Turkey time

Growing up my Mom was the quintessential stay-at-home Mom helping with class art projects, being homeroom Mom, going on field trips, leading Girl Scouts, etc. She also was the queen of crafty projects around the holidays having a treat at the ready.

As an adult, I’ve taken her lead and surprised my workplaces occasionally with treats from projects past. One of those is candy turkeys at Thanksgiving. Countless candy turkey posts have floated around Pinterest, but I have to say I like these the best. Why? Because they are easy. So, so easy. Like a turkey done in less than a minute easy. And if you’re making for a group that means you could have treats for the whole class done and cleaned up in less than an hour. And who doesn’t need an easy project around the holidays?

What you need:
Bag of buttery round crackers (Could be Ritz. I personally went generic.)
Bag of chocolate candy (I opted for small chocolate peanut butter cups because they were thicker and gave the appearance of a body. My Mom always used this specific brand of mint that was bigger than the peanut butter cup. The problem is that particular candy has become hard to find, and I couldn’t locate them this year. If you can find them they look like mini-volcanoes and you turn them on the side. You could also try “gluing” two peppermint patties or two regular peanut butter cups together then affixing them in the same way, but I was going for inexpensive and easy.)
Bag of candy corn
Powdered sugar
Vanilla extract
Milk

How to do it:
Mix together the powdered sugar, little bit of milk and little vanilla extract to make a thick icing. I used probably 2-3 cups powdered sugar, 1-2 tablespoons of milk and about half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Put one cracker down. Unwrap peanut butter cup. Put a little icing on the side of the peanut butter cup and put it upright on the cracker (see photo). It’s OK if a little icing seeps out the back because you’ll be “gluing” a cracker to the back.

Put icing on the bottom part of the front of another cracker. Hold against the peanut butter cup for a few seconds to let icing take hold.

Dip one side of the candy corn tip into the icing. Hold against peanut butter cup for about 30 seconds to let icing take hold.

You’re done. You could easily make enough turkeys for a class or party for less than $8 of ingredients.

Do you have any holiday projects like this you like to make? We're always looking for post ideas so please send any ideas to moms@texashealth.org.

Jennifer Erickson is a Sr. Public Relations Specialist with Texas Health Resources who has inherited her Mom’s crafty side.