Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge or Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey Treats

For over two weeks now, I’ve been trying to come up with a unique sweet that is shaped like a turkey to share with you for Thanksgiving. Every time I’d think of something, I’d do an on-line search and would find something identical to my idea. I do have to admit that since I began blogging about 2 years ago, there are so many more amazingly creative ideas available on the Internet. I’m having to push myself constantly to come up with clever new ideas. Thankfully that motivation lead me to create these Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Thanksgiving Turkey Treats, which I am totally in love with, so I’m happy for the challenge.

I love their silly eyes, their dangling waddle (the red thing that hangs from their beak.) and their cute little feet.

I can’t wait to share these sweet little turkey treats with everyone this Thanksgiving. We will be celebrating twice this year, first on Thanksgiving day at a friend’s house, then on Saturday with my sister and her family. I’m thinking people are going to gobble these up!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge or Chocolate Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey Treats (makes 10)

 

Note: When I came up with this idea, I originally intended to make my turkeys out of the same recipe I used to create my Chocolate Caramel Filled Pumpkins, but I didn’t have an Dulce de Leche on hand and was too excited to begin working, that I didn’t want to run up to the grocery store, so I used peanut butter instead. Both of these recipes taste great, but I have to admit the caramel version would be slightly easier to work with if you have warm hands, as I do. So, use whichever recipe pleases you more.

 

Ingredients:

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Turkey bodies:

14 ounces good quality milk chocolate, melted (see instructions for melting chocolate, here)

1 1/4 cups creamy peanut butter (I choose Jif)

OR make chocolate caramel turkey bodies:

14 ounces good quality milk chocolate

1 (13.4 ounce) can Dulce de Leche

 

Decorations:

white modeling chocolate (go here to get the recipe and instructions) – you can also use fondant

food coloring, preferably candy coloring – red, orange, yellow, brown and possibly black
food handling gloves
powdered sugar to dust your work surface

15 pretzel sticks
1-2 teaspoons corn syrup

20 tiny candy eyes (or you can make your own out of white and black modeling chocolate)

 

Special Supplies Needed:

rolling pin

small tear drop shaped cookie cutters, 1 1/4″ and 7/8″ approximately
small sharp knife
a few toothpicks or skewers

Instructions:

Stir peanut butter into melted chocolate. Be sure it is very well mixed, or you will end up with little hard bits of chocolate once this sets up. Allow it to sit at room temperature for several hours until it hardens just enough that you can scoop it out and roll it into balls. Mine sat for 2 hours, but my house is 68 degrees, so if you house is warmer, it will take longer. I don’t recommend refrigerating it, as it will get too hard.

If you are making the caramel version, stir the Dulce de Leche into the melted chocolate and allow it to sit for 30 minutes.

While you are waiting for your fudge mixture to set up and harden, you can make all the modeling chocolate decorations for your Turkey Treats.

Put on your food handling gloves and add coloring to your white modeling chocolate. For detailed instructions, go here. You’ll need more of the orange than any other color.

Dust your work surface lightly with powdered sugar. Roll out some of the yellow, red, orange, and brown colored modeling chocolate to about 1/16″ thickness.

Use a 1 1/4″ tear drop cutter to cut 20 feathers from the yellow, the orange, and the red modeling chocolate. To create the tail feathers, use small drops of corn syrup to stick the modeling chocolate together. Place two red feathers opposite each other with the points facing in. Use a toothpick to brush some corn syrup along the inside edge of each red feather. Set an orange feather on top along the sticky edge. Press firmly to get them to stick together. Add a yellow feather on top of the orange. Attach both sides together. Allow these tail feathers to sit and harden at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before attaching them to your turkeys.

 Use the 7/8″ tear drop cutter to cut 20 wings from the brown modeling chocolate.

Pinch off pea sized pieces of the orange modeling chocolate. Roll into a ball, then flatten and pinch into a triangle. Use the back side of a knife to press two indentations in each foot. Re-shape each foot as needed.

Pinch off small pieces of the orange modeling chocolate and roll into balls then roll into a cone shape for the beak.

Pinch off tiny pieces of red modeling chocolate. Roll into a ball then roll the ball into a long tear drop shape for the waddle.

If you don’t have tiny candy eyes, make some using white and black modeling chocolate or a black food coloring marker. You can also use small white confetti sprinkles and a food coloring marker.

Once your chocolate peanut butter fudge or your chocolate caramel mixture is ready, scoop and roll ten 1 1/2″ balls.

Scrape the remaining mixture out of the bowl. This will be used to create the head and neck for each turkey. Roll pieces of it into thin logs about 3/16″ in diameter and 1 inch long.

Note: If you have warm hands, as I do, you will have a bit of a challenge rolling the chocolate peanut butter fudge into balls and logs without making a mess on your hands. My exchange student rolled most of the balls as her hands are very cold. She had no trouble. If you do have trouble I suggest you wash your hands in really cold water or place them in ice water to cool them down before working with the peanut butter fudge. Wearing food handling gloves also helps.

To decorate your chocolate peanut butter fudge or caramel balls to look like turkeys:

Break your pretzel sticks in half. Press one pretzel piece coming out of the top of each ball for the turkey necks. Press two more down near the bottom for the legs.

Take one log of chocolate peanut butter fudge, and press a toothpick into one end, creating a hole. Press the log, hole side down, onto the top pretzel. Press it all the way down until it touches the ball. Use your fingers or the toothpick to press the seam between the log and the ball together to form a smooth surface.

Very gently bend the chocolate log over forming the head and neck of each turkey. Place a dab of corn syrup on the flat end of each orange beak and press it onto the front of the chocolate log. Use corn syrup to attach the eyes. Add a dab of corn syrup to the end of each pretzel stick and press a foot onto each.

Use corn syrup to attach the waddle to the top side of each beak, to add a wing to either side of the turkey and to add the tail feathers. Press the tail feathers on really well to make sure they stay in place.

Your turkeys are ready to make their debut on your Thanksgiving dinner table. You can simply set them on a platter or dessert plate, or you can carefully package them in clear cellophane bags to give as party favors.

Store them in an airtight container for up to several weeks.