photo provided by Paige Wallace

These finger cookies are one of my favorite Halloween traditions. For the entirety of my childhood, my mom and I would make these cookies together every year. It’s such a fond memory for me, not only because of the time spent with my mom, but it was also something we could share with our family and friends. My mom would bring them to work for Halloween parties, and I would pass them out during the school day.

They are delicious, fun to make and best of all, pretty spooky looking. Below is the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Red decorating gel

Sliced almonds

DIRECTIONS

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.

2. Beat in the egg and almond and vanilla extracts into a mixture.

3. Combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt. After they are combined, start gradually adding it to the creamed mixture.

4. Separate the dough into four chunks and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until easy to handle.

5. Roll the dough into a ball and then form logs.

6. With the flat tip of a table knife, make an imprint on one end of each log (this is for the fingernail.)

7. Then, using the same knife, make three slashes in the middle of the finger for the knuckle.

8. Place on a baking sheet. Either use parchment paper or lightly grease the baking sheet.

9. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

10. Give the cookies time to cool (3-5 minutes), and you can begin decorating (AKA spooky time.)

11. Squeeze some red gel into the fingernail bed and press a sliced almond on top to create the nail. Make sure to let the gel ooze out from underneath the nail.

NOTES

To cream: Unless you’re one of the rare college kids that has a KitchenAid Mixer, you’re going to have to do the mixing by hand. Don’t worry though; you can do it. Just let the butter sit out for a while to get soft. You can use a fork to break up the butter more and then just a spoon to combine the butter and sugar. Do NOT overmix. Once the ingredients are combined, STOP. Use a whisk or fork to mix in the egg and the two extracts.

I would use a spatula to fold in the dry ingredients. You don’t want to over mix this dough.When rolling out the cookies, make them on the thinner side because they will expand some while cooking.

I like to pick sharp almonds to make the fingers look even creepier.

I hope you give this recipe a try. It has a special place in my heart and is a perfect treat for Halloween. Trick or treat yo self.