Realistic Hallowe'en Severed Finger Cookies

SKILL LEVEL: Child



Realistic Hallowe'en Severed Finger Cookies are fun and easy to make for kids and adults. Here i will make plain human, and green witch versions (just add green food colouring with the wet ingredients).

I am using plain sugar cookie dough from scratch, but you can use whatever cookie dough you want, you can buy the dough pre-made if you want. Adding peanut butter would be simple and easy.

Tools REQUIRED:

Mixing bowls
Wooden or other large spoon
Small teaspon
Small paintbrush (or possibly Qtip)
Cookie sheet (optional aluminum foil)
Paper Towel
Plastic Baggie (for green version)
Oven or toaster oven

Creepy Tray for serving

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Sugar Cookie Dough (2 dozen cookies)

1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup margarine or butter
2 Teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
2 eggs
2-3 cups flour
2 dozen almond slices ( or pumpkin seeds if you have allergies)
some dry  hot chocolate powder mix, cocoa, cinnamon powder or other brown powder

optional:

2 dozen mini white marshmallows for bones
red and green food colouring

optional blood:

red icing ( 1/4 cup icing sugar and a bit of butter/margarine), red jam, or something red to hold the marshmallow "bones"

Step 1: Making the Cookie Dough

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Put 1 cup of white sugar and 2/3 cup margarine/butter in a mixing bowl and cream the butter (mix it with large or wooden spoon) until it is a uniform paste.
3. Add both eggs, salt, baking powder, and any optional flavouring, and mix thoroughly
4. If you are making green witch fingers, add a few drops of green food colouring now while it is wet, and mix

Step 2: Adding Flour to Make a Soft Dough and Prepare Surfaces for Sculpting

1. To your wet mixture add a cup or so of flour, and mix.
2. If the dough is sticky, keep adding flour a 1/2 cup at a time until it is not sticky, and you can roll it in your hands easily.
3. flour your counter top a bit
4. prepare your cookie sheet with ( optional foil)  and grease it with a bit of butter/margarine on a piece of paper towel, and sprinkle flour on the top of the sheet

Step 3: Basic Finger Sculpting

The cookies with expand 1.5-2 times the uncooked size, so make them smaller then you think you should and they will turn out more realistic. I suggest making a couple test sizes to see the results before you cook them all.

1. Sort your almond/pumpkin seeds for the best looking ones while your hands are clean, set aside in a convenient location.
2. Use your kindergarden skills to take a 1/2" ball size of dough and roll it in your hands to make a "snake" like modeling clay when you were a child. Kids love this step.
3. Put the snake dough on the floured countertop and using your own fingers as a guide add some contours and make the palm end of the finger kinda flat vertically. Work thinner than the final version and flatten a bit.
4. With a small teaspoon, use the point at a low angle to get some nice crevices about half way through the dough from the top (about 4 each location) for the knuckle wrinkles at the 1/3 and 2/3 marks of the snake. The palm end should  should have more rounded wrinkles and deeper.
5. Move the fingers to the cookie tray.
6. With the teaspoon bowl up, create a nail bed on the finger tip for the almond slice (or pumpking seed)
7. Add the almond/pumpkin seed slipping them a bit under the nail bed so they hold,  and tweak your finger sculpture so it is finger like
8. Bake 375F for 10-12 minutes (don't burn them)

Step 4: Enhancing Wrinkles

1. Let the cookies cool to the touch
2. With the small paintbrush, paint in the brown powder (hot chocolate/cocoa/cinnamon) into the wrinkles and the rim of the nail bed fairly generously
3. Wait a bit and then shake and blow off the excess powder, and clean up any powder not in crevices with the brush or whatever works.

This is a great place to stop if you want or you can add some GORE with bones and blood.

Step 5: Bones and Blood

1. Roll your mini marshmallows so that they are half the width and longer to make the bone sticking out
2. Add some red food dye to half of the marshmallow
3. Stick it on with red icing/red jam/ or melted marshmallow

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Icing:

1/4 cup of icing sugar
Tablespoon of margarine/butter
Several drops red food colouring

mix thoroughly with the back of a spoon in a small bowl until creamy

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Serve on a creepy black or orange plate, a wooden plank with a cleaver, or something creative and scary

Step 6: OPTIONAL Green Witch Fingers

Most of the steps are the same as before:

1. cream sugar and margarine/butter, and then add the eggs, salt ,and baking powder mix well.
2. add a few drops of green food colour while the mixture is a liquid, much easier at that step than when it is already dough.
3. add the flour as with the plain version.
4. make your snake shaped dough forms as before
5. add a few small balls of dough for warts on the fingers to add excitement
6. sort your almond slices for the best ones

Step 7: Dying the Fingernails

1. place the almonds/pumpkin seeds in a small plastic baggie
2. add a few drops of green food colouring
3. add a bit of water to the bag
4. squish the bag to mix the colouring with all the almond/seed "fingernails"
5. put a paper towel on the work surface
6. dump the seeds onto the paper towel and fold over drying them off and not getting food colour on your fingers (or you will be green for days)
7. make nail beds in the fingers and add the (now green) fingernails to the witch fingers
8. bake 375F for 10-12 minutes
9. As before enhance the wrinkles with the brown powder (hot chocolate/cocoa/cinnamon) and remove excess

Step 8: Present Your Creations

1. makes a nice tray for hostess gifts if you use a creepy black foam tray recycled from the grocery meat department (they will give you clean ones if you ask if you don't want to recycle)
2. Also would be good in a martini glass sticking out of some red dyed milkshake drinks or something dip-able.