Thanksgiving Shortbread Turkey Cutout Cookies

This Thanksgiving Shortbread Turkey Cutout Cookie is so festive and it makes the perfect centerpiece on your holiday tables.

The best part of this recipe is you can use it in so many ways and for so many occasions.

The dough can be filled, left plain, or decorated with frosting and I have more tips and tricks for you to follow in this easy recipe below.

A simple shortbread soft dough that turns into a crunchy flaky melt-in-your-mouth cookie dough and is so easy to handle.

I love these sandwiched together with flavored jams, melted chocolate, or just plain dusted with powdered sugar.

The kids love them on Halloween in pumpkin shapes frosted and decorated.

A great project to keep the kids busy, they love decorating for all the holiday themes.

Scroll down to the recipe card for the ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions and make these all year round!

This is a shortbread cookies cut into Turkey shapes, pumpkin and leaf patterns then filled with jams and melted chocolate

Baking Themes or Holiday Cutout Cookie Ideas

Halloween
Christmas
Easter
4th of July
Birthday party
Animal shapes
Baby showers or Wedding events

The Dough

This dough is made with brown sugar and shortening unlike most of the butter kinds and is not a buttery-tasting dough but more like a delicious sugar cookie soft dough with a little flaky crunch to it.

I love how firm it is and easy to handle when filling the cookies, they are sturdy enough to travel and freeze well to make ahead of time.

Just thaw and fill them when ready to use them.

Filling Suggestions:

Almond solo filling
Melted chocolate
White chocolate melted with coconut
Jams of any kinds
Marshmallow fluff with chopped maraschino cherries blotted dry added or coconut
Peanut butter chips melted
Mint chips melted
Any kinds of canned or homemade frostings tinted to the holiday theme
Toppings:
Cinnamon sugar
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Powdered sugar
Frosting glazes

Baking Tips

Roll the dough thin
Remember to make two per cookie
Bake until set not browned
Chill dough for easier handling
Use a cutting board to cut them out
Preheat your oven first
Use an assortment of cookie cutters to match the holiday theme
Bake on parchment paper or Silpat mat

cookies dough cut into pumpkin and leaf shapes for holiday baking

Party Cookie Ideas

use numbers for birthday party cutouts or for wedding anniversary milestones
Christmas makes stars, Santa, bells etc
Halloween pumpkins, witches, ghosts
Easter ducks, bunnies
Patriotic star cutouts
baby reveal use a baby bottle cutout with blue and pink icing

cookie dough made into turkey shapes with a cookie cutter

Step-by-Step Shortbread Cutout Cookie Dough Easy Recipe

prepare a baking sheet and preheat the oven
mix the dough ingredients and refrigerate for one hour
roll out the dough thin
cut out shapes
bake
cool
fill with suggestions or leave them plain

Ingredients Needed to Make Shortbread Cookies

(Scroll down to the recipe card for quantities)

sugar
shortening
brown sugar
egg yolks
milk
vanilla
flour
cream of tartar
salt
baking soda
Optional Fillings:
Melted Chocolate (milk, dark or white chocolate)
Peanut Butter chips melted
Jams or preserves of any flavor you can use coordinating jam colors to match the holiday theme
( seedless jam-like raspberry preserves is our favorite)
Sprinkles, Colored Sugars, Sugar Decorations
Powdered sugar to dust them with or cinnamon sugar
Thin frosting glaze made with powdered sugar and water

Easy Recipe

This is one dough you can really get creative with.

If you don't want to roll them out, roll them into balls and flatten with a sugared glass and just make shortbread.

The cookie dough is delicious shortbread plain or all decked out for the holidays

Thanksgiving Day Cookies Shortbread Cookies Turkey Cutouts, Turkey shaped Cookies, Holiday Cookies Shortbread Cookie Recipe

cookies, holiday, shortbread recipes

Italian, American, French

Yield: 30

Author: Claudia Lamascolo