Aren’t these things adorable? I am sure many of you have seen these many times before, but this is our rendition. If you are looking for some no-bake treats the kids can help make and that the kids will love, look no further.
I don’t know about your family, but my kids aren’t really big fans of most of the traditional Thanksgiving foods.
Mashed potatoes and gravy? According to them: “yuck!”
Turkey? It’s a lot like chicken and one of my kids cannot stand the stuff.
Stuffing? “Ewww. What is it?”
Vegetables? Depends on what it is. Corn? No way for one of them.
Dinner rolls? They’ll each have three, thank you very much.
Candy-filled cornucopias? Oreo turkeys? Nutter Butter Acorns? As many as they are allowed.
What is wrong with these people???? Who doesn’t love mashed potatoes?
No, of course I do not allow them to have only dinner rolls and candy for their Thanksgiving meal. That kind of makes me think of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving meal of popcorn and toast. My kids would be thrilled with that.
No, the candy is the b-r-i-b-e. “Eat your food, and you get the dessert, you little turkeys.” You get the idea. I can’t be the only one who does this.
The other purpose of the candy is that the kids really loved helping to make the candy treats and are excited to gift some to the neighbors and our friends. They also each brought one of the cornucopias to their teachers with a little thank you note attached.
If all that is not enough, the treats look adorable on a serving tray or on your Thanksgiving table.
Acorns and Turkeys
For the acorns
Ingredients:
- Mini Nutter Butter cookies
- Hershey’s chocolate kisses, unwrapped
- Mini chocolate chips
- Melted chocolate (use some of the mini or regular chocolate chips)
Directions:
- Assemble your ingredients.
- Melt a small amount of chocolate (use some of the chips) in a small bowl.
- Dip the bottom surface of each kiss in the melted chocolate. Remove any excess by shaking or by carefully scraping on the edge of the bowl. Attach the kiss to a mini Nutter butter, using the melted chocolate as “glue.” Stand the kiss with the cookie attached up to dry and set aside. Repeat for desired number of acorns. (See the tip below for another method for attaching the kiss.)
- When the cookies and kisses are set, attach a mini chocolate chip to the other side of each cookie to complete the acorn. (Tip: You could use more of the melted chocolate in the bowl to attach the mini chips, but it is hard to hold the tiny chip and not make a big mess. I have found it easiest to put some of the melted chocolate in a heat-proof squeeze bottle or even a small zip-top bag with a tiny corner snipped. Just squeeze a dot of melted chocolate onto the cookie and attach the chip. You could use this same method for attaching the kiss, just make sure to use enough to make it secure.)
- Let the assembled acorns dry until secure and then use them to garnish a cupcake, add flair to a dessert tray, decorate your Thanksgiving table, or to bribe a kid to eat his vegetables.
For the turkeys
Ingredients:
- Double-stuf Oreos
- Regular Oreos (optional)
- Candy corn (alternatively: you could use Mike and Ike’s or some other long type of candy if you don’t like candy corn or if you are not concerned about the color)
- Mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, unwrapped (try Rolos if you have a peanut allergy)
- Whoppers
- Chocolate icing, homemade or canned (the “glue” that holds it all together)
- Colored icing, homemade or store-bought in decorator’s tubes (yellow and red)
Directions:
- Gather all of your ingredients and supplies.
- Squeeze chocolate icing about half-way around the inside edge of a double-stuf Oreo. (This will be “glue” to help hold the candy corn feathers in place. The creme filling in the cookie is usually too dry to hold the candy securely, so the extra frosting is added.) (Tip: A regular Oreo is too narrow to accommodate the candy corn without breaking. The double-stuf allows a little extra space.)
- Carefully place five candy corn “feathers” into the icing you added. (Tip: Don’t push too far or you will crack the cookie. I usually find it best to go in just far enough to cover the white tip of the corn.) Set aside to dry and repeat for the desired number of turkeys.
- Add an Oreo “base” to the feathered Oreo. (I use regular Oreos for the bases because I can buy them cheaper in bulk from Costco, and I always have regular ones on hand for a variety of baking purposes. If you don’t have an insane baking inventory or a cheap side like me, you can just use the double-stuf Oreos for your base.) To attach the Oreos, I find it best to squeeze more chocolate icing onto the bottom edge of your feathered Oreo and then lay the feathered Oreo flat on the counter and press a plain Oreo into the icing. The plain Oreo will now be standing up, so it looks like your turkey will by lying on its back. Again, set aside to dry and repeat for as many turkeys as you desire.
- Make the body: Trim a small slice off the edge of each Reese’s peanut butter cup to get a flat side. Add chocolate icing to the sliced edge and to the original top of the peanut butter cup. Add the body to the turkey; the original bottom of the peanut butter cup should be the belly of the turkey and your sliced edge should be attached to the Oreo base. The top of the peanut butter cup is actually pressed into the feathered Oreo.
- Add a head: Squeeze more chocolate icing just above the peanut butter cup body on each turkey. Press and hold a whopper into the icing and then set aside to dry.
- Add the beak: Trim the tips off candy corn and attach to the whopper head with more chocolate icing.
- Add eyes, snoods (the red part over and beside the beak), and legs with colored icing.
I used decorator icing to add a little red line over the top of the beak and down the right side. I then did dots of yellow for the eyes and drew yellow legs. 
I used the chocolate icing to add pupils to the eyes as the last touch. - Let the turkey set and then use them as dessert, decoration, name place holders, gifts, or bribery.
Source: I originally saw both of these ideas on Our Best Bites. You can find instructions for the cornucopias by clicking here.The sugared cranberries are also at Our Best Bites.
Another note: If you didn’t stock up on candy corn at Halloween and can’t find any now, try Walgreens. That’s where I found them the first time I made these. Stores will often have them year-round in the candy section with other bagged candies such as gummy worms or starlight mints.
They do look very cute!!
Thanks!
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