Shaped Thanksgiving Foods- Rice Krispie Turkey

For my last fun shaped food project I wanted to make krispie treats shaped like a roast turkey, but I'm one of those people that likes making them with other types of cereal, so I was curious to see how well one of those other types worked when trying to make a shaped krispie treat. I found this tutorial for how to make a turkey out of rice krispies and I thought that I could just use my own recipe while following their instructions for putting it together. I used my go to recipe and subbed out golden grahams, hoping that it wouldn't be a problem. It was, for two reasons. First, the golden grahams were much too heavy and they wouldn't mold the way they were supposed to. The second reason was that I didn't use the recipe that went with the instructions. Had I looked closer, I would have noticed that the marshmallow to cereal ratio was completely off, which makes a much bigger difference than I thought it would. On the plus side, I had extra golden graham treats to much on while I fixed my mistake!

Supplies:

-6 Tbsp. butter

-8 cups marshmallows

-12 cups rice krispies

-M&M's, reese's pieces, or whatever stuffing you want

-Plastic cup

-Plastic wrap

-Toothpicks

Soften the butter in a large bowl in the microwave, then add marshmallows and continue to microwave at 30 second intervals until everything is melted. Add rice krispies, and stir until fully mixed. This is where I had my doubts about this recipe, and why I had gone with mine instead the first time. My normal recipe has an equal marshmallow to cereal ratio, and I didn't think that it would be sticky enough. The marshmallow was thinner, so the cereal was able to pack together better, and I think that's why it works so much better.

You will use approximately 2/3 of your mix for the body, and about 1/3 for the wings and drumsticks. The first thing you want to do when assembling the body is make a rice krispie base, just a little larger than the cup that you will be using to make the cavity. The instructions say to wrap the cup in aluminum foil to make removal easier. I didn't have any so I just went with it, but if you have some it would probably help. Place the cup on top of the base, and then start packing on top and on the sides. Try to make it thick around the edges of the cup so that it doesn't fall apart when the cup is removed. If you want to keep your hands from getting too sticky, rub a little butter on your hands.

Once you finish packing the rice krispies together so that it vaguely looks like a turkey body, set it aside and pull out a sheet of plastic wrap. Drop some of the krispies on the wrap and cover. Similar to the cheese turkey that we made last time, you will use the wrap to help you shape it into a drumstick. Make two of these, and two wings. Once everything is ready, set in the fridge to fully set.

Once set, carefully remove the plastic cup from the body. If you didn't use foil, like me, you'll want to squeeze the cup at the sides to loosen it, then again at the top and bottom. Then slowly twist it out to avoid taking any chunks out. Unfortunately, I did lose a small piece at the bottom, but overall it came out cleanly.

Next, attach the wings and drumsticks to the body using toothpicks. I used two toothpicks for each piece, but if you feel you need more you can. The important thing is that it's secure. And either way you should probably warn people about the toothpicks before they tear this thing apart. The final step is to fill the cavity with whatever stuffing you prefer. We used peanut M&M's, but really any candy would work.

After my initial disaster, I am glad that this one came together. I guess that's what happens when you actually read the recipe. The slope of the cup did make the cavity a little more difficult to stuff, since all of my M&M's kept rolling out. And for some reason, no matter what I did, the position of the limbs looked funny to me. I looked at pictures for reference and got it as close as I could, but it still feels a little off. I know the kids are going to love this thing, and it really was worth the effort.

Next week, we'll finally be getting to our kids crafts. Can't wait!