Cookie & Candy Penguins

Last year, I prepared Perky Penguins and thought they were too cute for a winter season treat, especially for little kids and kids-at-heart. However, I found them to be a bit time consuming with the multiple drying times needed. After making and enjoying Oreo Cookie Turkeys for Thanksgiving this year, I made some changes to the penguins to make them quicker to make - I got all six done in about 30 minutes. As an added bonus, for small crowds like mine, they now use more of the same ingredients as the turkeys, so I can actually use up those ingredients between Thanksgiving and Christmas... after getting the candy corn on sale after Halloween! The shorter work time also helps to prevent the marshmallows from drying out.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 2  ounces  chocolate bark, for candy-making
• 12  large marshmallows
• 6  chocolate  malted milk balls
• 12  miniature chocolate chips
• 12  pieces  candy corn
• 6  cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (i.e. Oreos)

Directions

1. Melt chocolate in microwave according to package directions.
2. Dab chocolate onto the top of 6 marshmallows, and top each with one of the remaining 6.
3. Leaving a vertical white strip down the middle for the penguin's chest, dip the marshmallow pairs into the chocolate to create the body.
4. Attach a chocolate malt ball with a dab of chocolate to the top of each chocolate-covered marshmallow pair - this is the head.
5. Use two miniature chocolate chips for the eyes, "gluing" them on with a dab of chocolate (a toothpick is good for this) to the chocolate malt ball.
6. Cut the white tips off of the candy corn and use 6 of these white tips for beaks.
7. Separate the cream-filled cookies, trying to keep the white cream only on one side.
8. Cut the six cookie halves with no cream in half to make the wings. This is one of the trickiest parts, since they seem to want to break easily.
9. Use a dab of chocolate to attach the wings on either side of each marshmallow pair. The cut-side should face front.
10. Dab some chocolate on the remaining 6 cookie halves with the cream facing upwards and attach at the bottom of each marshmallow penguin.
11. Attach the remaining orange and yellow cut pieces of candy corn as feet to the bottom of each marshmallow, and on top of the cookie.