Creepy Witches' Fingers

Creepy Witches' Fingers are a fun and delicious way to liven up your Halloween festivities. They're made with buttery shortbread dough tinted green and fashioned to look like fingers, nails, and all. There are certain to be a hit with young and old goblins.

Jump to:

• The Experiment
• Ingredients - Here's What You'll Need
• Blanching the Almonds
• Making the Dough - Step-by-Step
• Making the Witches' Fingers
• Recipe Tips and Tricks
• Other Halloween Treats
• Recipe

The Experiment

Every Halloween, I've thought about making witches' fingers, but for whatever reason, I never did until this year.

I knew I wanted to use a shortbread cookie recipe for the fingers. Shortbread dough doesn't expand and spread like sugar cookie dough, and I wanted the fingers to retain their shape and character. The shortbread dough did not disappoint!

I also wanted the fingers to have a green tinge, like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. I had leaf green, light green, and Grinch green (it's called Electric Green) gel food color. I chose the Grinch green food color and thought it worked well.

For the fingernails, my choices were sliced almonds, whole almonds with skins, or blanched whole almonds with the skins removed. I thought the whole almonds with their skins removed was the best choice.

After those factors were decided upon, the three experiments involved baking the fingers with or without the almonds, determining the quantity of dough to use for the fingers, and adding or not adding "blood" at the end of the "severed" fingers.

I baked several fingers without the almonds and several with the almonds. The fingers baked with the almonds were the winner. The baking toasted the almonds, improving their flavor and appearance. In addition, a perfect indentation was left on the cookie finger from the almond to add the "blood."

I initially tried three different iterations for the quantity of dough: 20 grams, 15 grams, and 10 grams. Susan and I thought that somewhere between 15 and 10 grams of dough would be perfect, so I settled on using 12 grams for each finger.

As an aside, I'm not a metric person, but I thought using grams rather than ounces was more precise for something like this.

Finally, I added some red cookie icing at the end of the first witch's finger I baked (the one with 20 grams of dough), but no icing on the second finger (the one with 15 grams). Susan and I thought not having the icing at the end was the better option.

Below is the result of the experimentation and the winner!

Ingredients - Here's What You'll Need

• Shortbread Cookie Dough: I used unsalted butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, Kosher salt, and all-purpose flour for the shortbread cookie dough.

• The Food Color: I used Grinch green gel food color (Electric Green) to tint the dough green.

• The Nails: For the nails, I used whole almonds with the skins removed.

• The "Blood": Red cookie icing was perfect for adding "blood" around the almond nails.

Blanching the Almonds

Blanching the almonds was one of the most time-consuming parts of making the witches' fingers.

1. I started by adding whole almonds to boiling water and boiling them for three minutes.

2. After three minutes, I drained the almonds, rinsed them in cold water, and patted them dry. Then, I removed the skins by pinching the bottom of the almonds - the blanched almonds popped out!

Making the Dough - Step-by-Step

The shortbread dough for the witches' fingers was a simple recipe.

1. I added room-temperature unsalted butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, Kosher salt, and several drops of green gel food color to a medium bowl.

2. Then, I beat everything with my electric mixer until the ingredients were well combined. This took about a minute.

3. Next, I added the all-purpose flour. I beat the mixture on low for about a minute until everything was combined.

4. I transferred the dough to a piece of plastic wrap, formed it into a disk, and wrapped it in plastic. I refrigerated the dough for about 30 minutes.

Making the Witches' Fingers

1. Based on my experiment, I formed the dough into balls that weighed 12 grams each. Then, I took each ball and rolled it into a 4-inch finger using my fingers.

2. I pressed an almond, with the point facing out, into the dough at one end.

3. Then, I pressed a toothpick into the dough to make two knuckles.

4. I transferred the witches' fingers to a parchment-lined baking sheet and placed the baking sheet in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

5. After 15 minutes, I baked the witches' fingers in a preheated 325°F oven for 20 minutes. I removed the witches' fingers from the oven and let them sit on the baking sheet for about five minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

6. Once the witches' fingers were cool, I carefully removed the almonds. Then, I added some red cookie icing to the indentation left by the almonds and replaced the almonds.

I ended up with 40 buttery and delicious Creepy Witches' Fingers.

They are perfect for your Halloween festivities and will cast a spell on your taste buds. They will surely please young and old goblins. Yum!

Recipe Tips and Tricks

• I wanted the witches' fingers to retain as much of their shape as possible when baked. Because of this, a shortbread cookie recipe, like I included below, is much better than a sugar cookie recipe. Sugar cookie recipes contain baking powder or baking soda, which causes the dough to expand when baked.

• As previously mentioned, 12 grams of dough turned out to be the perfect amount to produce slender, knobby witches' fingers.

• When the witches' fingers were baking, I watched them closely. I wanted the cookies to retain their green color and didn't want them to brown.

• When I was experimenting, I first used the back of a knife to make the knuckle indentations in the dough, but later found that a toothpick was much better.

• After the cookies cooled a bit, it was easy to carefully remove the almonds. The cookie icing I used hardened, making it perfect for the "blood" addition around the nail.

Other Halloween Treats

If you're a fan of homemade Halloween treats, check out these amazing recipes:

Recipe