The turkey pretzel twisted by these Bucks Co. pretzel brothers is becoming a Thanksgiving staple

Brothers Brian and Shaun Kean have kept customers riveted at their Philly Pretzel Factory franchise in Langhorne for 17 years with their extraordinary soft pretzel creations, from a salty Ben Franklin signing the Declaration of Independence to a cheesy interpretation of the Dirty Dancing lift.

“It helps break up the mo-knot-ony,” Brian Kean told me.

But once Thanksgiving rolls around, it becomes all about the birds. Yes, the Eagles of course (there’s a giant cutout of a pretzel wearing an Eagles helmet outside of their store), but also, turkeys.

Since 2006, the Keans have made soft pretzels in the shape of cooked/bald/dead turkeys. Their creations started small, about the size of a fist, but in 2020, they wanted to make their a-dough-rable turkeys more functional, so they decided to upsize them so the top can be hollowed out and used as a bread bowl for dips.

“It’s just like a regular turkey, but you don’t have to cook it,” Brian Kean said.

Customers who use the turkey as a centerpiece often buy an accompanying bucket of rivet pretzels for dipping or purchase a feathered/alive turkey pretzel, whose plumage breaks off into dippable rivets. I have no doubt that being the bearer of such culinary delights is a feather in the cap of any party guest.

Some may say soft pretzels run afowl of a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but around the Philly region — where eating soft pretzels is an intrinsic part of our pursuit of happiness — the creation of this tremendous turkey was inevitable. It’s just pretzel logic.

When I arrived at the store Wednesday morning, the Kean brothers and their two staffers were so busy that we chatted in the kitchen while they twisted dough and pulled piping-hot racks of pretzels from the oven.

There was no time to waddle around with me, they needed to mustard all the energy they could to fulfill orders (they twist 20 pretzels a minute and bake 300 every 20 minutes).

“We have to be on our A-game on Thanksgiving,” Shaun Kean said.

I was surprised at how flat and pale the turkeys looked when they went into the oven, and how fluffy and perfectly brown they were when they came out.

So far this season, the shop has made 80 turkeys and on Thanksgiving Day, they’re booked with orders for 50 cooked/bald/dead pretzel turkeys (which contain about one-and-a-half pounds of dough) and 30 of the feathered variety.

“People always think they have enough food, but what about appetizers, or when the football game goes on?” Brian Kean said. “In reality, pretzels become the thing people go to most.”

Since we were talking turkey, I wanted to know long they last.

“It lasts until someone breaks a leg off,” Brian Kean said.

I yam not going to lie, I had a strong desire to tear off those adorable little legs and dip them in cheese, but I held myself back because I am a professional (boo!).

As it turns out, the turkey pretzel has the shelf life of a regular pretzel, but it can be frozen and taken out 40 minutes before serving time. The turkeys, which must be preordered, cost $15 through Nov. 17 and $20 thereafter.

Shaun Kean said it’s been especially popular with those who don’t eat traditional turkey on Thanksgiving.

“Vegetarians say ‘I finally found a turkey I love,’” he said.

What I love about the turkey pretzels is that they’re not just a novelty, they’re an expression of the Keans’ creativity and the pride they take in producing one of the region’s most-beloved foods.

“It’s much harder, but it makes it more challenging and more fun,” Brian Kean said.