These are not your Momma’s lady fingers!
No, not the delicate sponge cookies used to make fancy desserts like charlottes and tiramisu. These beauties look like full-fledge severed and bloody witch fingers. Gross, right? If you’ve never seen cookies like this before and are feeling completely repulsed right now, I’d say that’s about right… However, the kids love them! Line them up on a plate and it looks like you invited all of Salem to a witch hunting party!
We blanched the almonds ourselves so I enlisted Olive to help me squeeze the almonds out of their skin. This in itself was hilariously fun as we watched the almonds shoot across the room! Olive eyes widened as i shaped the finger. I let her place the almond, then immediately she knew what they were!
Still looking for a last minute treat? These are so simple and fun to make!
- 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 (see note if you can't find blanched in stores)
- 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.
- Add in green food colouring until you reach the desired colour.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into finger shape for each cookie. Make sure to make them irregular shaped! The more bumps, the creepier!
- 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 on the bottom. 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.
- If you can't find blanched almonds, thats ok! You can blanch them yourself! Just boil water, add whole almonds with skin and boil for 1 minute only (any longer and the almonds will become soft). Rinse with cold water and strain. Let cool, then squeeze the almonds out of their skin! Be careful! They may shoot across the room!!
