Halloween Baking with Gloredhel!
Hello my wonderful flist. I hope you're all doing well, and aren't nearly as stressed as I. School's been quite relentless, and I feel horribly unartistic. I haven't drawn anything in over a week. *cries* But I do bring cookies! Unfortunately the recipe wasn't my own idea, and you've probably seen it before yourself, but I couldn't get over how hilarious it was, so I had to try it out and share it with you all!
I bring you:
Witches' Fingers!
Here's the original recipe I used. I'm not quite so satisfied with the recipe given, however, although it probably depends on what texture you prefer for your cookies. They use less sugar and a lot more butter (a whole cup!). The baking temperature is lower and cooking time longer, which lends to a crunchier cookie. If that's what you're looking for that's good, but I suppose I prefer mine a bit softer and sweeter.
Edit: Grr. I just realized I got the temp and bake time from another Witches' Fingers recipe, which bakes at 325 degrees F for ~20 minutes. *headdesk* No wonder mine were a bit crunchier.
Some changes I made were:
1) a drop of green food coloring to the dough to give the fingers that nice dead and rotting look.
2) I didn't have any almond extract. I fail at any extract other than vanilla, I know. I am ashamed.
3) Assuming you have whole regular almonds on hand, I found another site saying to boil the almonds for 30 seconds to a minute. You can then easily remove the outer skin. The almonds are also a bit easier to halve when damp. I diluted some red food coloring with water, and then painted the nails with an ultra-clean artist's brush.
4) No matter how chilled you get the dough, to shape it into the finger you want, it's going to get sticky. I'd suggest either keeping your hands wet or greasing your fingers with butter/oil. I used a slightly wet knife to make the wrinkles at the knuckle, because the dough sticks to the knife as well.
4) I didn't have any gel icing on hand, so I made my own with confectioner's sugar, water, and red food coloring. You want the goo to be fairly thick to help stick the nail back on after baking.
5) Finally, because I knew they'd be fairly bland, I made a thin confectioner's sugar + water glazing I brushed on the fingers before I baked them. It also gives them a slightly shiny look.
Here's a batch before they're baked. This is to give you an idea of how thin the fingers need to be, or else you'll end up with sausage fingers when the dough flattens in the oven. Even mine turned out a bit wider than I wanted.
Here's their, um, glamour shot.
Although I'm not ecstatic about the taste, they were fun to make. Sure made my sister wonder about my sanity.
Happy Halloween!
