Bloody Finger Cookies

This year for Halloween I wanted to create a gruesome and bloody dessert for the party. Last time I made bloody cinnamon roll intestines. This Halloween though I wanted to make something smaller but still bloody. I landed on making a butter cookie in the shape of chopped of fingers.

• 2 sticks softened unsalted butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 pinch salt
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¾ cup sliced blanched almonds
• cinnamon
• red and black gel food coloring
• A little melted chocolate

• first you are going to want to put your 2 sticks of unsalted butter in the microwave for 15 sec. You can also let the butter sit out for 30 minutes till it becomes room temperature. Both of these methods will work for you.

• Take your 1 cup of powdered sugar and sift it into your bowel with the softened butter.
• Use a hand mixer or a stand mixer depending on what you have.
• Mix the butter mixture for 2 minutes till it becomes fluffy
• Remember to always be whipping down the sides of your bowl.

• Add your one egg and mix till combined.
• Add your 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.
• Mix till combined.

• Measure out 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• Measure out 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and add to the flour
• Next add one pinch of salt

• sift flour mixture a small amount at a time and mix till it is combined.
• Add more flour till all your flower is combined.
• The final mixture will be very crumbly but using your hands you can combine it into a ball
• cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for a half and hour.

• Line a baking pan with parchment paper
• Remove your dough from the fridge.
• Working with 1/4 of the dough at a time you are going to want to take a 1/2 tablespoon and use this to measure out the right amount of dough for one finger.
• Roll each into a ball and then roll out into a log shape.
• Place your log shape on the parchment paper and start to give it and hour glass shape in the middle that will divide where the knuckle should be
• Place one of the sliced almond on the top of the finger creating a fingernail for your finger
• Once you have finished shaping your fingers you are going to want to take the back of a knife and make indentations by the finger nail and at the end of the finger to show where the knuckles would be. This will make your fingers look more believable.
• Do not worry that the fingers are small these will expand a little in the oven.
• Place your full tray of fingers int he freezer for 20 minutes. This will help them keep their shape when they are baking in the oven.

• Preheat your oven to 375°F
• Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes until pale golden color.
• You will need to bake them in batches so keep the rest of the cookies in the freezer till you are ready to bake them
• When they are done let them cool on a wire rack.

• Remember that some of the almond nails will fall off so you are going to want to use a bit of melted chocolate to fix it back on the cookie.
• You will only need a few chocolate chips for this.
• Melt them in your microwave at 15 second intervals
• in between those intervals mix the chips with a tooth pick.
• Continue doing this till the chocolate is melted all the way
• Take your tooth pic and dab a small amount on the cookie.
• Take the almond nail and place it on the chocolate and let it cool till solid.

• Place some cinnamon in a bowl and use a new or food-only paintbrush to brush on the cinnamon.
• I started with creases I made with the back of the knife.
• There really are no rules to dirtying them up just brush on the cinnamon till you reach your desired dirtiness

• Once you are done making the fingers look dirty with the cinnamon you are going to want grab a small bowl to mix up the fake blood.
• Take another new or food-only brush and take a small amount of red food gel and place in the small bowl
• Take your black food gel and take a small amount as well
• I put a little bit of black in there to make the blood a deeper red color which makes it look a bit more realistic.
• Take a small amount of water and mix the food gel together till the mixture is smooth and there are not lumps of gel.

• I started by putting the blood mixture all around the nail beds of the cookies
• After that is done I brush on some blood at the end of the finger so it looks like it has just been cut off
• Once that is done I used my paint brush and the bowl to splatter blood all over the fingers.
• Again there are no rules to decorating them just make them look bloody and scary