Halloween Witches’ Fingers


These ghoulish cookies would make an interesting centrepiece for any Halloween feast. The recipe is quite simply one for shortbread cookies, but by carefully moulding and decorating each one they can be made to resemble fingers. Happy Halloween!

Ingredients
100g icing sugar
200g butter, softened
300g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
16 blanched almonds

Icing
250g icing sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tsp red food colouring

Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas mark 5.
  2. Using an electric mixture beat the icing sugar and butter until soft and well combined. This should take about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the vanilla extract and with the mixer on a low speed gradually add the flour. Don’t over beat and once combined bring the dough together into a ball, place it on a sheet of greaseproof paper, cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes, to harden slightly.
  4. Take from the fridge and with a tablespoon of the dough at each time, with your hands, roll into a shape of a finger. Squeeze the ‘finger’ to give the impression of a knuckle. Make indentations with a knife to represent knuckle ridges. Prepare two tins with a sheet of greaseproof paper on each. Careful transfer the raw cookies to the trays. Add a blanched almond to the tip of the finger to look like a fingernail. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-14 minutes, depending on their thickness.
  5. While the cookies are cooking prepare the icing. In a medium sized bowl combine the icing sugar with the water and food colouring. Add a few more drops of water if required, or add some more icing sugar if the mixture appears too thin.
  6. Take the cookies from the oven and place them on a wire rack. Immediately after taking them from the oven lift the almond, place a blob of the red icing and then firmly stick the almond back on the cookie. Dot about half a teaspoon of icing at the base of the cookie, as seen in the photo.
  7. Allow to set before serving.

0 Comments: