Witches finger cookies

As I am getting older, I am realizing more distinctly what I love about each holiday – and most of the time it almost always has something to do with the food, whether I am making it or eating it. What I love most about Halloween is the creativity and creepiness of the recipes – tombstone cookies, frog spawn tea, eyeball appetizers (although it doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it?). It’s probably the holiday where the cook or baker has the most creative license to make something utterly horrifying and delicious at the same time.

This year I could not figure out what I wanted to make, but I finally settled on a recipe that I felt would be easy for not just me to make, but for you as well. I decided to make witches fingers – firm, yet melt in your mouth cookies. I knew I had a real winner of a recipe on my hands when, as I was finishing up the last cookies and putting them on the cookie sheet, my husband declared (gleefully) that they looked disgusting and realistic. Perfect!

These are so delicious that I am having a hard time not eating them all at once! I can see how they are perfect for parties – they’re great finger-food! Muhahahahaha!! I am so funny, it’s scary! :)

What are you making for Halloween this year?

Witches finger cookies
This vegan recipe is a modified version of the Spooky Witches Fingers recipe on Allrecipes.com, and yields approximately 30 cookies if you make larger fingers or 60 cookies if you make smaller fingers.

1 cup vegan butter, softened
1 cup vegan confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water, or use egg replacer for 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, blanched almonds

Combine the vegan butter, sugar, flax seed mixture or egg replacer, almond extract and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer. As it is mixing gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Once your dough is well mixed, refrigerate it for 20 to 30 minutes. This will make the dough easier to handle when you are shaping the witches fingers.

Just before you take the dough out of the refrigerator, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets, or use silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from your refrigerator, and using a teaspoon or tablespoon scoop a heaping spoonful onto a piece of wax paper.

Tip: If you use a teaspoon you will get about 60 cookies; if you use a tablespoon you will get about 30 cookies.

Use the wax paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie.

Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance.

Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets, being sure to give each cookie a little space so that they do not bake into each other.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the cookies are slightly golden in color. If your cookies are larger, it may take more time for them to bake.

Optional: After you have allowed your cookies to cool, remove the almond from the end of each cookie. Squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel (not all decorating gels are vegan, so be sure to check the ingredients) or melted chocolate into the cavity. Replace the almond to cause the gel or chocolate to ooze out around the tip of the cookie.

Samantha Mills blogs at Novel Eats.

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