Sunday, November 14, 2010

Turkey Gobblers

My fascination with turkeys that fly in the face of tradition continues!

The Internet is full of cute, crafty turkeys for Thanksgiving, but I was inspired by variations made with Mallomars (hard to find) or Pinwheels (easier to find.) Chocolate!

The other ingredients were easy to find too -- store-bought sugar cookies, chocolate marshmallow Pinwheels and frosting from tubes or cans. 

If you have the need to make all the ingredients from scratch, all I can say is have fun with those Pinwheels!

I had a delightful afternoon making these all by myself, but this would be a fun activity for a family or a group of (closely supervised) kids. In fact, I think I made something similar with a group of fourth or fifth-graders, back when my son was in elementary school and I was the room mother. Teachers just love moms who are eager to create a holiday activity that involves crafts and sugar, with a little chaos on the side!

Wouldn't these be adorable little place card holders or favors perched on each place at the Thanksgiving table? Of course, the kids will probably want to gobble them up before they dig into all the not so cute, boring food on their plates.

It's a holiday ... and they're so tempting ... and they're chocolate ... just one little piece ...

Let's face it, there is no jiggly jello mold, no soupy green bean casserole with yucky onions on top and no dish full of soggy bread cement that is ever going to taste like a chocolate marshmallow cookie turkey.

But don't run out to the grocery store for ingredients just yet. 

Wait till you see what else I've made. 

Patience.


Turkey Gobblers
large sugar cookies - homemade or purchased, softer is better
1 pkg. Nabisco Mallomars or Pinwheels
1 can chocolate frosting
1 tube Betty Crocker Yellow Decorating Icing
1 tube Betty Crocker Red Decorating Icing
1 tube Betty Crocker Yellow Decorating Icing
1 tube Betty Crocker White Decorating Icing
1 tube Betty Crocker Black Decorating Gel
1 Ziploc bag
scissors

Cut off about ½-inch piece from one side of a sugar cookie. Place some of the chocolate icing into the Ziploc bag and cut the corner. Pipe some chocolate to the trimmed cookie and stand it up on the edge of a second sugar cookie. Next, cut one Mallomar cookie in half with a sharp knife. Pipe some icing on the cut side and back of the Mallomar and place it against the front of the top cookie. Using a generous amount of chocolate icing, squeeze a mound of icing in front of the Mallomar body to form the head. Allow the icing to dry a bit before continuing. Place cookie on its back and pipe the outline of feathers on the sugar cookie above the body with red and/or yellow icing. With yellow icing, pipe a small beak on face and yellow feet on either side of the head. Using the white icing, pipe two eyes above the beak and then dot the center with black gel. Finally, pipe red icing over the top of the beak and down one side to form the snood.
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