Witch's Fingers

"Halloween, trick or treat! Dame chavos y no maní!"(Halloween, trick or treat! Give me money, not peanuts!) That's what children in Puerto Rico chant every Halloween. As always, we have a very "rice and beans" way to assimilate North American culture. I do not know the origins of the chant, I just know that it is very persistent in October.

Halloween was not a very big deal for me when I was a child. My parents did not like the idea of me running around the neighborhood like a hooligan, dressed up like whatever character I was obsessed with. They thought it was very dangerous so I did not have the trick or treat experience. I do remember dressing up for a Halloween party as a Cabbage Patch Kid. It was awesome. I thought I was killing it with the costume my Mom made. I think I was so excited that I gave myself an asthma attack.

Anyway, I do not dress up as an adult. I was planning on dressing up as Frida Kahlo and I convinced my husband to dress up as Frida's husband, Diego Rivera. Adulthood happened and here I am, baking and blogging. :-) This recipe is essentially a thumbprint cookie recipe, but with a little creativity it looks just like a witch's severed finger. These are not allergy friendly, so be careful if you want to give these to strangers.

Witch's Fingers

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 2 3/4 all purpose flour
• 3/4 c whole blanched almonds*
• green food coloring
• red decorator's gel*

* Can be store bought, but if you are up for the task, I will explain how to make these.

Make some fingers!

Set up your stand up mixer a paddle attachment and cream the butter. Add the sugar, mix until well combined.

Add the egg, vanilla paste and almond extract. Mix until incorporated.

Add the flour and salt. Mix well. Add the food coloring. This step is more to your discretion. Have in mind that you should color the dough a little darker than desired. The cookies will lighten a little bit while baking.

Make a disk with the soft dough and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

At this point, if you bought blanched almonds and piping gel, just chill out! If not...

Blanch the almonds!

Start with the desired amount of raw almonds. In this case, 3/4 cup.

In a pot, bring water to a rolling boil. Add the almonds. Boil for exactly 1 minute. Not 1:10, not 40 seconds, 1 minute. Drain the almonds and rinse them with cold water immediately. Blot with paper towel and simply peel off the skins. I promise, this is a super easy, painless process. You are now ready to make almond meal, milk, marzipan, nails for witches...

Prepare the blood! (Piping gel)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup white corn syrup
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• red food coloring

Mix cornstarch and water until dissolved. Add corn syrup and vanilla. Mix until dissolved.  Microwave the mixture on high for 2 minutes. Remove and whisk occasionally while it cools. Add food coloring to your heart's desire.

Shape and bake the fingers!

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take tablespoons of the mixture and shape a rough cylinder. Place it in a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. 

Pinch in the middle to form knuckles. Firmly place the blanched almond at the tip to form the witch's nail. With a paring knife form wrinkles throughout the finger.

Bake for 25 minutes. 

Let cool. 

Carefully, lift up the almond, place red piping gel and replace the almond. Pipe some gel at he ends of the finger. I added to some of the fingers strawberry Pocky to simulate bone.

I will eat these with the blood of my enemies (Trader Joe's wine, because that is what classy people like me drink on Friday night... )

Enjoy!