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Pilgrim Hat Cookies – Easy No Bake Thanksgiving Treats for Kids

These delicious pilgrim hat cookies will look so festive on your holiday dessert table! They remind us of the history of Thanksgiving while giving us a tasty treat to enjoy.

Quick and easy Thanksgiving dessert ideas are what we are all about this time of the year. These adorable no-bake cookie treats are a great way to keep your kids involved while you are busy getting Thanksgiving dinner ready.

This dessert is great because it’s no bake, which frees up the oven space for other things like a Thanksgiving turkey, and side dishes!

Three pilgrim hat dessert cookies on a wooden board with burlap and leaves.

The Thanksgiving treats for kids are super easy to put together, fun to display on a dessert table and, best of all, really tasty!

When you’re done making this dessert, don’t forget to check out our free Thanksgiving word search and word scramble and look for the word ‘pilgrim’. These word puzzles are a fun activity for the whole family this holiday season!

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Thanksgiving display with pumpkins, burlap and leaves and words reading "pilgrim hat Thanksgiving cookies."

If you are a peanut butter lover, you will want to devour these pilgrim hat cookies. They have a double dose of peanut butter going on and can be made in just minutes. Share on X

How to make the pilgrim hat cookies

The edible pilgrim hats are an adaptation of a similar recipe that I found a few years ago on Taste of Home. I have changed the ingredients a bit to make the treats more peanut-buttery since I am a huge peanut butter fan!

Chocolate cookies, peanut butter cups, Swedish fish, frosting tubes and velvet turkey on a counter.

To make the pilgrim hat treats, you will need the following ingredients:

  • Chocolate covered peanut butter filled cookies (I used Benton’s brand from Aldi, but tagalong Girl Scout cookies are another brand that comes to mind. They are many of them out there.
  • Miniature peanut butter cups
  • Swedish fish (orange fish)
  • Orange frosting
  • Chocolate frosting

Like most of my fun with food recipes, I like to reuse items that I have on hand for the bits and pieces. I wanted a gummy flavor for the buckle and Swedish fish worked just fine.

With a sharp knife, cut the Swedish fish into small squares. They will end up being the hat buckle. Any type of gummy that can be cut into a square will also do.

Female hands cutting Swedish fish into squares on a cutting board.

Turn the peanut butter filled cookie over so that the flat part is on top. Add a dollop of frosting under a peanut butter cup and attach it to the cookie.

Be sure the widest part of the peanut butter cookie facing the chocolate cookie. 

See how easy this recipe is? The kids can basically do it unsupervised to this point! They are already looking like hats.

Chocolate cookies and peanut butter cups in the shape of a hat.

Making the pilgrim hat cookie rim and buckle

Depending on the age of your kiddos, some supervision might be needed here. The hat brim is made from orange frosting.

You can use an orange frosting tube with a piping tip attached or make some vanilla frosting and color it with orange gel food coloring.

Pipe around the edge of the peanut butter cup to form a hat brim.

Pilgrim hat cookies on a plate with orange hat brims made of frosting and two velvet pumpkins.

While the frosting is still soft, attach a cube of the orange Swedish fish to each pilgrim hat cookie.

Tada! That is all there is to these easy Thanksgiving pilgrim hat cookies.Pilgrim hat cookie treats with leaves and a wooden board.

These adorable little Thanksgiving desserts are finished in just minutes and will satisfy anyone’s hankering for peanut butter.

It’s easy to make this Pilgrim hat cookies recipe the focus of your Thanksgiving dessert table.

I used some old reclaimed wood (from an old mailbox post) that I originally painted orange.

Some velvet pumpkins, silk leaves, a wooden cheese board and burlap ribbon completed the scene. It took me all of 5 minutes to put together!

An easy dessert and an easy tablescape in about a half hour. Win-win in my book!

Display of pilgrim hat cookies with pumpkins, burlap and leaves.

Pin these cookie pilgrim hats for later

Would you like a reminder of these easy no bake Thanksgiving treats for kids? Just pin this image to one of your Thanksgiving boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later when it’s time to make the treat.

Also be sure to watch our video for making these pilgrim cookies on YouTube.

Cookie pilgrim hats in a Thanksgiving centerpiece with burlap and silk leaves and text reading "Peanut butter pilgrim hat cookies."

If baked cookies are more your thing, be sure to check out Bake Cookies Day. It’s right around the corner!

Yield: 24

Pilgrim Hat Cookies - Easy No Bake Thanksgiving Treats for Kids

Pilgrim Hat Cookies - Easy No Bake Thanksgiving Treats for Kids

This pilgrim hat cookie recipe is ready in less than 30 minutes and the kids can do it themselves!

Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 24 chocolate covered peanut butter cookies
  • 24 miniature peanut butter cups
  • 1 teaspoon orange frosting in a tube
  • 1 teaspoon of chocolate frosting in a tube
  • 6 Swedish fish

Instructions

  1. Cut the Swedish fish into 24 small cubes with a sharp knife.
  2. Use a dot of chocolate frosting to attach the upside down peanut butter cup to the upside down cookie.
  3. Attach a piping tip to the tube of orange frosting and pipe around the edge of the peanut butter cup to make a hat brim.
  4. While the frosting is still soft, press on the Swedish fish for a buckle.
  5. Enjoy!

Notes

Vanilla frosting can also be tinted orange with gel food coloring and placed in a zip lock bag with the end snipped off if you don't have the tube frosting.

Any frosting will work under the peanut butter cup, since it will not show.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

24

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 103.6Total Fat: 4.7gSaturated Fat: 1.6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3.1gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 22.7mgCarbohydrates: 14.5gFiber: 1.8gSugar: 7.8gProtein: 1.2g

Nutritional information is approximate due to natural variation in ingredients and the cook-at-home nature of our meals.

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