Who says climate hawks don’t have any fun?
For years I have made “Witch’s Fingers” with my daughters and their friends for Halloween. Now both are university students living away from home, but each of them recently sent home pictures of how their dastardly digits, made without mom, turned out. It’s wonderful to see a family tradition emerging, no matter how silly! Here are the pictures and the recipe (although you can also use your favourite sugar cookie recipe, just shape as described below):
Witch’s Fingers
1 cup butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ¾ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Whole almonds
Red gel icing, or raspberry jam
Mix together wet ingredients. Mix together dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then beat into wet ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keep remaining dough refrigerated, roll heaping teaspoonful of dough into finger shape for each cookie. Press almond firmly into 1 end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape; using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.
Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325 degrees F over for 20 – 25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up almonds, squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back in place, so gel oozes out from underneath. Let cool on racks, repeat with remaining dough.
And for your Halloween viewing pleasure, here’s a 1988 WB Daffy Duck cartoon Night Of the Living Duck, directed by Terry Lennon and Greg Ford and released as a part of “Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_m80RmphXM&feature=player_embedded]
Happy Halloween everyone!
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