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No Bake Thanksgiving Nutter Butter Acorns Recipe

If you’re looking for a cute no bake dessert that’s perfect for Thanksgiving, these Nutter Butter Acorns are it. They take under 20 minutes to make.

For more ideas to make this the best holiday, get inspired by our other Thanksgiving posts.

Nutter Butter Cookies made to look like acorns with the words "Nutter Butter Acorns" digitally written on top.

A few years ago, my friend Michelle made these adorable no bake Nutter Butter Acorns for Thanksgiving treats for her family. I couldn’t get over how cute they were.

So this year, when I was trying to come up with something to make for one of our bimonthly pot lucks in our community, I knew it had to be those Nutter Butter Acorn cookies.

They’re incredibly adorable, taste great, and (most importantly) are super easy to make.

They’re no bake cookies, which is perfect if you’re not a baker.

This Nutter Butter Acorns recipe is really just a tutorial for decorating more than it’s an actual recipe, since you’re not baking anything. And I know decorating makes people intimidated because usually you need steady hands for that, but not for these.

The simplicity of these makes them perfect for Thanksgiving. Everything that you usually cook on Thanksgiving is so time consuming and so hands on. So it’s nice to be able to make an easy dessert that doesn’t require too much effort.

And, you can make these a few days ahead of time and store them in the fridge and they’ll be just fine. So that really does make Thanksgiving a bit easier.

And really, don’t we all want something to make our lives easier on Thanksgiving?

No Bake Thanksgiving Nutter Butter Acorns Recipe

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This recipe uses a full box of Nutter Butter Cookies and makes 96 cookie acorns. Of course, if you need less, you can cut the recipe in half.

But be careful if you do.

These are so easy to pop in your mouth, they’ll get eaten a lot quicker than you think. So more is better.

Trust me. I’m speaking from experience.

Nutter Butter cookies, chocolate sprinkles, thin pretzel rods, and chocolate chips.

Nutter Butter Acorns Ingredients:

How To Make Nutter Butter Acorns:

Thin pretzel sticks cut in pieces on a blue cutting board.

Cut the pretzels into thirds. Set them aside.

It seems like you would be able to cut multiple pretzels at once, but there’s a good chance that will turn the pretzel pieces into projectiles that shoot across the kitchen. So, to make your life easier, cut these one at a time.

Nutter Butter cookies cut in half, lying on a blue cutting board.

Cut the Nutter Butter Cookies in half (down the center of the the shorter side) to make two acorn-shaped cookies. Set them aside.

Melted chocolate in a white bowl.

Melt the chocolate chips.

The easiest way to do this is to melt half of the chips for 1 minute, stir, and then melt at 30 second intervals and stir in between until the chips are completely melted through. When you’re done with those, melt the second half of the chocolate chips.

A hand dipping a cut Nutter Butter cookie into melted chocolate.

Dip the cut part of the Nutter Butter Cookies in the melted chocolate.

A Nutter Butter cookie half being dipped into a bowl of chocolate sprinkles.

Pour the chocolate sprinkles into a small bowl.

Dip the chocolate side of the Nutter Butter Cookies directly into the bowl sprinkles.

You’ll get better coverage and more sprinkles will stick this way rather than if you try to sprinkle them from the bottle itself.

A piece of pretzel sticking into the top of a Nutter Butter cookie half.

Stick one of the pretzel pieces into the middle center of the sprinkles, directly into the peanut butter portion of the Nutter Butter cookie, so the pretzel looks like a stem.

Set the Nutter Butter acorn on a silicone baking mat-lined cookie sheet.

Small aside: I 10/10 recommend using a silicone baking mat when you’re making these. The Nutter Butter acorns will sit nicely on the silicone baking mat while the chocolate cools. Then, when the chocolate is hard, the cookies pop right off the baking mat.

If you use foil, the chocolate will stick to the foil and you end up having to pull the cookies away and you potentially have foil stuck to your cookies.

If you don’t have a baking mat (which I highly recommend you buy because I use it for everything from baking cookies to oven roasting French fries on it), you can use parchment paper or wax paper instead. But, if you care about the Earth like I do, the baking mat is better because it’s reusable and more eco-friendly.

Okay. Back to the recipe.

Continue until you’re done with all the cookies.

Nutter Butter Acorn Cookies on a silicon baking mat.

Set the cookie sheet in the fridge for at least 20 minutes until the chocolate has hardened.

Make sure the cookie sheet is flat so the Nutter Butter acorn cookies don’t slide into each other.

Store in an airtight container.

Nutter Butter Cookies decorated to look like acorns, in a box, with the words "Thanksgiving Nutter Butter Acorns" digitally written on top.

Nutter Butter Acorn Cookies: Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have to use chocolate chips?

I don’t recommend chocolate chips in recipes where you need to coat an entire cookie (like our Homemade Chocolate Covered Oreo Baseballs). But in recipes where you don’t need too much, chocolate chips are fine.

Here’s the thing about chocolate chips. You only get one chance to melt them. If they harden once they’re melted, you can’t easily remelt them because you run the risk of burning them. And that ruins all the chocolate chips. So if you use chocolate chips in this recipe, you have to work quickly.

If you work slowly (or if you’re making these with kids who might get distracted), using a chocolate almond bark in place of the chocolate chips. Three to four squares should be enough for an entire package of Nutter Butter cookies.

What’s great about almond bark is it melts easily (just like candy melts, but it tastes better than candy melts). And, if you need to remelt it, you can just put it back in the microwave.

Once any leftover almond bark has hardened, you can pack it back up and use it at another time.

Do you have to use pretzels?

Stick pretzels perfectly fit into the Nutter Butter cookies, making them the best idea for a stem — according to me. Especially because I had some leftover from making Halloween Pretzel Spider Webs for Halloween.

When my friend Michelle originally made these and gave me the idea for them, she used thin Italian breadsticks.

How can you store Nutter Butter Acorn Cookies?

These Nutter Butter Acorn cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two months.

That’s great because you can make them before Thanksgiving, but serve them on Thanksgiving. Personally, I wouldn’t make them that early, but making them the weekend before Thanksgiving and keeping them in the fridge until then is fine.

If you aren’t planning on eating these Thanksgiving cookies right away, they can be stored in the freezer between eight and 12 months according to the USDA.

Thanksgiving Pie and Happy Thanksgiving Plaque Cookie.

Purchase Thanksgiving Cookies online:

If you really like these Nutter Butter Acorn Cookies, but you just don’t have any time to make them, you can order Thanksgiving cookies online instead.

Our favorites are:

Five Nutter Butter cookies decorated to look like ice cream cones.

More Nutter Butter Cookies Recipes:

Believe it or not, these aren’t our only Nutter Butter Cookies recipes. We have a few others:

And don’t forget about our Nutter Butter Turkey Cookies, which would also be the perfect Thanksgiving cookie. They’d look great on a Thanksgiving dessert table alongside these Nutter Butter Acorns.

Yield: 96 Cookies

Nutter Butter Acorns

If you're looking for a cute no bake dessert that's perfect for fall, these Nutter Butter Acorns are it. They take under 20 minutes to make.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 minute
Additional Time 20 minutes
Total Time 31 minutes

Ingredients

  • 32 thin pretzel sticks
  • 1 pack (48 count) Nutter Butter Cookies
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 2 oz. chocolate sprinkles

Instructions

    1. Cut the pretzels into thirds. Set them aside.
    2. Cut the Nutter Butter Cookies in half (down the center of the the shorter side) to make two acorn-shaped cookies. Set them aside.
    3. Melt the chocolate chips.
    4. Dip the cut part of the Nutter Butter Cookies in the melted chocolate.
    5. Pour the chocolate sprinkles into a small bowl. Dip the chocolate side of the Nutter Butter Cookies directly into the bowl sprinkles.
    6. Stick one of the pretzel pieces into the middle center of the sprinkles, directly into the peanut butter portion of the Nutter Butter cookie, so the pretzel looks like a stem.
    7. Set the Nutter Butter acorn on a silicone baking mat-lined cookie sheet. Continue until you’re done with all the cookies.
    8. Set the cookie sheet in the fridge for at least 20 minutes until the chocolate has hardened.

Nutrition Information

Yield

96

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 45Total Fat 1gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 118mgCarbohydrates 9gFiber 0gSugar 1gProtein 1g

Have you made this No Bake Thanksgiving Nutter Butter Acorns recipe? Let us know in the comments.

Niki | Life as a LEO Wife

Thursday 17th of November 2022

Great idea for a quick Thanksgiving dessert.

Carol

Thursday 17th of November 2022

These are so brilliant! And I for one never think there's enough chocolate around Thanksgiving.

Tammy

Thursday 17th of November 2022

I love nutter butters...this is such a cute idea for the holidays and so fun to make too!

Allyson @ Southern Sunflowers

Wednesday 16th of November 2022

What a fun dessert treat! I bet they were a big hit at your community potluck.

Beth

Monday 14th of November 2022

LOVE THIS quick and easy recipe!

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