Making Oreo Cookie Turkeys

Kids before making Oreo Cookie Turkeys

By Marsha Jepson

First, I love being an aunt. I have six nieces and nephews that I love more than life itself. They are Winston, 5 months, Victoria, 11, Michala, 13, Hunter, 18, Brent, 20 and Ashley, 24. We’ve made some great memories through the years by making or doing a craft of some sort together. Most of our “craft” projects centered around a holiday.

There was the rice crispy treat Christmas tree that we hoped would stay up long enough for Nana (my mother) to see it when she got home from visiting my grandmother in the hospital. Seems like we put in too much butter so the tree leaned from side-to-side and needed constant supervision to keep it upright.

And then there was the sugar cookie Christmas tree, complete with real candles to emulate Christmas tree décor of old. When we gathered around the cookie tree on Christmas day and lit the candles so all could bask in the glow of the fine handiwork of my young nieces, the cookie icing caught fire and amidst much laughter, we quickly blew all the candles out before any fire damage was achieved.

Making Oreo Cookie Turkeys started for me about 15 years ago based on an idea from a coworker. I even made Oreo Cookie Turkeys with my two elderly grandmothers for their caregivers at their assisted living home. It’s a project that is deaf to age and gender and always delights those who partake.

Here are the ingredients you need to Make Oreo Cookie Turkeys:
• Double-stuffed Oreos, preferably the ones with the orange crème centers
• Peanut Butter Cups
• Whoppers
• Red Hots
• Candy Corn
• Tube icing

A helpful hint I’ve learned the hard way through the years...buy the orange-filled oreos as soon as you see them in the stores. They come out around Halloween and are usually displayed with the Halloween items. I’ve waited too late many a year and ended up using the white cream-filled oreos, which worked out just fine but are not as much fun as the orange ones.

Click on the video below for an actual demonstration of how to make an Oreo Cookie Turkey:



And for those who need written directions, here goes.

To assemble the turkey, take one of the chocolate cookies off of the oreo, leaving one side with the cookie and orange cream filling. Using the icing as “glue”, place a small amount of icing on the orange filling and put a peanut butter cup upside down on the orange cream. This serves as the body of the turkey.

Place another slight bit of icing or “glue” on top of the peanut butter cup and place a Whopper on top to represent the turkey’s head. Now stand up the chocolate cookie without the orange cream to the back of the peanut butter cup and Whopper. Place three dabs of icing and adhere a candy corn to each dab representing the turkey’s feathers. For the gobbler, either use a dab of red icing or adhere a red hot between the Whopper and peanut butter cup to symbolize the gobbler.

Kids after making Oreo Turkeys, nicely sugared-up

And the fun associated by the kids to the project is directly proportionate to the amount of candy the kids eat while making their turkeys. You can see the marked difference in the kids demeanors in the “before” and “after” pictures included in the blog. It’s a wild and crazy time but so very worth it.

One last idea…use the turkeys at each place setting on Thanksgiving day. The kids get some recognition for their great work and it definitely brightens up any table.

So take time to create some holiday traditions with your kids, nieces, nephews or other friend’s kids. It’s worth the time and investment and in the case of the Oreo Cookie Turkey project, it’s worth the sugar-rush the kids experience upon project completion.

Or in my case as an aunt, I simply return the kids to their parents. I love being an aunt!

Marsha Jepson is the Director of Internal Stakeholder Communications for Texas Health Resources.