Creepy Witch's Fingers

Oh my goodness.  I haven't made these witches fingers for at least 100 years.

Seriously.  I think my kids were in...well...I had one is high school, one in middle school, and two in elementary school.  Now I have one college graduate and 3 in college and 3 grandchildren. 

 It's time to pull out some old recipes.  

This is an extremely easy recipe.  Not much to it at all.

You will need unsalted butter, powdered sugar (confectionery), flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla extract, almond extract, green food coloring, whole blanched almonds and a tub of decorators gel.

Whoops.  And one egg.

In a large mixing bowl, add the softened butter.

Add powdered sugar.

add the egg,

vanilla extract,

and almond extract.

Mix until smooth and creamy.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.

Add the flour

and the salt and baking powder.  

Note:  If by chance you do not have unsalted butter, lessen the amount of salt from 1 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon.

Mix until a stiff dough forms.

Add a few drops of green food coloring until you get the "green" that you want.

This is the green I want.

Scrape the cookies mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap.

Wrap tightly and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Make sure your blanched almonds are ready to go.

Along with the decorating gel.  You will need this after the cookies have baked.

After 30 minutes, remove the dough from the refrigerator.  

I'm using an ice cream scoop to measure the dough.  That way my fingers will be somewhat uniform in size and shape - somewhat.

I'm using about 1 tablespoon or more of dough.

Scoop out a portion of dough.

Roll the dough into the shape of a finger.

Place a blanched almond on the tip of the finger and press it in slightly.  Shape the tip of the finger around the almond.

I realize that there are two witch fingers in the picture.  I'm really not as old as my hands make me appear.  Those disgusting fingernails and wrinkles come from years of washing toilets and sinks and everything else.

I really need a manicure.

Quick!  Which finger is the most creepy?

Back on track.  Make an indentation where you think a knuckle would be on a witch.

Using a toothpick or tip of a knife, make lines in the finger to recreate the wrinkles in my finger.

Place the fingers on a cookie sheet.  I always line my cookie sheets with parchment.  

Yes.  I am too lazy to wash them.  

Place in a preheated 325 degree oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until just barely beginning to turn golden.

As you can see the cookies spread out a bit.  I really should have made these a bit smaller.  They look like

a cigar...geez.  I guess I should have practiced before taking my pictures.  

Oh well, you get it.  Right?

Let the cookies cool for about 3 minutes.

Carefully remove the almonds.

Squeeze a bit of the red gel into the indentation.

Press the almond back in place and the blood will ooze out around the fingernail.

Gross!

Repeat on the remaining fingers.  

I guess it really doesn't matter how perfect my fingers are.  This is Halloween.  Gross is in.

Luke (the grandson) is going to love them.  Blood and all.

Chubby edible creepy Witch's fingers. 

Witch Finger Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar (confectionery)

1 egg

1 teaspoon Almond extract

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt (1/2 teaspoon salt if using salted butter)

3/4 cup whole blanched almonds

green food coloring

1 tube red decorator gel

In a bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond and vanilla extract; beat in flour, baking powder and salt.  Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into finger shape for each cookie.  Press almond firmly into one end for the nail.  Squeeze in center to create knuckle shape; using a paring knife or toothpick, make several places to form knuckle.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets or parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake in a 325 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden.  Let cool for 3 minutes.  Lift up almond; squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back into place, so gel oozes out from underneath.  Let cool.  Makes about 28 large cigar size cookies.  If you only use 1 teaspoon of dough, you will get about 4 dozen cookies.  

Why are my witch fingers so big??

It's Halloween.  Gross everyone out with these creepy cookies.  If they are not grossed out by the cookies, just show them the pictures of my hands.  Eeeewww.