Turkey Hand Cookies

So I actually have a love/hate relationship with these Turkey Hand Cookies.  If you didn’t know you could have a relationship with a cookie well I guess you can???  I love these mostly because the kids look forward to them every year and ALWAYS ask for them.  I love tradition so these are the fun memories that I hope they will look back on with joy someday.  They are also a pretty cute Thanksgiving activity to make with your kids and to get them involved in the kitchen.  I hate strongly dislike that they do take some tedious work on moms part to get to the fun let your kids decorate part!  The good news is that as your older ones get older they can help out more with the tedious part!  

So like I mentioned above these can take a little time to prepare.  Because of that I choose to just use the pre-made store bought chilled dough.  I have an awesome homemade sugar cookie recipe that I make every year for Christmas cookies so if you are feeling ambitious you can totally use that.  But if you are like me and want to save a little time, and the cookies often get overshadowed by the pumpkin pie and forgotten about anyway…just sayin…..save yourself the time and go with pre-made.

To start trace one of each of your kiddos hands on a piece of white paper….as best you can.  I know the little ones can get pretty wiggly.  As long as you get the basic size you can help it to look more hand like.  Carefully cut out each hand and now you have templates to use on your dough.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  On a floured surface roll out your dough to about 1/4 inch thick.  Take one of your hand templates, place it on the dough, and with a sharp knife carefully cut along the edge of the hand…..this is the tedious part.  Repeat with all your different hand sizes until you are out of dough.  

Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until they are a light golden brown.  

Let the cookies sit a few minutes and then remove them to a cooling rack to finish cooling before decorating.  Now is the fun part!  To make it easy I just get the Betty Crocker tubes of colored icing.  I usually get red, orange, yellow, and white for the eye.  (Pay no attention to the fact that I have pink icing pictured below.  I still have not bought my turkey decorating supplies this year but I wanted to show what I use.) 

Then you will need mini chocolate chips and candy corn, both of which I usually always have left over from Halloween.  If not grab some candy corn, hopefully discounted, while it is still around.  

So now just let your kids have fun making them into turkeys!  Some years I help make them and some years it is all them.  They love to decorate “their” size of hand.  For the eye put a dab of white frosting and then a chocolate chip.  Add a candy corn for the beak and red frosting underneath for the waddle.  

And I totally don’t want to cry with this one or anything.  I think my oldest was 4 here!  Isn’t she the sweetest!

Need some fun Turkey Trivia to go with your cookies or to have at your Thanksgiving table??  Check out my post here!

Here is your printable recipe!

Turkey Hand Cookies

 

Save Print

This is a fun Thanksgiving activity to do with your kids.

Author: A Fireman's Wife

Recipe type: sugar cookies

Ingredients

• 1 roll of chilled Pillsbury sugar cookie dough
• flour for rolling the dough
• 1 tube red icing
• 1 tube orange icing
• 1 tube yellow icing
• 1 tube white icing
• mini chocolate chips
• candy corn
• white paper, pencil, and scissors for making your hand templates

Instructions

1. Trace one of each of your kiddos hands with a pencil on a piece of white paper....as best you can. I know the little ones can get pretty wiggly. As long as you get the basic size you can help it to look more hand like.
2. Carefully cut out each hand and now you have a template to use on your dough.
3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
4. On a floured surface roll out your dough to about ¼ inch thick. Take one of your hand templates, place it on the dough, and with a sharp knife carefully cut along the edge of the hand.....this is the tedious part. Repeat with all your different hand sizes until you are out of dough.
5. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until they are a light golden brown.
6. Let the cookies sit a few minutes on the cookie sheet and then remove them to a cooling rack to finish cooling before decorating.
7. So now just let your kids have fun making them into turkeys!
8. At the top of where the thumb is add some white or yellow icing for the eye and then add a mini chocolate chip. Add some red icing underneath for the waddle. Decorate the rest of the cookie with all your colors!

3.5.3228