Turkey Cookies for Thanksgiving: a step-by-step how-to
Ingredients
Cookies
1 recipe Gluten-Free Soft Frosted Sugar Cookie dough (not the frosting, just the cookie recipe)
Royal Icing
2 fl. oz. (1/4 cup) water
1 1/2 teaspoons meringue powder
3 cups (345 g) confectioners’ sugar
Black gel food coloring (or equal amounts red, yellow and blue gel food colorings)
Yellow gel food coloring
Chocolate Frosting
8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces chopped semi-sweet chocolate, melted then cooled for 5 minutes
1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons meringue powder
3/12 to 4 cups (390 to 460 g) confectioners’ sugar
Equipment & extras
160 pieces gluten-free Candy Corn (about 9 ounces)
40 Dark Green Sixlets
2 disposable pastry bags
#1 pastry tip
#2 pastry tip
Instructions
Make the cookies. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside. Prepare and roll out the cookie dough according to the recipe directions. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out rounds and place them about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake until just set, about 6 minutes. The edges of some of the cookies may brown slightly. Take them out before there is any significant browning. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool until set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the royal icing while the cookies are cooling. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the water and meringue powder and mix until foamy (about a minute). Add the confectioners’ sugar, and mix on low speed until the sugar is absorbed. Turn the speed up to medium and beat until thickened and creamy, about 7 minutes. To test the consistency of the royal icing, scoop some with a spoon and allow it to fall off the spoon slowly onto a clean portion on the side of the mixing bowl. It should stay where you drizzled it without running very much. To thicken, continue to mix on medium speed until it reaches the proper consistency. To color the royal icing, add black gel color to 1/4 cup of icing in a small bowl, and yellow gel color to another 1/4 cup of icing in a separate small bowl. Mix each separately until the color is uniform. Pour the colored icings into separate pastry bags, fitting the #1 tip on the black icing and the #2 tip on the yellow icing tip.
Next, make the frosting. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the butter, melted chocolate and milk, and mix on medium speed until combined. Turn the speed up to high and mix until creamy. Add the salt, meringue powder and about 3 1/2 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Mix slowly until the sugar is incorporated. Turn the mixer up to high and beat until it becomes uniformly thick. Add the rest of the confectioners’ sugar if necessary to thicken the frosting.
Frost the cookies. Once the cookies are completely cool, pipe or spoon a generous amount of frosting onto the top of each, and spread into an even layer with a slightly wet wide knife or offset spatula.
Decorate the cookies. In each frosted cookie, place two of the green sixlets right next to one another about 1/3 of the way down the cookie. Press the sixlets halfway into the frosting. With the yellow royal icing, make a beak in the shape of an inverted triangle right below the sixlets. With black royal icing, place a small dot in the center of each green sixlet. To make the body of the turkey, using black royal icing, draw a bucket shape starting to the left of the left eye, and ending to the right of the right eye. Draw simple feet on each turkey with the yellow royal icing. Place 8 candy corns evenly around the body and head of the turkey, the points of the candy corns pointing toward the turkey, flat side out. Press the candy corns securely into the frosting. Allow the frosting and icing to set at room temperature until the icing is firm and the frosting has begun to harden. Store at room temperature until ready to serve.