Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012

Witches’ Fingers

Halloween is coming!  I am so excited; I think this is one of my favourite times of year.  Not because of the enormous amounts of candy or chocolate, but because I love decorating my house and seeing what everyone dresses up as.  I love having kids knocking on the door and giving them candy! And carving pumpkins.  Yep, pretty much everything.  I’ve also become a fan of spooky-themed treats.  I haven’t done anything over the past years like this, so bear with me!  I’m super excited to see what we come up with.  I should have done this ages ago!

These witches’ fingers are quite simple to make.  It uses a basic sugar cookie dough-nothing to write home about but the effect is ‘spoooooky’ in combination with the green dye.  When I grew up, I always thought of witches as green women and with lots of warts, wild hair and red bloody fingernails.  These witches fingernails are almonds painted red with food coloring, and you can add a hint of red gel after baking if you wish for a more gruesome bloody effect.

 

Spooky Witches’ Fingers

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons red food coloring

30 almonds (I used regular but blanched is preferred)

2 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or almond if you prefer)

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

Green food coloring (adjust to your preference)

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a shallow bowl, place the food coloring in. Using a small paintbrush, color one half of each almond. Set aside to dry.

Separate 1 of the eggs, set aside the white. In a small bowl, whisk together the yolk, remaining egg and vanilla. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, confectioner’s sugar, granulated sugar and salt. Beat on medium until well combined. Add the egg mixture and green food coloring (adjust to your preference) and beat for approximately 2 minutes.

Beat in the flour and mix on low until just incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for approximately 30-45 minutes.

Divide the dough in half. Work with one piece at a time, keep the remaining dough covered with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.

Divide the first half in 15 pieces. Roll each piece back and forth with palms into finger shapes, about 3.5-4.5 inches long. Pinch the dough in two places to form knuckles. Score each knuckle lightly with the back of a small knife. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, and repeat with the remaining dough.

Brush the fingers lightly with an egg white. Position the almond nails and push into dough to attach.

Bake until lightly browned-about 10-12 minutes. Cool completely.

Source: slightly adapted from Martha Stewart