Hungry Happenings

Thanksgiving Treats – Chocolate Turkey Pretzel Pops

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These chocolate covered pretzel turkeys are wild and ready to be piled, into your mouth that is. Enjoy these Thanksgiving Treats at any course of the meal. I will totally back you up if you claim to your family that they are a palette cleanser.
Thanksgiving Treats - Chocolate Turkey Pretzel Pops
If you follow along here on Hungry Happenings, you know I have a bit of an obsession with colorful fall leaves and treats made to look like them. I’ve made Leaf and Pumpkin Shaped Dinner Rolls Topped with Colored Cheese, Veggie Pizza Leaves, Cheesy Crescent Roll Leaves, and Cheesecake Leaves. I even have some pound cake leaves to share with you soon.
When I set out to make these turkey pops, I searched through my cookie cutters and plunger cutters to find the perfect feathers for these guys. I finally settled on leaves. No big surprise, to me anyway. I really love the combination of red, yellow, and orange, swirled together in a leaf. They make perfect feathers, don’t you think?

Chocolate Turkey Pretzel Pops

TIP to keep the chocolate from cracking on your pretzels. Chocolate shrinks as it cools and when it shrinks onto something hard, it usually cracks. If you take the pretzels out of the bag and allow them to sit at room temperature for several hours or overnight they will soften just enough to keep this from happening, but not enough to become stale.

Ingredients:

pretzel logs
melted and tempered pure milk chocolate or melted confectionery coating/candy melts
white modeling chocolate, recipe here
orange, yellow, and red candy coloring
3/8 inch candy eyes

Supplies:

fork
parchment paper lined baking sheet
non-stick silicone baking mat  or use powdered sugar or cornstarch to dust work surface
rolling pin
leaf plunger cutter or leaf cookie cutter

Instructions:

Dip pretzels into melted milk chocolate. Allow to harden. Dip pretzels in melted milk chocolate for a nice thick second coat.  If you’d like your pretzels to look feathered, hold the pretzel for 30-60 seconds, allowing the chocolate to begin drying. Use a fork to press on the sticky chocolate, then pull up quickly to get spikes all over creating a feathered look. Set on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Allow the pretzels to dry. If using tempered chocolate, just air dry them, if using candy coating or candy melts, freeze them for 3-4 minutes. Don’t chill too long or the chocolate will crack on your pretzels.
You can see step-by-step images for dipping the pretzels on my Farm Animal Pretzel Pop post, here.
Color your white modeling chocolate using yellow, red, and orange food coloring. See my Chocolate Making Tips page for instructions. 
Pinch off pea size pieces of orange modeling chocolate and roll into tear drop shaped beaks. Pinch off even smaller pieces of red and shape into waddles (the thing that hangs down around the turkey’s beak.) Use a dab of water to attach the waddle to the beak.
Either dust your work surface with powdered sugar or cornstarch or use a non-stick silicone baking mat. I recently discovered how great it is to use the mat, because your decorations don’t end up with powder all over them.
Pinch off tiny pieces of each modeling chocolate color and mix them all up in a flat layer. Press down on them, then roll them out. For a more swirled effect, twist what you’ve just rolled out and roll it out again. Cut out using large leaf plunger cutter or a 1 1/2 inch leaf cookie cutter.

 

Arrange five leaves together with the wide ends touching. Press them together. Use melted chocolate to attach the leaves to the back of the pretzel and the eyes, beak and waddle to the front side.
For some reason, I had a heck of a time photographing these Chocolate Turkey Pretzel Pops and took over 50 shots. I love how this image really shows the detail in the feathers (leaves) on the turkey, but the color of the chocolate is washed out.
This one is a bit better. Which pictures look better to you?
Store your Turkey Pretzel Pops in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three weeks. Just be sure if you are making these ahead of time, that you check the expiration date on your pretzel rods. The chocolate will keep much longer than the pretzels will.
These chocolate covered pretzel turkeys are wild and ready to be piled, into your mouth that is. Enjoy these Thanksgiving Treats at any course of the meal. I will totally back you up if you claim to your family that they are a palette cleanser.

Items used to create this project that are available on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)

More Pretzel Pops and Thanksgiving Chocolates
from Hungry Happenings
Elephant, giraffe, monkey, zebra, hippo, lion and tiger

 

The Sugar Academy Chocolate Making Courses

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