Witch Fingers

When I think of Halloween, I think of chocolate, candy and cookies.  These Halloween cookies, which look like witch fingers, will creep out your guests. But they taste so good, they will also gobble them up!  The cookies below, we didn’t have whole almonds, but almond slices worked well. Also, we couldn’t find red decorating gel, but even without it, the cookies look creepy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup whole almonds
• 1 (.75 ounce) tube red decorating gel
• green food coloring

Directions

1. Combine butter, sugar, egg, and extracts in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer
2. In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Mix well.  Slowly add to wet ingredients and mix with the mixer; add green dye until dough is desired color. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.
4. Remove small amounts of dough from refrigerator. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon onto a piece of waxed paper and use it to roll the dough into a very thin finger-shapes (cookies will expand when they are baking!).  Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles, and cut with 3 lines for the wrinkles.  Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Put the shaped cookies on the baking sheets.
5. Bake until the cookies are slightly golden in color, 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Remove the almond from the end of each cookie; squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel into the cavity; replace the almond to cause the gel to ooze out around the tip of the cookie.