These chocolate turkey treats are super simple to make with just a few pieces of candy and will be the cutest treats on the Thanksgiving dessert table! Simply add a few pieces of candy to a peanut butter cup for a treat the entire family will want to gobble up!
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DIY Candy Turkeys
One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is the dessert, that and mashed potatoes.
I’ve already shared my all-time favorite dessert, striped delight, and my favorite pumpkin dessert – pumpkin crunch cake. Oh and Reese’s peanut butter pie, all perfect for the dessert table.
The only thing missing is a cute turkey treat for the kids (or adults!). You can either make this chocolate turkey recipe ahead of time or you could setup a station and let kids make a chocolate turkey all on their own! It’s one of the most fun and sweetest turkey crafts you can find!
These chocolate candy turkeys are super easy to make but really elevate any treat plate or table with the cute factor. And if you’ve ever made these monster cookie sandwiches, you know the cute factor is a real thing!
Why you’ll love this
- Fun for kids – kids will love making these with you or just eating them if you want to make them their own!
- Easy – there’s nothing to making these cute chocolate turkeys, just melting a little chocolate and putting them together!
- Sweet and salty – the combo of the chocolate and the pretzel in these chocolate turkeys makes for a great sweet and salty bite!
Chocolate Turkey Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Orange candies – we used orange Reese’s Pieces in the ones you’ll see in this post, but I put orange candies because you can really use any round orange candy you want. Plain M&Ms, Skittles, Reese’s Pieces all work great.
- Red candy – we used these (or something similar to these) for the red candy wattle on the chocolate turkey, but you could anything small and red. And ideally a little curvy.
- Candy corn – you’ll see in some of the pictures that we used leaf sprinkles similar to these ones for some of the turkeys. You can also get bigger versions in the candy/baking aisle at craft stores. I realized those might be a little challenging to find so if you can’t find or order those, candy corn works great as well. And it’s definitely easier to find!
- Chocolate chips – we used mini chocolate chips because they melt quicker, but you could use any size chocolate chips. These are really just used for attaching the items to the turkey, so you could really use pretty much anything that’ll melt and harden for attaching.
- Candy eyes – we always stock up on these during Halloween season, but they’re available all year long. You can order them here or look in your local party store.
How to Make Candy Turkeys
I’m going to walk you through how to make these turkeys step by step, but it’s really so easy that kids can do it!
And it’s super fun, so if you have the patience and kids who like “crafts” or decorating cookies – they’ll probably love putting together their own chocolate turkey!
1 – Prep the Candy
The first thing you need to do is open all those Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. They do sell ones that are already opened like these, but they’re not the right size for these.
You want to make sure everything is open and ready to go so that you don’t end up with the chocolate chips hardening or kids getting bored while you’re opening the rest of the wrappers.
2 – Melt the Chocolate
Once all your wrappers are open, heat the chocolate chips in 30 second increments in the microwave or use a double boiler on the stove to melt the chocolate.
Place it in a piping bag or a small ziploc bag and cut a tiny corner off to create a tip. You’ll use this to pipe on the chocolate to attach all of your pieces.
3 – Make the Turkeys
On a plate or a piece of parchment paper (easier for cleanup), put some chocolate on top of the Reese’s and attach the narrow end of the pretzel to the Reese’s.
Flip the chocolate over so the pretzel is on the backside. Add three dots of chocolate for the eyes and nose.
Gently place the eyes on top of the chocolate.
Add your nose and hold it in place for about 30 seconds to help the chocolate set.
Add one more dot of chocolate and add the red candy for the wattle.
Add dots of chocolate on top of the pretzel and attach either candy leaves or candy corn depending on what you’re using.
Let treats cool completely on parchment paper before serving so the chocolate can solidify again and completely attach the pieces.
Or if you’re doing this with kids, they can eat them right away – the pieces may just fall off a bit as they’re eating them! And that’s totally okay because really the fun part is making them!
And eating the candy. Kind of like making graham cracker houses!
Or bag up a bunch, add one of these Thanksgiving gift tags, and give them to friends or family!
Tips & tricks
Double or triple this recipe easily by simply buying more candy for the treats and melting more chocolate. If you do double or triple the recipe, make up a batch of 1/2 cup of chocolate chips at once so the chocolate does not harden while you are waiting to finish off all the candy turkeys.
The amount of chocolate needed will be dependent on how much chocolate you use for attaching the candy to the turkey. Add enough to get it to stick but don’t go overboard or you’ll end up with chocolate all over, not just under your candy.
Cut the tip off the candy corn to make them fit the chocolate turkey size a bit better.
Recipe FAQs
Can I make a chocolate turkey ahead of time?
These are a great treat to make ahead of time! Make them, and store in an airtight container for up to a week. If your house is warm, I recommend storing in the fridge so the chocolate doesn’t melt even a bit.
How long do the candy turkeys need to cool?
The chocolate typically hardens pretty quickly, like 5-10 minutes but for the best results, I recommend allowing them to cool for at least 15 minutes. You can speed up the cooling process by putting them in the fridge.
More Thanksgiving Treats
If you like these cute turkey treats, make sure to try out these other adorable Thanksgiving snacks! Any of these would be great bagged up and handed out with these fun Thanksgiving gift tags!
- Chocolate covered strawberry turkeys – the cutest little turkeys that start with fresh strawberries and some chocolate!
- Thanksgiving charcuterie boards – fun snack and dessert boards that look like, you guessed it, turkeys!
- Thanksgiving rice krispie treats – skip the regular rice krispie treats and go with this pumpkin shaped one instead!
- Pumpkin balls – these delicious no bake pumpkin balls are easy to make and great to gift with these thank you tags!
- Pie crust cookies – simple cinnamon sugar cookies made out of leftover pie crust scraps!
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Chocolate Turkey Treats
Ingredients
- 24 mini peanut butter cups
- ½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 24 mini pretzels
- 48 candy eyes
- 24 orange Reese’s Pieces or other round orange candy
- 24 red leaf sprinkles or other small red hard candy
- 72 candy corn
Instructions
- Unwrap peanut butter cups.24 mini peanut butter cups
- Heat chocolate chips in microwave in a microwave safe bowl for 30 second increments, stirring after every 30 seconds so the chocolate doesn’t burn.1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Transfer melted chocolate to a piping bag or plastic zipper bag and cut a small piece of the corner off to create a tip.
- Pipe some chocolate on top of the peanut butter cup then add the pretzel to where you just added the chocolate. Flip the peanut butter cup over so the pretzel is on the back.24 mini pretzels
- Add dots of chocolate on the peanut butter cup to add candy eyes, a nose, and a candy wattle.48 candy eyes, 24 orange Reese’s Pieces, 24 red leaf sprinkles
- Add chocolate to the front of the pretzel and add three pieces of candy corn, with the white tips cut off, to the pretzel to create the turkey feathers.72 candy corn
- Allow treats to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Tips & Notes:
- Orange Reese’s Pieces can be replaced by any round orange candy
- Red leaf wattles can be replaced with any red curvy candy
- Candy corn – can use candy corn or leaf sprinkles
- Chocolate chips – large chocolate chips, chocolate bark, or any other chocolate that’ll melt will work for this
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