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Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies

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A big treat this morning! 

  I have an awesome guest writer to bring you some of the most amazingly fun cookies! 
Made by three of my favorite girls!!

Hi all! I am Kristi, Evelyn’s oldest daughter. I was recently chatting with Mom about some decorated sugar cookies I made, and I was so excited about them, I ended up volunteering to write this guest post.

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 share these 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.

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 under cooked 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 this design, I used elongated ovals for the feathers and a simple drawing of a beak and waddle 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 my template.
I then taped a piece of wax paper, just big enough for my design, to another piece of cardboard. I slid the template between the wax paper and cardboard and then traced my design, using the desired colors with the squeeze bottles of 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 cookies with the brown powdered sugar icing, I then removed the royal icing decorations from the wax paper and arranged them on 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.
For the eyeballs, I bought candy eyeballs, and simply arranged them on the cookies with the rest of the decorations.
Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies

Ingredients

    For the cookies

    • 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

    For the powdered sugar icing

    • 1 cup of powdered sugar
    • 1 tsp almond extract
    • 1 tbsp melted butter
    • milk
    • brown gel food coloring

    For the Royal Icing

    • 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)
    Instructions

    To make the cookies

    1. 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.
    2. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
    3. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
    4. 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).
    5. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with non-stick foil or a baking mat for approximately 7 minutes.
    6. 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

    1. 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.
    3. 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
    1. Beat Meringue powder and water on high for approximately 1-2 minutes, until the mixture, is slightly thickened.
    2. 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)
    3. 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.
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    Kristi

    Isn’t she just awesome!! Oh yes the cookies are very super also!!  A proud mama speaking here! Thanks so much to Kristi for a great tutorial and a wonderful post, now send some of those cookies to your loving Mom!!
      Hugs 

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    Comments

    2. J

      These are darling! With the very youngest kids the work could be split between them and the adult. The kids would love frosting the cookies and plopping the eyes. Mom or grandma could pipe the face and feathers.

      Reply

    26. Miz Helen

      These are just the cutest little Turkey's ever! Thanks so much for sharing your great recipe with Full Plate Thursday and enjoy your Thanksgiving week!
      Come Back Soon
      Miz Helen

      Reply

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