Ahhhh! These little guys are just too cute! With Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, I figured it was time to make something fun for this special holiday, which so often gets stampeded over by the hype of Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the Christmas spirit, but let Thanksgiving have it’s time, people!

These trottin’ turkeys are super scrumptious as well as being adorably cute! To start, you’ll just need to crush up a package of chocolate sandwich cookies and stir in about 4 oz of softened cream cheese.

Now you can shape the truffles by rolling the mixture into 1-inch balls and placing them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Now just pop those into the fridge to chill for about 1-2 hours. Meanwhile, start working on the candy detials!

You’ll want to start by lining a large cookie sheet with parchment, and then by melting your yellow candy melts. I used about half a bag of the yellow, and melted them by microwaving in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 second intervals, stirring in between until smooth.

Now it’s time to work fast! Candy melts harden pretty quickly, so it’s important that you keep a steady pace when working with the melted candy.

Place most of the yellow into a disposable pastry bag (leaving a bit of the yellow in the bowl for later) and cut a small hole in the tip. Then pipe two loops of the yellow to overlap slightly, making a sort of pretzel shape (see below) onto the parchment-lined sheet. Repeat to make 24 pretzel-shapes.

Once you’ve finished the yellow, immediately melt half a bag of the red candy melts in a separate bowl, just as you did with the yellow. When melted and smooth, stir a bit of the red into the remaining yellow from before to make orange. Fill a pastry bag with the orange as before, cutting a small hole in the tip. Use the orange to make little turkey beaks on the parchment.

Now, place the remaining red into another pastry bag, cutting a small hole in the tip. Pipe a single loop of red onto the yellow pretzel shapes, in between the yellow loops like so:

Use the remaining red to make the little turkey wattles.

Alright, now for the more tricky part. You’re going to add two more feathers to the red and yellow ones, but these ones are made out of caramel. Melted caramel is not as easy to work with as the candy melts, as it is thick and sticky and needs to be very hot in order to pipe. But don’t worry! Make sure to follow the tips below, and you’ll get some beautiful and tasty caramel feathers!

Pour about half a bag of caramel bits into a microwave-safe bowl, adding about 1 teaspoon of water. Microwave in 30 second intervals just as you did with the melts, stirring until smooth. Quickly pour the caramel into a pastry bag, cutting a small hole in the tip. The caramel will be very hot, so you will probably need to use oven mitts while handling the bag. Now, add your remaining two loops of caramel to each set of feathers. And voila!

Once your truffles are well chilled and all the candies are hardened, melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. The 30-second interval stirring method works great for the chocolate as well! Stir a couple tablespoonfuls of shortening into the chocolate to thin it out.

Now it’s finally time for the assembly! First, submerge a truffle in the chocolate to coat, then place it back on the parchment-lined sheet, pressing a set of feathers into the back like so:

Now it’s time for the finishing touches! Place two candy eyes, one beak, and one wattle onto each chocolatey turkey.

*NOTE*: I would dip and feather about 6 turkeys in a row before adding the finishing touches to each. This allows the chocolate to set just slightly so that the eyes, beak and wattle are in less danger of sliding down.

Repeat until all turkeys are complete!

Sooo cute!! 😍 And sooo yummy too 😋 These little turkey friends would be a delightful addition to your Thanksgiving table this year. They would also be a super fun activity for the week of Thanksgiving! Kiddos would love rolling the truffles, stirring the candy melts and putting the faces on these little guys.

Happy *early* Thanksgiving!