31 Days of Halloween: Bloody Zombie Fingers Recipe

These cookies are always a huge hit at our parties and they are going to be perfect for our Zombie Prom this year! They can also be called witches fingers, but for the sake of our zombie-themed party I switched the name to "Zombie Fingers".

They have a sweet almond taste and the crispy consistency of biscotti (just not as hard or crunchy)...plus, they are the perfect finger food (bwahahahaha...sorry, couldn't resist!).

I've adapted the recipe from a few sources from the web (namely here and here!).

Bloody Zombie Fingers

Ingredients:

1 cup vegan butter (I use Earth Balance), softened
1 cup powdered sugar
Vegan equivalent of 1 egg (1 1/2 teaspoon of EnerG egg replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons of water, or Vegg replacement, etc.)
1 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup whole blanched almonds
Red decorating gel or red raspberry jam

Directions:

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the egg replacer, almond and vanilla extracts until well-blended (make sure you don’t have any lumps in your egg replacer!). Add the flour, baking soda and salt. If the mixture is dry, you can splash in a tablespoon of non-dairy milk. Roll in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill for 30 or so minutes.

Once 30 minutes are up, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets (I needed two big ones) with parchment paper. Take a quarter of the dough at a time and mold it into a finger shape. The fingers will expand while cooking, so make sure to shape it no larger than pinky-sized and about two to three inches long. Use a knife to add knuckle creases (use your own finger as reference for where to put the knuckle creases) and pinch the dough between knuckles so it creates the shape of a finger. For the finishing touch, press a blanched almond into the fingertip to act as the nail.

Place cookies on the baking sheet, pop into your pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom. Once the cookies are completely cooled, remove the almond nail and add a dollop of red gel/raspberry jam, then squish the almond back on! Then add some red gel/raspberry jam to the end of the finger for a bloody severed finger look! Grrrrr, arghhhhh...bloody zombie fingers!

These keep well in airtight containers, so you can make a day or two ahead of time if you wish!