Mastering Thanksgiving Cookies: Delicious Recipes & Decorating Secrets for Festive Fall Treats
Creating beautifully decorated sugar cookies for special occasions has quickly become a delightful obsession for me. There’s something truly magical about turning simple dough into edible works of art, especially when it comes to celebrating holidays like Thanksgiving. While I may not be an expert in giving full-blown tutorials just yet, I’m thrilled to share my journey, some invaluable tips I’ve picked up, and the fantastic recipes that made these delightful Thanksgiving cookies possible. From charming turkeys to vibrant autumn leaves and classic pumpkins, these festive treats are perfect for adding a touch of homemade warmth to your holiday table.
My love for decorated cookies sits perfectly between my craft blog and this food blog. Since they are edible, you can expect to find all my royally-iced cookie creations right here! Fair warning: I’ll likely find every possible occasion and holiday to bake and decorate these. So, if you ever feel overwhelmed by the sheer joy of festive cookies, feel free to skip ahead! This blog is certainly not exclusively dedicated to cookies, but they are simply too much fun to pass up when a holiday rolls around. Baking and decorating these Thanksgiving sugar cookies allows for so much creativity and brings immense satisfaction, making them a perfect addition to any celebration.
The Inspiration: Finding Festive Cookie Cutters
The journey to these adorable Thanksgiving cookies began a few days before Halloween. While wandering through Walmart, on the hunt for a clown wig (as one does!), my eyes caught sight of some incredibly cute cookie cutters. At this point, I had already fallen head over heels for cookie decorating after making football jersey cookies for my boys’ teams. It was clear—I absolutely HAD to get those new cookie cutters! This particular set was a fantastic three-pack, featuring a turkey, a classic leaf, and a pumpkin shape. Combined with another leaf-shaped cutter I had at home, plus a collection of alphabet letters, the idea for this Thanksgiving cookie post was born. These festive shapes sparked endless possibilities for holiday baking and decorating, making them a perfect canvas for royal icing art.
Essential Recipes: Sugar Cookies & Royal Icing
The stellar sugar cookie recipe and the perfect royal icing recipe I used for these Thanksgiving treats come from my wonderful Florida friend, Leslie, over at The Hungry Housewife. (And a friendly reminder, be careful with your Google searches for “hungry housewife” – stick to Leslie’s link to ensure you land on her fantastic blog!). Leslie provides a wealth of incredible tips for baking and decorating these cookies, so I highly recommend clicking over to her site and bookmarking that link for future reference. Her insights are truly invaluable for achieving professional-looking results. You’ll find her tried-and-true recipes listed in detail at the end of this post, so you can easily recreate these delicious and decorative cookies at home.
Smart Decorating Tools: DIY Piping Bags & More
Another fantastic resource I discovered is The Baker’s Banter from King Arthur Flour. If you follow that link, you’ll uncover a remarkably clever and simple method for transforming ordinary parchment paper into small piping bags. These homemade bags are absolutely brilliant for crafting fine lines and intricate details on your cookies. They work wonderfully, not just because they allow for such precise work, but also because they hold only a small amount of icing. This means less waste, which is always a bonus! I extensively used these little parchment cones to create the delicate lines on the pumpkin cookies, the expressive eyes on the turkey cookies, and the charming dots on the alphabet letters. They are truly fabulous for adding those finishing touches that make your decorated cookies stand out.
Streamlining Your Icing Process: Tips for Multiple Colors
While specialized decorator tips are undeniably excellent for precision, sometimes you need a more flexible approach, especially when working with many different colors for your Thanksgiving cookies. If you only have one tip or prefer not to constantly mess with couplings and switching tips between bags, I found a simple hack that works wonders. I just filled disposable piping bags with my colored icings and snipped a tiny bit off the end of each bag. This method, while perhaps not as surgically precise as a dedicated tip, did an amazing job for my needs. It significantly sped up the decorating process and allowed for seamless transitions between colors, proving that sometimes, simplicity is key to efficient and enjoyable cookie decorating.
Achieving Flawless Flooding with Royal Icing
A critical tip I learned from Leslie, which significantly improved my cookie decorating, concerns the outlining and flooding technique for royal icing. She pointed out that outlining all your cookies first and then coming back to fill the centers with the same color can often lead to visible border lines. This happens because the initial outlines dry before you get a chance to flood the interior, creating a distinct ridge. To avoid this common pitfall and achieve a smooth, seamless finish, Leslie suggested piping the border and immediately filling the center with the same color. This method ensures that the outline and flood icing meld together before either has a chance to fully dry, resulting in a perfectly smooth surface.
I can personally attest to the effectiveness of this technique. When I made the football jersey cookies, I followed this advice for the colored jerseys, and they turned out beautifully, with no visible lines. However, when I worked on the white jerseys, I made the mistake of outlining all of them first before attempting to flood. I even tried a “flooding method” I saw on another blog using fun icing bottles – but alas, I ended up with those frustrating border lines. Lesson learned! From then on, I strictly adhered to Leslie’s wisdom, and my decorated Thanksgiving cookies benefited immensely.
When filling the centers of your outlined cookies, the goal is to gently guide the icing to the edges without overfilling. I typically start by piping a continuous line just inside the border, working my way inward in concentric circles until I reach the center. Once the cookie is filled, a gentle tap against the side of your cookie sheet, or a slight shake from side to side, helps the icing spread evenly and settle beautifully. If you notice any tiny air bubbles, a quick pop with a toothpick will take care of them, followed by another gentle shake. You can also use a toothpick to carefully nudge the icing into any stubborn gaps, but remember to work quickly before the icing starts to set. The key to success here is to work on one cookie at a time, ensuring each one gets your immediate attention for a perfectly smooth, flooded finish.
Creative Decorating: Blending Colors for Autumn Leaves
One of the most enjoyable aspects of decorating these Thanksgiving cookies was experimenting with blending colors, especially on the autumn leaf shapes. While I’m still quite new to this technique, I was pleasantly surprised with the results! The secret to successful color blending in royal icing is timing: you need to add your secondary color(s) immediately while the base coat of icing is still wet. This allows the colors to merge smoothly rather than sitting on top of each other. Once your additional colors are piped onto the wet base, simply take a toothpick and gently drag it through the different colors, creating beautiful swirls and marble effects. This technique allows for stunning, organic patterns that mimic the natural beauty of fall foliage, making each leaf cookie a unique piece of art. It’s a fun way to add depth and visual interest to your holiday treats, and even for a newbie, it yields impressive results!
Beyond Royal Icing: Enjoying the Sugar Cookie Base
Even if you’re not quite ready to dive into the world of royal icing—which, I assure you, is easier than it looks—you absolutely must try this sugar cookie recipe. It’s truly a winner! The cookies themselves are incredibly yummy, with a perfect texture that holds its shape beautifully while baking. They are an overall crowd-pleaser and just as delicious decorated with something as simple as canned frosting. If you choose to go the simpler route, you can still use royal icing just for outlining, or simply top your cooled cookies with any frosting and sprinkle them with jimmies, nonpareils, or colored sugar. Just remember to add your sprinkles right away, before the frosting or icing sets, to ensure they adhere properly. This versatile sugar cookie base is fantastic for any occasion, offering a delightful treat even without intricate decorations.
And so, I extend my heartfelt thanks to my dear friend Leslie. Her generosity in answering my many questions and sharing these two incredible recipes allowed me to create these delicious and festive Thanksgiving treats. My family thanks you too for the yummy cookies that brought so much joy to our holiday! I hope you all have a truly Happy Thanksgiving, filled with gratitude, good food, and maybe even some delightful decorated cookies!
Oh, and apologies for the abundance of pictures! I simply couldn’t decide which ones to use, so I included them all to share the full beauty of these holiday creations. They truly capture the spirit of Thanksgiving baking!
Looking for something more kid-friendly to involve the little ones in your Thanksgiving festivities? Try this adorable Thanksgiving turkey treat from The Idea Room – the kids are sure to love making and eating them!
Cut Out Sugar Cookies
from The Hungry Housewife
Thanksgiving Cookies: Turkeys, Leaves & Pumpkins, Oh My!
IMPORTANT – There are often Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
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Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ teaspoon almond or vanilla extract or a mix of both
- 3 cups ap flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Royal Icing Cookie Glaze
- 6 oz 3/4 cup warm water
- 5 Tablespoons Meringue Powder
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2 ¼ pounds powdered sugar
Instructions
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Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and the extract and beat to incorporate. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined.
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Divide the dough into 2 portions and roll to 3/8″ thick in between 2 sheets of parchment paper and chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
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Remove the dough and cut your desired shape. Place the formed cookies back in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Take the scraps and re roll them to 3/8″ in the parchment paper and re chill before cutting out again.
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Preheat oven to 350 30 minutes before baking the cookies. Bake your cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet (resist the urge to add parchment. These don’t make a mess, but the parchment can cause spreading) for 8-12 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookie. (Mine were done in 9.5 minutes)
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Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
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Cool completely before icing.
Royal Icing Cookie Glaze
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If your meringue powder does not have any vanilla flavor in it, you can add a teaspoon of CLEAR vanilla.
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In a mixer bowl, pour the warm water and the meringue powder in and whisk for about 30 seconds until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and whisk for another 30 seconds. Pour all of the sugar in at once and place on the mixer.
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Using your paddle attachment, on the lowest speed, mix slowly for 10 full minutes.
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Icing will be thick and creamy (like Elmer’s Glue). Cover the bowl the a damp cloth to prevent drying and crusting.
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If you find the icing too thick, you can thin it by adding in water by the Tablespoon.
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TIP: To test, lift your paddle attachment. Watch the ribbon of icing fall back into the bowl of icing. It should disappear before the count of 10. If it doesn’t add a little water at a time until it does.
The recipes on this blog are tested with a conventional gas oven and gas stovetop. It’s important to note that some ovens, especially as they age, can cook and bake inconsistently. Using an inexpensive oven thermometer can assure you that your oven is truly heating to the proper temperature. If you use a toaster oven or countertop oven, please keep in mind that they may not distribute heat the same as a conventional full sized oven and you may need to adjust your cooking/baking times. In the case of recipes made with a pressure cooker, air fryer, slow cooker, or other appliance, a link to the appliances we use is listed within each respective recipe. For baking recipes where measurements are given by weight, please note that results may not be the same if cups are used instead, and we can’t guarantee success with that method.
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