy corns and with a sharp knife cut off the very tips (in the photo, the white part of the candy corns) to make the turkey’s beak. Set these aside for later.
- Once the icing is dry and cookies are stable, for the head and wings, glue a malted milk ball to the top of the peanut butter cup and to the tail cookie. Glue two candy corn wings to the peanut butter cup. Allow to set until stable.
- Glue two eyes to the malted milk ball, then glue on the white candy corn beaks. Use the orange frosting for a beak and feet, with the red frosting dripping down for the turkey’s wattle. Do not disturb until icing is set and dry.
Notes
- * A 10-ounce (297g) bag of Reese’s Miniature Cups contains about 33 pieces.
** A theater-sized 5-ounce (141 g) box of Whoppers contains about 58 pieces.
*** A 0.88-ounce (25 g) package of Wilton Candy Eyeballs contains from 48 to 72 eyeballs.
**** A 14.3-ounce package of Oreos contains 36 cookies. A 279g package of Oreos contains about 24 cookies so you’ll need two packages. A 500g package of Oreos contains 42.
BEWARE that these amounts are subject to fluctuation over the years.
***** Our Peanut Butter Cookie recipe makes 20 cookies so you will have to make a double batch.