Halloween Treats - Bloody Severed Fingers

“Finger” Ingredients (yields 50-60 reasonably sized fingers):


•1 cup butter, softened
•1 cup powdered sugar
•1 egg
•1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•3 cups all-purpose flour
•1 teaspoon baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup sliced almonds
•1/2 tablespoon of red jam (I used Trader Joe’s raspberry)
•Blood” Ingredients:

•1 cup white chocolate – I used white chocolate chips because the small morsels melt faster
•1/4 cup milk
•1 teaspoon red food dye, or more if your chocolate looks too pink
Preparation:

1.In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. A whisk will suffice, but if you’re one of those lucky people who have a hand mixer, that’s going to come in handy.
2.Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract and mix well. Keep whisking.
3.Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and beat until completely mixed. See, this is where it gets tough to get by with just the whisk because the dough is too thick.
At this point, grab a spatula and remove any dough that is stuck to the whisk. Fold and smash and mix with the spatula if you want, but I just washed up and kneaded the dough with my hands. It’s fun. Like edible Play-Doh, except you can’t actually eat it or you won’t have anything left to bake with.

1.Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. I let it refrigerate for about 24 hours because I had somewhere to be, and it turned out fine – you’ll just need to break off the dough with a butter knife and work the dough in your hands a bit more when rolling the fingers.
2.When you’re ready to start rolling the fingers, preheat the oven to 325°F.
3.Line ungreased baking sheets with wax paper. This will make your life easier when you dip the fingers in chocolate after baking.
4.With your hands, roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a finger shape for each cookie. I like the knuckles to be a little swollen, so I smush the dough together a little where the knuckle should be. I think it makes them creepier. If the dough gets sticky and hard to work with, put it back in the refrigerator for a little while.
5.Dip an almond slice in the jam and stick it onto the skinny end of the finger to create a nail. Don’t worry if the jam oozes out from under the nail. It’ll look great after it’s baked.
6.Use a butter knife to make knuckle marks on the finger cookies, and scratch up the severed end of the finger.
7.Place fingers on an ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart, and repeat steps 6 to 9 until you’ve used up all the dough.
8.1.Place the baking sheets with the fingers on them in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to prevent spreading upon baking. No one wants flattened, fat fingers. They’re scarier when they look real.
2.Bake 20-25 minutes, until fingers are slightly golden. Remove from the oven and let cool. Meanwhile, prepare the bloody chocolate.
3.In a small saucepan, heat milk on medium low until steaming, but not boiling. Add white chocolate and stir until it reaches a smooth consistency. If it’s egregiously thick, you may add more milk, but why ruin a good thing? It’s chocolate; it doesn’t need any help being delicious! Add red food dye until desired color is reached.
4.Once fingers are cool, dip the severed ends into the chocolate and let it drip upwards towards the nail. Place fingers back onto the wax paper-lined baking sheet to cool.
5.Once chocolate is cooled and fingers are easily removed from the wax paper, feel free to serve!