Nutter Butter Turkey Cookies made with Nutter Butter cookies, candy corn, edible eyes, and a small red candy. These straightforward Thanksgiving cookies also make cute edible table decor!
Nutter Butter Turkey Cookies
These Nutter Butter Turkey Cookies only need six ingredients and are quick to whip up. They make a fun treat (Who doesn’t love a Nutter Butter now and again?!) and can double as table decor for your Thanksgiving dinner.
My kiddos get a kick out of these fun cookies and they love to “help” assemble them — it makes a great project to include the little ones.
Nutter Butter Turkey Cookie Ingredients
You can buy everything for these cookies pre-made at the store. Which is a nice shortcut when you have lots to prep for the big eating day! Here’s what we’ve got in these cookies:
- Large Nutter Butters. These peanut-shaped, peanut butter-flavored sandwich cookies can be found next to other baked cookies in the store.
- Nutter Butter Minis. These are also called Nutter Butter Bites. You’ll usually find them near the bigger Nutter Butter cookies.
- Candy corn. The candy corn makes the beak and feather of the turkey. The colors are great for this cookie design, even if the flavors clash a little. Guests can pick them off and eat them on their own if they want.
- Mini M&M’s. Use M&M Minis baking bits instead of buying the small tubes of mini M&M’s. The baking bits are cheaper and straightforward to find. Look for them near the baking chips at the store. You only need red ones for this recipe—save the rest for another treat like Chewy Granola Bars!
- Edible eyes. You can find candy eyes at most grocery stores, craft stores, or online! I like getting mini edible eyes for these Nutter Butter Turkey Cookies. Here is the exact kit I use. (I use the smallest eyes in the package.)
- Frosting. Many grocery stores sell freshly made frosting in the bakery section (just ask!). Or instead, frosting from the tub works great, or you can make your own!
Nutter Butter Turkey Cookie Assembly
While you don’t need any special tools to attach the candies to these cookies, I do find a piping bag fitted with a #3 tip is helpful when attaching the smaller pieces onto the turkey’s face.
Quick Tip
If you prefer, you can use a small plastic bag instead of a piping bag to attach the candies to the cookies. Add all the frosting into the bag and press it to the corner. Seal the bag without air in it and then snip off the tip with scissors — from-scratch piping bag for the win!
Recipe Variations
- For the true peanut butter lover, replace the cream cheese frosting with peanut butter frosting (I share my recipe for peanut butter frosting in this Banana Cupcakes post). Replace the regular candy corn with peanut butter candy corn instead.
- Replace the miniature Nutter Butter cookie “face” with a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup.
- Not a fan of candy corn? Leave them off if you want; a bald turkey is cute too!
- Press these Nutter Butter Turkey Cookies into these cake mix cupcakes as a festive cupcake topper.
- Press in 2 mini brown M&M’s at the bottom of the Nutter Butter as “turkey feet”
Recipe tips
- Use a very sharp serrated knife to cut the candy corn “beak” for the turkey.
- Use fresh frosting — if it sits out for a bit and is dry or crusty, the ingredients won’t stick as nicely.
- Be gentle when handling these Nutter Butter Turkey Cookies. Even when the frosting hardens, they are pretty fragile and can fall apart easily. If you want super sturdy turkey cookies, use royal icing instead of regular frosting.
- These cookies are best made fresh — when these assembled cookies sit out, they become stale or softened from the frosting — especially if you live in a humid area.
- Use fresh candy corn. When using old/hard candy corn, they crumble and break when cutting them into a beak. The fresher the candy corn, the nicer they cut and shape into a beak.
More Festive Thanksgiving Recipes:
Quick And straightforward
Thanksgiving Treats
Quick And straightforward
Thanksgiving Cookies
Desserts
Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Snacks
Pumpkin Spice Snack Mix
