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Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies with Royal Icing

This is a Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies recipe with homemade royal icing decorations. These turkey sugar cookies are coated with powdered sugar icing and decorated for some cute turkey cookies.  

 
Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies
 

A big treat this morning.  My daughter recently had fun making Thanksgiving turkey cookies with her little girls.   I asked her to share her super cute recipe with everyone.  And she happily obliged so here’s Kristi! 

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Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies, royal icing decorations

 

Hi all! I am Kristi, Evelyn’s oldest daughter. I was recently chatting with Mom about some turkey sugar cookies I make, and I was so excited about them.   Now I’m happy to volunteer to write this guest post and share this easy turkey cookies recipe with homemade royal icing decorations. 

These are Thanksgiving Holiday Turkey Sugar Cookies my daughters and I made last weekend and we had a lot of fun making them.   They turned out so cute and I was really excited to share this turkey cookies recipe on Mom’s blog. The best part is that it took a while to make them and it was that much more quality time I was able to spend with my daughters.

 

Note:  Traditionally, Royal Icing is made with Egg Whites. However, I have small children and it is not recommended that children (or pregnant women for you that this applies to) eat uncooked or undercooked eggs. Therefore, I have provided this royal icing decorations recipe instead. It worked beautifully and tasted great.

 

Turkey Cookies Recipe

Equipment Needed:

  • Mixing Bowls
  • Mixer
  • Pastry Mat
  • Rolling Pin
  • 3 ½ inch Cookie Cutter
  • Baking Cookie Sheet
  • Parchment Paper, optional
  • Plastic Squeeze Bottles
  • Card Stock
  • Wax Paper

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar

 

How to make the Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies:

Directions:

  • Beat together the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and egg, until smooth and creamy. Mix in remaining ingredients using the paddle attachment of the mixer.
  • Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
  • Heat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Roll dough in portions to about 1/8- 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a large circle cookie cutter (approximately 3 ½ inches in diameter).
  • Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking mat for approximately 7 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes then move the cookies to a cooling rack.
 

Powdered Sugar Icing Recipe:

Note: I use almond extract instead of the traditional vanilla for 2 reasons. First, I have found that the flavor is much better. Second, vanilla darkens my white icing, making it look brown and dirty. Since the almond extract is clear, I don’t have that problem. This was irrelevant for this project, but I still prefer the flavor of the almond extract

 

How to Make Powdered Sugar Icing

  • In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Stir well.
  • Then add milk, 1 tsp at a time until the frosting is of desired consistency to frost cookies.
  • Finally, color with brown gel food color, mixed to your desired color of turkey

 

Royal Icing Decoration Recipe:

Note:  Traditionally, Royal Icing is made with Egg Whites. However, if you have small children, it is not recommended that children (or pregnant women for you that this applies to) eat uncooked or undercooked eggs.  Therefore, it’s a good idea to use this recipe instead. It worked beautifully and tasted great

 

Ingredients:

  • 5 Tablespoons of Meringue Powder
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • Juice from 1 lemon
  • Gel food coloring (4-5 colors of your choice for the feathers, beak, and waddle)
  • Candy Eyes
 
Royal Icing in squeeze bottles
 
  • Beat meringue powder and water on high for approximately 1-2 minutes, until the mixture, is slightly thickened.
  • Add the sugar and lemon juice and mix until smooth. You don’t want the icing to thin, so it will not run when you are creating your designs. 
  • This makes for a good amount of icing. I divided the icing into separate bowls, one for each color I was going to be using and mixed in the gel food coloring of the colors I wanted. I then placed each color into a plastic squeeze bottle to allow for easy tracing of the decoration designs.
 
 

How to Create Royal Icing Decorations:

So, for these royal icing decorations, I used elongated ovals for the feathers and a simple drawing of a beak and waddle to create a template for the icing decorations. I printed these on a small square of card stock, slightly larger than my cookies. I taped a rectangular piece of cardboard to create a “handle” on the back of the template.
 

royal icing decorations

 
I taped a piece of wax paper, just big enough for my design, to another piece of cardboard.  Then I slid the template between the wax paper and cardboard and then traced my design, using the desired colors with the squeeze bottles of royal icing.
 
 
Once I was done, I removed the template from under the wax paper and set aside the design to dry. I repeated this as many times as the number of cookies I wanted to make. It is best to let the icing dry at least overnight so that it is firm when you remove it from the wax paper.
 
Making turkey cookies recipe
 
Once I had iced the Thanksgiving turkey cookies with the brown powdered sugar icing, I then removed the royal icing decorations from the wax paper and arranged them on these turkey sugar cookies.  You want to be very gentle removing these from the wax paper to prevent them from breaking or cracking. Either use a toothpick to gently prod the icing decorations off the wax paper, or place the wax paper on the edge of the counter or table and roll it down over the edge. This will easily dislodge the pieces.
 
turkey cookies recipe
 
For the eyes on these Thanksgiving turkey cookies, I bought candy eyeballs, and simply arranged them on the cookies with the rest of the royal icing decorations.
 

Other Cookie Recipes:

 

Click HERE to save these turkey sugar cookies to Pinterest

 

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies
Print Recipe
5 from 10 votes

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies recipe with homemade royal icing decorations. These turkey sugar cookies are coated with powdered sugar icing and decorated.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Cooling Time2 hours
Total Time2 hours 30 minutes
Course: Dessert, Snack, snacks
Cuisine: American
Keyword: turkey cookies, Thanksgiving turkey cookie
Servings: 16
Calories: 375kcal
Author: Kristi

Ingredients

For the cookies

For the powdered sugar icing

For the Royal Icing

Instructions

To make the cookies

  • Beat together the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and egg, until smooth and creamy. Mix in remaining ingredients using the paddle attachment of the mixer.
  • Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
  • Heat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Roll dough in portions to about 1/8- 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a large circle cookie cutter (approximately 3 ¼ inches in diameter).
  • Bake on a cookie sheet lined with a baking mat for approximately 7 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes then move the cookies to a cooling rack.

To Make the Powdered Sugar Icing

  • In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Stir well. 2. Then add milk, 1 tsp at a time until the frosting is of desired consistency to frost cookies.
  • Finally, color with brown gel food color, mixed to your desired color of turkey. (I use almond extract instead of the traditional vanilla for 2 reasons. First, I have found that the flavor is much better. Second, vanilla darkens my white icing, making it look brown and dirty. Since the almond extract is clear, I don’t have that problem. This was irrelevant for this project, but I still prefer the flavor of the almond extract)

For the Royal Icing

  • Beat meringue powder and water on high for approximately 1-2 minutes, until the mixture, is slightly thickened.
  • Note: Add the sugar and lemon juice and mix until smooth. (You don’t want the icing to thin, so it will not run when you are creating your designs. Traditionally, Royal Icing is made with Egg Whites. However, I have small children and it is not recommended that children (or pregnant women for you that this applies to) eat uncooked or undercooked eggs. Therefore, I have provided this recipe instead. It worked beautifully and tasted great)
  • This makes for a good amount of icing. I divided the icing into separate bowls, one for each color I was going to be using and mixed in the gel food coloring of the colors I wanted. I then placed each color into a plastic squeeze bottle to allow for easy tracing of the decoration designs.
  • So, for these royal icing decorations, I used elongated ovals for the feathers and a simple drawing of a beak and waddle to create a template for the icing decorations. I printed these on a small square of card stock, slightly larger than my cookies. I taped a rectangular piece of cardboard to create a “handle” on the back of the template.
  • I taped a piece of wax paper, just big enough for my design, to another piece of cardboard.  Then I slid the template between the wax paper and cardboard and then traced my design, using the desired colors with the squeeze bottles of royal icing.
  • Once I was done, I removed the template from under the wax paper and set aside the design to dry. I repeated this as many times as the number of cookies I wanted to make. It is best to let the icing dry at least overnight so that it is firm when you remove it from the wax paper.
  • Once I had iced the Thanksgiving turkey cookies with the brown powdered sugar icing, I then removed the royal icing decorations from the wax paper and arranged them on these turkey sugar cookies.  You want to be very gentle removing these from the wax paper to prevent them from breaking or cracking. Either use a toothpick to gently prod the icing decorations off the wax paper, or place the wax paper on the edge of the counter or table and roll it down over the edge. This will easily dislodge the pieces.

Nutrition

Calories: 375kcal | Carbohydrates: 64g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 192mg | Potassium: 59mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 48g | Vitamin A: 392IU | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg

Recipe Rating




Steph @ Three Loud Kids!

Sunday 1st of December 2013

These are so super cute!

Debi and Charly @ Adorned From Above

Tuesday 26th of November 2013

So Cute. Thanks so much for sharing. Have a great Thanksgiving.Debi and Charly

Winnie

Monday 25th of November 2013

These are absolutely adorable!!

Clairejustine oxox

Sunday 24th of November 2013

Aww these are so sweet...Thanks for sharing and pinning

Michelle Williams

Saturday 23rd of November 2013

These are so cute!! I'm pinning them!! :)