How to Make 3D Turkey Cookies

There is no way my family will not Gobble Up these 3D Turkey Cookies that I have made for Thanksgiving this year. Not only are they adorable, but they are HUGE and delicious.

These 3D Turkey Cookies are not only for dessert, but they will serve a double purpose. I made one of these HUGE Turkey Cookies for each of my family members and I individually wrapped them and put names tags on each to be placed on the table as a sweet way to tell you where your seat is (see photo at bottom of the post). I know genius right? Nah not at all, but I wanted to do something different than last year of course. Last year I made Paper Bag Turkey Leg Place Settings, but they were not edible – lol.

Here is the best part, I documented step by step me making these so you can create some too.

So come on let me show you…. Now they are a little time consuming to make, but the end result is worth every minute spent and I did mention they were delicious right?

Here is what I used to create these 3D Turkey Cookies:

My Sugar Cookie Dough:

***NOTE: You can use refrigerated sugar cookie dough or any other recipe you have. I like this one because I find the cookies do not grow too much and stay pretty much to the size I create.***

• 1 1/2 Cups Butter Softened
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 3 Cups Flour
• 2 tsp Vanilla

This made exactly 12 Turkey Cookies

Mix together your Butter and Sugar, add in Vanilla and then slowly mix in your Flour. It will get crumbly. Then mix the rest of the way with your hands to form your cookie dough. It is that simple.

Turkey Cookie Decorations:

• Approx 2 1/4 Cups Confectioners Sugar
• Approx 6 Tbsp Milk
• Red, Orange and Yellow Food Coloring
• Edible Sugar Eyes
• Dried Papaya (This is what I used for the beaks), BUT you can use any other candy or even the icing to create one.
• Chocolate Sprinkles
• Strawberry Twizzlers
• Toothpicks

First I started by creating dough balls in different sizes to create my cookies. The largest was about 1 1/2″, then 1″ and then 3/4″.

On a cookie sheet I placed the ball and then flattened it with the palm of my hand. I made sure it was even and if the edges cracked I just touched them up making sure they were good and round.

Of course if you own Round Cookie Cutters

in graduating sizes you can just roll out the dough and cut them out. Of course I do not have them so I did it this way. They are now on my must get list.

I then baked my cookies by size at 350. The larger cookies took approx. 14 Minutes and the others about 12 minutes. Just keep your eye on them and take them out when lightly brown.

 

After my cookies were all cool, which happened to be the next day since I started this project late at night, I gathered all my decorations to create my turkeys.

Being I was making 12 Turkey Cookies I got my 24 Edible Sugar Eyes

, I took my dried Papaya Chunks and cut 12 triangle beaks and I cut small pieces of the Strawberry Twizzlers which would become my Turkey Feet. OH and I had my Chocolate Sprinkles on hand as well.

Next I got 3 bowls to mix up my cooking icing into 3 colors – Red, Orange and Yellow – this will be used to create the Turkey Feathers.

Now in each bowl I put in 3/4 Cup Confectioners Sugar and mixed in 2 Tbsp Milk. You want your icing to be thick. Then I added in my colors and mixed. In the end I did have a lot left over so you can down size that if you want. Also some people put a dash of vanilla in for extra flavor, but I honestly do not think it needs it, but that is your choice.

Now lets created some 3D Turkey Cookies….

First let me apologize for the bad coloring of the photos – I used my iPhone for these.

Now let me walk you through putting together your 3D Turkey Cookies step by step. Also let me tell you that all the icing was done using a flat toothpick – yup no fancy tools for this girl. It was easy to do and it worked. If you have a fancier way to do it then by all means go for it!!

1. Gather all your cookies – Small, Medium and Large

2. Using one of the colors of icing add a dab to the back of each eye and stick it on the small cookie.

3.  Next add a dab of icing to the back of your beak and add that on.

4. Using the red icing make your Turkey Waddle.

5. On your medium cookie add a dab of icing to the back of the twizzler feet add them to the bottom.

6. On your large cookie using the red icing add your feathers like shown in the photo

7. Now do the same with the yellow icing.

8. Now add orange feathers

9. End with more yellow feathers.

10. Sprinkle on a few Chocolate Sprinkles – if some of your icing is semi dry just push it in a bot to stick.

11. Using your icing as glue add some to the back of the medium cookie and then stick it to the large cookie – off set a tiny bit like shown.

12. Then do the same with the icing and attach the head.

That is it – your 3D Turkey Cookie is born!! Woo Hooo

TIP: To make it easier do all of the small cookies then the medium cookies and then the large. Then when those are all done then build them. Yes it is a process, but they are just so darn cute.

Here is one of the Turkey Cookies in my hand to give you a size reference and you can get a better idea as to why I call them 3D.

And here they are before I bagged them up – Are they adorable or what?

And here they are all bagged up and tagged for each of my family members and one for me of course.

All I did was put them in plain ol sandwich bags, taped the corners in the back, tied a fall ribbon and added a tag with everyone’s name on it. These will them go on our plates on the Thanksgiving Day table and will let everyone know where they will be sitting!! How SWEET!!

I hope you will give these a try and if you do send me a photo I would love to see it.