Halloween is approaching, and wouldn’t you want to make some witch finger cookies?
These hilarious cookies made from shortbread are made terrifying and, at the same time, delicious with red fruit jam and peeled almonds.
They’re so simple to make that you can enjoy making them with your children, and no particular precision is required in their creation as witches’ hands are not particularly beautiful. Just a couple of adjustments are enough to get a frightfully realistic result.
Now take a minute to read the recipe and then…let’s cook and eat!!
See also
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Day 45 Minutes
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 10 1/2 tbsps butter (very cold)
- 1 egg (at room temperature)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 jar vanillin
- as needed red fruit jam
- as needed almonds (peeled)
Tools
- 1 Chopper
- 1 Metal Scraper
- 1 Kitchen Scale
- 1 Knife
- 1 Plastic Wrap
- 1 Baking Tray
- 1 Parchment Paper
- 1 Cooling Rack
Steps
To make the witch finger cookies, prepare the shortbread using the egg at room temperature and the butter cold from the fridge. For this reason, after cutting it into pieces, I recommend putting it back in the fridge for 15 minutes before mixing it.
Once it’s cold again, gather the butter together with the flour in the bowl of the chopper and turn it on for a few seconds.
In this way, you will obtain the sandblasting of the flour, which will take on the consistency of wet sand. Add the egg at room temperature to the chopper bowl.
Then add the powdered sugar and the sifted vanillin, along with a pinch of salt. Turn the chopper on again until the dough begins to come together.
Transfer the shortbread to a pastry board and quickly compact it with your hands. Once you have a firm dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
After the resting time in the fridge, take the shortbread and cut it first into slices and then into finger-thick sticks.
Work each shortbread stick between your hands to obtain small loaves, then press on one end of each of them and, in the hollow that is formed, let a little red fruit jam fall.
Then place a peeled almond on the jam, as if it were a nail, and make two indentations on the sides of the shortbread loaves to recreate the knuckles of witch fingers. To make it more realistic, slightly carve the surface of the shortbread fingers with a scraper.
As they are ready, place the witch fingers on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and transfer everything to the fridge for 15 minutes.
This way, the cookies won’t lose their shape once in the oven.
