Halloween Witch Finger Cookies are a must for your spooky spread! These eerie green treats are made with buttery shortbread dough and then shaped like gnarled witch fingers, with “blood” dripping from their almond nails. They’re screamingly delicious and perfectly creepy Halloween cookies!
Ingredients
- Butter: Provides richness and moisture, creating a tender cookie texture.
- Powdered Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps achieve a smooth, melt-in-your-mouth consistency.
- Egg: Binds the ingredients together, adding structure to the cookies.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the overall flavor with a subtle sweetness.
- Almond Extract: Adds a nutty, aromatic flavor that complements the almond “fingernails.”
- All-Purpose Flour: The main structure-building ingredient, giving the cookies their shape.
- Salt: Balances the sweetness and enhances the flavors.
- Green Gel Food Coloring: Gives the cookies their eerie, witchy green color.
- Whole Blanched Almonds: Used to create the realistic-looking fingernails on each cookie. I purchased these online.
- Red Decorator Gel: Simulates “blood” dripping from the nails, adding to the spooky effect.
How to Make Witches Fingers: Step-by-Step Directions
Step 1: Beat butter and powdered sugar in an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add to butter mixture until combined. Mix in drops of green gel food coloring until the dough reaches the desired spooky shade of green. Cover and refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes to help prevent stickiness.
Step 3: Preheat the oven. Working in small batches (keep the rest chilling in the fridge), measure a heaping teaspoonful of dough and roll it into a thin finger shape on parchment paper. Gently squeeze to form knuckles. Use a table knife or a toothpick to create finger wrinkles. Press a blanched almond at the tip to form a fingernail bed with a fingernail. Place on prepared cookie sheet 1-2 inches apart (I baked eight at a time). See the helpful tips below for more details.
Step 4: Bake for 10 minutes or until the bottoms turn a light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Don’t worry if the almonds come loose. They’ll stay on once you put the “blood” under them.
Step 5: When cool, remove the almonds and squeeze red decorating gel onto the nail bed. Then, replace the almond and let the “blood” ooze out around it. (For extra gore, squeeze some blood around the witch finger cookie base, too.)
Recipe Tips!
Keep the Dough Cold: The dough is very sticky, so working in small batches is necessary. Continue chilling the dough you’re not working with at the moment.
Witch Finger Size: My #1 tip is to make the cookies super skinny, like green bean skinny. They’ll puff and spread when baked, but we still want them to look like gnarly, old witch fingers.
Making the Knuckles: Gently squeeze the dough to form a knuckle and use the tip of a butter knife to form the knuckle lines, varying the length. Keep everything pronounced so it will still look knobby and lined after baking. It took me multiple tries to figure this out.
Bake a Sample Cookie: I baked a single cookie (several times) to get a feel for how it looked after baking and tweaked things until I was happy with the results.
Allow Enough Time: Making witch finger cookies takes time and patience, so be sure you have plenty of both!
Perfection is Overrated: Don’t worry if they’re imperfect—they’ll be just fine!
Recipe FAQ and Variations
Absolutely. Just leave the green food coloring out of the recipe.
I think blanched almonds make the most realistic fingernails for witch fingers, but you could try slivered almonds in a pinch. You can also blanch your own almonds. Bring a pot of water to a boil, drop in the almonds and let boil for 1 minute (no more!) Rinse immediately in cold water and then remove the wrinkled skins. Voila!
Use your favorite flavor of red seedless jam (not jelly). Raspberry and almonds taste great together, so that’s a good option.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Witch Finger Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2⅔ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- green gel food coloring
- ¾ cup whole blanched almonds
- red decorator gel
Instructions
- In an electric mixer, beat together butter and powdered sugar until smooth and fluffy. Mix in egg, vanilla extract and almond extract.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add to butter mixture until combined. Mix in drops of green gel food coloring until the dough reaches the desired spooky shade of green. Cover and refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes to help minimize stickiness.
- Preheat oven to 325°F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Working in small batches (keep the rest chilling in the fridge), measure a heaping teaspoonful of dough and roll it into a finger shape on waxed or parchment paper. Gently squeeze to form knuckles. Use a table knife or a toothpick to create finger wrinkles. Press an almond at the tip to form a fingernail bed with a fingernail. Place on prepared cookie sheet 1 inch apart.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the bottoms turn a light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. When cool, remove the almonds and squeeze red decorating gel onto the nail bed, then replace the almond and let the "blood" ooze out around it.
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