Spooky Witches' Fingers

I made these cookies for my son's school party and they were a great hit. We added green food coloring to the dough and when I took them out of the oven I added a single chocolate chip for a wart. We also added red gel food coloring for the severed end of the finger. The cookies do enlarge when baked (almost double the thickness) so make sure you don't make them to round when you are rolling them out. The cookie flavor was good on top of looking great, thanks for a fun recipe.

Great recipe! Instead of using decorator gel, I dipped each almond in strawberry jam, and pressed them into the raw "finger" tip before baking... produced very gory results!

I have been making this dessert every year for my annual Halloween party for the last 10 yrs. I don't use wax paper to shape the fingers, just my well-washed hands. I then use a sharp knife to cut in the knuckles and finger lines, dipped in hot water between cuts. Also, I add the red gel frosting to the base of the fingers as if they've been pulled out of their socket - gross! That way, you don't have to mess with the almonds. You can also add chocolate chips to them right after they come out of the oven to add flavor and "warts". Lots of great feedback ever year, my guests now expect to see them!

I use the Canadian Living Cooks witch finger recipe (pretty much the same), but I thought I'd let you know that if you don't have red gel, I simply use raspberry jam (just a touch) and then put the almond "nail" on top to let the jam ooze out a bit. It bakes just fine. And do make sure you let the dough chill, because one time I was impatient and they became very fat witch fingers!

This is a cool recipe. I am not a fan of sugar cookies so I rated it a little higher that I really thought it should be (flavor wise) other wise I would have given it a 5 because it is such a good idea. When making the fingers you have to make them SUPER thin. About the size of your pinky finger in width (unless you have "man-hands" or are a man. My first batch was more like monster fingers.

I LOVE THESE!! One person talked about warts, so I tried to make some. Another person made them green, I loved that idea. So I had to try, this is what mine turned out like. Otherwise I followed the recipe to a T. The mice are cake balls.

i have been making these treats for the past 10 years or so! i saw martha stewart making them on her show - she called them "severed fingers" and use her recipe (recipe varies). i just loved reading the reviews! this halloween i will use this recipe and follow other member's advice and make them green and w/chocolate chip "warts"! for the fingernails, i usually blanche the almonds - put in boiling water for 1 minute or so and then drain. when slightly cooled you can pop off the almond skin. when the blanched almonds are dry simply "paint" with red food coloring! use beaten egg white to brush over entire finger and to stick the finger nail on. hmmm - this just gave me an idea! i think i'll paint designs on the nails w/food coloring pens! thanks in advance for the new recipe and inspiration!

These are "grown-up" tasting cookies with a kid appearance....I sweetened them up with more sugar and frosting to both the fingernail and the bottom to make it red and bloody-looking. Sweet is the key with these cookies; if you follow the recipe, they are not that sweet. I loved them; so did my students.

These were fun and pretty good. We have someone allergic to nuts so we used hot tamales instead of almonds. It was cute and a big hit, esp with the kiddos

I would have given it five star but I was not crazy about the flavor. I loved the look how ever. I found the easyest way to make the shape was to roll them in your hand and slightly, very slightly squeez them. Loved the look of them green and love the warts. Just wished the taste was better

I too have been using this recipe for years. We always do the same thing every year and the kids love it. 1. Tint the dough before adding the dry ingredients. Easier to mix it in that way. Green is usually the preferred colour. Don't be afraid to play with the extract flavour. If you don't like almond extract then use something else. 2. Make sure to make them thin as someone stated. Otherwise you get huge fingers unless that's what you want. Then they become "ogre fingers" instead of witch. 3. Red gel under the nails and ends of the fingers makes for wonderful special effects. I usually use the tip of a potato peeler to hollow out the ends a bit before baking. When the cookies cool down I fill it with the red gel to give it a gory touch! Whole almonds make for thick nails and half the almond gives it a thinner look. You can even use almonds with their skins still on. The brown almond skin and ridges give it an older look. It's just another option depending on the look you want to achieve. 4. Use a knife to cut into the tops to make knuckles. 5. Once cool, I take black food colouring and dilute is ever so slightly and dry brush the nails to make them appear gray. Really adds to the fingers. This is something the kids can help you make and it's lots of fun for them. Great idea for Halloween.

I substituted 3/4 cup granular sugar for the confectioners', which worked just fine. Secret to light shortbread is to whip the butter with sugar until light (NEVER melt the butter). Then beat in all the wet ingredients. Then fold in the sifted dry ingredients. I also recommend chilling the batter overnight. Like another reviewer, I recommend "gluing" the almonds on with a bit of strawberry or raspberry jam before baking. I dusted these with powdered sugar after cooling to give them a "musty, mildewy" look. Very effective.

Uncomplicated flavor and low sweetness quotient makes this recipe a winner for adults. Kids would probably prefer something sweeter. They're just a plain butter cookie with a sable texture. Of course, it's got creative impact up the yin-yang, too! I think I've figured out how to stop them from blowing up and out of shape. Cutting the baking powder in half, from 1 tsp to 1/2 tsp did the trick. I used red gel to simulate blood, and they made quite a splash. Guests were totally grossed out - my daughter could only eat them if she turned them upside down so she didn't have to see the "blood" and "warts" (little tiny balls of dough that I applied before baking.) Thank you!

This is what happens (see photo) if you don't follow directions. I decided to use slice & bake dough from the store. The dough spreads and will never hold a finger shape. Next time, I win.

These cookies looked so good, they were perfect for Halloween. Like others have said, a lot of my friends looked at them hesitantly because they looked so real. I also agree with some others that the taste was a little off. I found my batch to be just a tad too salty. If I make these again I will take others suggestions to add granulated sugar or will use my own family recipe for Christmas cookies which is similar but a little sweeter. Hands down these should be colored green, the red looks even more grotesque. I used red food gel for the blood, maybe the red jams others used would have balanced out the flavor?

well, i made them, and they were perfect!! do not use Sugar cookie dough!!! that does not work at all. i know, i tried!

I too have been using this recipe for years. We always do the same thing every year and the kids love it. 1. Tint the dough before adding the dry ingredients. Easier to mix it in that way. Green is usually the preferred colour. Don't be afraid to play with the extract flavour. If you don't like almond extract then use something else. 2. Make sure to make them thin as someone stated. Otherwise you get huge fingers unless that's what you want. Then they become "ogre fingers" instead of witch. 3. Red gel under the nails and ends of the fingers makes for wonderful special effects. I usually use the tip of a potato peeler to hollow out the ends a bit before baking. When the cookies cool down I fill it with the red gel to give it a gory touch! Whole almonds make for thick nails and half the almond gives it a thinner look. You can even use almonds with their skins still on. The brown almond skin and ridges give it an older look. It's just another option depending on the look you want to achieve. 4. Use a knife to cut into the tops to make knuckles. 5. Once cool, I take black food colouring and dilute is ever so slightly and dry brush the nails to make them appear gray. Really adds to the fingers. This is something the kids can help you make and it's lots of fun for them. Great idea for Halloween.

These ended up being a lot of work, but they looked really gross (in a good way). They taste good too, if you can manage to eat one. Before shaping them all, I did a trial run, and baked just a few, so that I could get the size and shape just right, becuase they do grow while baking.

These cookies were fantastic for our sons' daycare Halloween party. All the children and the staff loved them and there were no leftovers come pick-up time. I skipped the red food coloring and went with raspberry jam to hold the "nails" on. The two cautions I will offer, as some other reviewers did, is 1) that you have to roll out the fingers SMALL and THIN or you'll get monster fingers--a raw cookie the length and thickness of your pinky will be the size of your middle finger upon baking--and 2) the salt is better left out, or you'll also get monster fingers. They will rise just fine, look and taste perfect without the salt.

Tasty & awesomely realistic-looking, if you use PEANUT halves as the ugly nails, & take the time to form the fingers properly. That means make them into many shapes, including gnarled, arthritic, & - importantly - make the knuckle's wrinkles with a very small curved spoon instead of a knife's straight markings. (See my photo, the 83rd photo). Make them with variations, as is natural in humans. I used an Iranian cherry jam's liquid, which was mixed with cornstarch & heated to a sticky candy level - perfect for the look of of oxidized blood! The fingers looked fantastic without any deep red "blood", & were effective whether the blood was under the nails &/or at the cut-off part. Thanks Sandra, for a memorable "treat"!

I made this as Halloween treats for my sons at school and it got great review from teachers as well. I made it as it was written the first time, but the kids seemed to be put off by the almond extract (the grown-ups liked it just fine). So the second year I only added vanilla extract and used food coloring to make the dough green and almond slices dip in strawberry jam as fingernails and baked. It was gone in few minutes this time:)

This was such a hit! They actually looked just like witches fingers! I added an additional 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar and kneaded in some green dye, and they were spooky and delicious. Very very good with coffee the next morning! Not too sweet, just a perfect little bite. They definitely take some time to do well, but it's so worth it!

These were a hit for food day at work! I love Spritz cookies to begin with, so I knew what they would taste like. These are subtle cookies - you could use 2 tsp of almond for a stronger almond taste instead of using almond and vanilla. I didn't want to go through extra work to remove and replace the almonds, so I used a cherry-strawberry jam and dipped the almond in that first and placed it in the formed finger so it baked right on. (I'm photo 129) This worked great to make it a little gory looking, plus added a little flavor. (I didn't want them to taste artificial or like red dye. They were all gone at the end of the day. The recipe makes a lot - I probably had 5-6 dozen. I also followed some of the other reviews and added a mini chocolate chip after they came out of the oven. Definitely form them thin - no thicker than the size of a pinky....otherwize they'll be too fat.

5* for idea, 3* for recipe. While the cookie does taste good it just spreads way too much during baking. For my second try I used a spritz cookie recipe with much better results (no baking powder and no egg white).

These turned out fabulously for me. I did make some changes to the recipe though. I halved the salt and baking powder and added half a cup of granulated sugar. I found that 12 minutes was exactly enough time for baking also. I experimented a bit with different flavors of preserves to hold on the "nails" which were slivered almonds not whole. Mine did not rise to ogre fingers as many of the other reviews- perhaps it was the reduction in the baking soda- and the only time the dough was really able to warm was while I was handling it, otherwise it sat in a steel bowl inside another bowl with SOME ice water to keep it cool, and then when they were formed my cookie sheet sat on an ice pack. The fingers came out perfectly And actually tasted very good. I imagine I'll be making these again next year, and will probably re-use the modified version of the recipe throughout the year.

I do not know if anyone else had said this already, so I'm sorry if someone has! When I've made these cookies in the past, I have used pumpkin seeds for the nails.

some lemon zest really goes a long way in enhancing the flavor of these cookies! i doubled the recipe and used zest of three lemons. added a 1/2 tsp more salt. raspberry jam for blood is a perfect compliment to the almond/lemon flavor.

These were so very cute and easy to make. I used sliced almonds for the nails and sort of slid them into the dough a bit. I also tinted the dough green. I did NOT grease the pan, I prefer to use silicon baking liners. When I took them out of the oven I immediately removed the almond slices, added a squeeze of red gel and replaced the almosn slice "nail". I arranged them on a platter lined with easter basket grass. In addition I dipped pretzel logs in melted white chocolate and called them "dead mans bones" and placed those on the same platter. Next time I am planning on trying a strawberry jelly dot or raspberry under the almond.

I made these for the first time last Halloween, sent them to college students and they loved them! They told me they were the cutest things they had ever seen. Taste of the cookie was a 4 but the appearance a 10! I sliced mine down the middle and added some red gel to the inside then pinced it together and when you bite into them it looks like blood inside. I used sliced almonds for the fingernails and added small "cracks" with a knife for the knuckles.

These were a huge hit at a Halloween party. I used 1/8th teaspoon green food coloring - don't use any more than that. It took awhile to figure out what size to make each cookie, but finally determined that just a little smaller than actual finger size worked well. It was a little difficult to get the joints right since often squeezing the middle didn't work quite right. However, the end result was great. Use a very sharp knife for the wrinkles in the joints and vary the length. That made the most difference in creating a realistic finger. I used whole almonds and they worked great. I used chocolate morsels for "warts." I found it easier to add those before baking. Don't make your cookies too thin - they'll crack. Great idea!!!!!

Used green food dye and added the warts. They were a major hit. Next time I will use blanched almonds for a more realistic nail look. Cookie flavor was good but not great. Probably could do with any butter cookie recipe.

Excellent! I made these for a camping trip. We were sitting around the campfire telling ghost stories. When I was my turn I talked about "The Witch Of The Canyon" that grabs small children. But don't worry, because I took her fingers off!

These cookies are fun and tasty. However even after leaving the dough overnight I couldn't get it firm enough to roll into the finger shapes. I ended up putting the semi firm dough in a piping bag and piping out the finger shapes. Which I thought turned out great as just by changing the pressure on the bag I could make knuckles and give the cookies a more finger like shape.

Fun, Fun, Fun! (But, TIME CONSUMING!) Added a half cup of granulated sugar (for more kid-friendly taste), used half Butter and half Butter Flavor Crisco, SLICED almonds (better aesthetic), and tossed in some green food color.

This might be a false rating since I didn't actually use the recipe. I used my own sugar cookie dough to make the fingers, and use jelly beans for nails, and people LOVED them. I wanted to be able to give credit where it's due since the creativity was appreciated by all! Thank you for this idea! (p.s. I realize this is a few months late, I made them for halloween, not chrsitmas! lol)

I read a few reviews noting the bland taste so to be on the safe side I added an additional half a cup of granulated sugar. They came out prefect! Thank you so very much for the wonderful recipe!

it was Delicious but i don't know what i did wrong because they fell flat in the oven so my advice is follow the instructions and don't use whole wheat

Very good cookie recipe however you need to leave the leavening out so they don;t spread. Then they are more like a shortbread. Very good. Have made these several times and you can leave thebaking powder in. Tinted them green last time and they were sooo cute. However, you do need some gel or some other adhesive to keep the fingernails from falling off after baking. Very tasty cookie too.

I made these last year and this year and I think they are awesome to see as well as eat; I should know as I ate most of them and had to make more. I used blanched almond slices and put them on before going in oven and used some of the broken ones to look like broken nails and when came out of oven they looked like old yucky nails with a little red gel around edges to look as if were bleeding around them. Thank you; this is a good recipe for any holiday; just shape differently.

I've used this recipe many times and it's great! The one thing i do is paint the nails (your choice of color) before the cookies are baked. This will help if someone has a allegie to nuts. I Use melted white chocolate coating and tint it red. After the cookies are completely cooled. Dip the ends to look like blood (shake a bit to look like the blood is running

I altered the recipe by adding about 1/4 more powdered sugar after reading other reviews...NOTE-when they say make SKINNY fingers, they mean SKINNY. The first batch we rolled was about the size of our fingers and they turned out HUGE!!!! We loved tasting them though...The second 'skinnier' batch is in the oven...I will keep you posted. They sure are fun to make!!!!

Took alot of advice from the reviews. Green food coloring, choc chips for warts, toasted the almonds, dollop of red jam on the plate at the end of each finger. What a hit! Some people couldn't eat them they looked too real, but there weren't any left to take home.

Huge hit at a Halloween Party. Very realistic, and yet easy to make and yummy. I added an additional tsp of almond extract to mine to give it a little more flavor. Came out perfect!!

Delicious cookie with or without the almond extract. Careful, the recipe makes lots of fingers. Definitely dye it green, and the decorators gel can go on the cookie before baking. Thanks for a great idea.

I made these for work for tomorrow and they are sooo dang dang cute! I put in a bit of green food coloring and used sliced almonds instead of whole ones ($$$). They really do make a LOT of fingers but so worth it. I cooled the cookie sheet down in between each baking and they were perfect at 20 minutes. I love the shortbread texture, so will be making these again. Ohhh.. instead of butter I used all butter flavored Crisco. Very yummy!

These are really fun. I did add green food coloring to the dough. I took a heaping teaspoon of dough and rolled it out by hand on waxed paper. I then cut the rope in two, getting two small cookies. These do "fatten up" as they cook. I also found out that if you pull a little dough up around the edges of the almond, the almond will not come off after cooling. No need to dip a small paring knife in hot water to make the "knuckle" indentations. Red gel can still be put around the "cuticle" area. I know these will be a hit at a Halloween fundraising bake sale!

These were great and the recommendation to add jam at one end and under the nail before baking were on point. They were a hit at both my children's Halloween parties.

I followed some of the recommendations and added coloring to make them a green/pistachio color. I also added a miniature chocolate chip to look like a wart. (I uploaded my picture.) The cookies weren't as sweet as I would have liked, they are actually a bit on the salty side even though I always use unsalted butter so that was surprising. I noticed that the longer the dough was refriferated, the easier it was to manipulate. They looked really awesome after baking and just being low on calories earned it 4 stars for me!!!

These are a little trickier than the look! Make them smaller than you think they should be...they do tend to puff up quite a bit. They were a big hit with my neices and nephews!

I made these for friends and family and they were a big hit. The perfect cookie for a cup of coffee during the Halloween time. I did what others suggested and added green food color to the dough. I totally disagree with other reviewers in that they are not sweet enough, no extra sugar is needed. I would recommend instead to use really good butter, I used Kerry Gold Butter from Ireland and they tasted out of this world. I at first made a baking tray with really skinny fingers, and then was running out of time so I made them raw, finger sized but after baking, they were too big so I said they were from fat witches. Thanks for this recipe its in my October recipe batch for years to come! One more tip I used skinned almonds, and a few from the package had splits or were jagged at the "tip of the nail" area, these I searched for because they gave a pefect witchy appearance compaired to the "perfect" almond finger nails. Next time I will buy several bags to get the perfect ones for the fingers, and save the other ones for Gingerbread cookies for Advent

Great recipe! Very easy and my kids loved eating them even though they were scary! They flavor is awesome. I'd suggest making them skinnier than you'd think they should be because they fluff up a bit. Great recipe!

Loved the recipe, although I painted the "nails" (almonds) red instead of using gel. My guests loved them and I will make them again for sure!

i used the recipe to make Creepy Crawly too!!!! See photo!

Made the recipe exactly as shown EXCEPT I only used 1/2 tsp salt. I could probably cut that back to 1/4 tsp since my butter is salted. Read other recipes about fingers puffing up too much and to not use a leavening agent. I rolled my fingers to 1/2" and what puffing they did was perfect. I made the cookie dough the night before...then made my fingers and put them in the fridge, turned my oven on and when it was ready took my fingers out of the fridge and put them on the cookie sheet to bake. To make them look as realistic as possible I rolled them to about 1/2" wide shaped the knuckles and used a toothpick to indent knuckle wrinkles, then scratched a few wrinkles in between so it looked like skin vs smooth cookie. The other end I stuck my finger in it so it looked like it is the end of a finger vs a rolled out cookie. Made about 36 fingers. Pretty flakey, good. If you like it sweet, make some colored frosting or have melted chocolate available to dip. This recipe served it's purpose well! Almost forgot! I got the "formula" for flesh color from Yahoo. 8 drops yellow, 6 drops red, 2 drops green. I added it to the dough until it became flesh color.

These cookies are awesome. My daughter & i had lots of fun making these. Didn't bother with the coloring, just put in some raspberry jam.I didn't add in salt & still turned out great. Definately will make these again. Thank you!

These cookies are really cute and they do hold their shape well. However other than that they really aren't that great. The almond extract does add a nice flavor but there is way to much salt and that is all I could taste in the cookie. They are also a bit dry tasting but I'm not sure how you could fix that and make the cookies still hold their shape.

These were okay, but even my niece (11yrs) and nephew (5yrs) didn't gobble them up. They were a blast to make with the kids though.

My husband and I had a blast making these for the neighborhood Halloween block party. They were a hit! And SO delicious! I will be looking for something else to make with this recipe. For our fingers, we added a chocolate chip to the stub end of each cookie. We also found that removing the almond after baking then reapplying it with the red gel worked best. This is definitely a keeper!!!!

Very cute idea and easy to make. They were very well received. Sadly, they are tasteless and bland. They are almost a shortbread cookie but less sweet. My advice is to add more sugar otherwise it will taste like a flour cookie.

So much fun to make!

Very, very bland.. way to difficult for the results..

These cookies were truly spooky looking but really tasty. They were also easy to make and the dough was a cinch to work with. The recipe says it makes 60, but I ended up with 45 cookies which was still plenty. I put a little green food coloring in to make them look grosser. They were a big hit at the party!

This recipe TASTED pretty good, but it LOOKED especially great, and was actually quite simple!! I did modify a little bit, however I followed the recipe's ingredients to a T.....1.) Added the green food coloring, which worked out fantastically. 2.) I also added warts to the fingers, however I did this by just rolling up itty-bitty pieces of the dough and sticking them onto the fingers before I put them in the oven (doing it this way made the warts look a lot more realistic). 3.) I used sliced almonds to make the nail part look thin and, again, more realistic...that also turned out great. 4.) Baked for only 20min and the cookies came out really moist. I'm definitely going to reuse this recipe for other "normal" cookies. I think it would taste great with a confectioners sugar frosting/glaze on top! The ONLY criticism I have is what others have pointed out....a TINY bit too salty. I would cut the salt to 1/2tsp.

I love a good mix of yumminess and creativity. And this was definitely it. I made this as said in the recipe with no changes apart from using some raspberry jam instead of the red gel and skipping the almond essence (personal preference). Fabulous! I left the dough in the fridge for a couple of hours and removed the dough in small amounts while working with them because otherwise the dough can get a tad too soft. These do 'grow' a bit, so perhaps making them thinner thus giving them the allowance to 'grow' would be advisable or else you'll have monster fingers ;) I meant to colour these green, but conveniently forgot .... well they look creepy enough thanks to the hardened jam. Also, I later realised, that because I didn't use seedless jam, it looked as if there were tiny little bugs eating at the finger nail =P So yes mission accomplished! I can't wait to take a batch to work tomorrow. Happy Halloween everybody! And thanks a million Sandra for sharing your creativity with us! =D

Very cute and easy to make. They certainly looked real. I did not add the food coloring I just made them normal. I'm not a short-bread person so I didn't think they tasted all that great but they were cool for our halloween party. I served with some icing to give it a little more flavor.

These are so good you will want to change the shape and color for every season

these cookies get 5 stars for creativity, they are a hit with everyone who sees them, although the flavor could be better, they are still very edible!

Excellent almond sugar cookies but sooooo GROSS with the bloody finger nails! Great for Halloween!

I agree with the reviewer that said "one bite and the rest left on the plate". Recipe needs major tweaking for taste and puffiness.

They were perfect for our yearly Halloween party! Everyone loved them!

I love to make these for the kids in my family. I make them look especially disgusting by making small cuts in the fingers before baking, and when cooked, I use red icing for blood and yellow gel icing for puss which I place in the cuts. I also roll up little bits of the cookie dough into the form of maggots and bake them for just a minute or so and place them in the cuts. It's truly disgusting looking, but tastes delicious and the kids love them!

this was really cool. I made a ton of these and had a blast decorating them. The cookie itself wasn't really anything special, but I liked the texture (it was on the crunchy side) I put almond extract in the batter to mix it up a little and added just a little green food coloring. They looked great

Visually these cookies were a big hit. Although if you make them too long they break when transferring them to a cookie plater. The taste was OK but the desired affect was established.....oooooo, those look gross. I would make them again

The only thing nice about these cookies was the idea for the holiday. Made recipe exactly as directed, came out very dry and tastless. Would not recommend for a kid's Halloween party. Sorry....

Wow were these great!! I made the dough and rolled them out the night before I baked them. The cookie itself is a not too sweet shortbread-style cookie and is really nice. I made half the dough into fingers for a fund raising bake sale and the other half I made into thumbprint cookies, I made a little caramel frosting and toasted some nuts and put these in the thumbprints and they turned out great too! This recipe will be brought out again next Halloween! Thanks for the great recipe! I also have turned these into eyeball cookies, round ball cookies with a chocolate chip pressed in the middle for the pupil, then gel icing for iris and blood vessels!

Although I love how these cookies look, they taste awful - not sweet and the big chunk of almond on the fingertip isn't good either. The appearance will definitely appeal to kids but I'm sure it will be 'one bite then left on plate', which I hate after spending so much time on them. I might try to make the same cookie using a different recipe, and maybe substituting a roasted almond or almond slice. For those making this recipe, roll them very thin as they spread out during baking. I made mine very much shaped like a real finger and they were almost double the width after baking.

pretty good and tons of fun for kids!

These were a lot of fun to make! Taste good too! Will make again for Halloween!!

These were very fun and easy to make but I recommend you make them as thin as your pinky finger, once in the oven the grow so much they look like monster fingers..that's what happened to my first batch, other than that they are fun and tasty. I'll be making them again next year. Thanks so much for this fun recipe.

GREAT COOKIE. EASY FUN AND SPOOKY!! BE CAREFUL MIXING THE DOUGH BECAUSE IF ITS MIXED TO MUCH IT DOESNT HARDEN AS GOOD AS IT SHOULD. BUT OTHERWISE ITS FUN GOT RAVE REVIEWS AND THEY LOOK EASY. FUN TO DO WITH KIDS TOO. AND CAN CHANGE UP THE LOOK BASED UPON YOUR PREFERENCE.

Oh my! These are so easy and soooo spooky! Even my 7-year-old was able to make the creepy little digits! The dough was the consistency of playdough, so it was very easy to work with. The cookies are similar to butter cookies. I was out of almond flavoring, o I used extra vanilla. The almond would definitely put them over the top!They're not overly sweet and aren't the best cookies I've tasted, but the presentation more than makes up for that. I used sliced almonds and tinted the dough green. Amazing! I can't wait to see the reactions I get when I serve these tonight.

Last year was the first I made these cookies and were a hit at my boss' party. The only thing I didn't like was they broke really easy. I may have just made them too thin. I was asked to make them again this year and will add a few of the suggestions from other reviews. Thanks for the ideas!

I used my own personal sugar cookie recipe but followed this cute design on how to make them and they were adorable. Thanks for the recipe!

Of everything I cooked for my daughter's halloween party, these looked the absolute best - like real witches fingers. Beware that since the base recipe is for holiday cookies (which are typically iced) these cookies are not sweet enough. Next time I will adjust for this. Since I realized too late, I just grabbed a can of vanilla frosting, a knife and had the kids ice the fingers before eating.

BIG HIT at the Halloween party! Don't forget green food coloring!!

These are fun to make and to bring to gatherings. I made them for Halloween and they fit the occasion perfectly. Enjoyed the almond flavor, but actually made them more for the look!

These were really fun to make, and tasted good too!

I used this recipe for the first time this year for a Halloween party, and everyone LOVED it! I did leave out the baking powder and salt, though (to keep it from rising and losing it's shape) and I used slivered alomonds instead of whole ones, so when you add the red gel, they're light enough to stick, and the red even shows through like blood. I also made the lines going across the fingers to make them look more realistic--several people said they had to shut their eyes just to eat them!! I will definetly make these again next year!!

Fun stuff! My son and I made them for a class party last year and he signed up to bring these again this year. Makes LOTS of cookies - enough for my daughter to share with her class and I brought extras to work. Thanks Sandra - another keeper for my file.

These are the most delicious cookies ever! I am going to make them as Christmas cookies in a candy cane shape.

These were great...kids and adults loved them. Didn't change a thing to the cookie recipe. Used raspberry jam for the nails. How do you make these into Christmas cookies?

Giving 4 stars all because the taste isn't so great. This was a super easy recipe and fun to make. The taste is for sure for an adult and not so much the kids. My 6 year old enjoyed the look but did not like the taste. My 65 years old father in law LOVED the taste. Anyhow cute cookies and I will probably make them again but add sugar for a more child like taste

My girls and I really enjoyed making these. They were very simple. Hard for the kids to mess up since they are crooked-y fingers. We will experiment more the next time with different fun ideas. I can also see how these are going to make excellent Christmas cookies when the season is upon us. I can't wait. Thanks for a fun time.

I got great compliments on these. Great finger food (!) and people said the shortbread taste was really good.

These were a lot of fun to make and a big hit! Normally stuff like this looks super cute but doesn't have a good flavor, this did. I actually have used this recipe just for sugar cookie cut outs... For the fingers, though, I dust with cinnamon and sugar to make them look "dirty". Very yummy

these came out hard and crumbly, I did refrigerate just like the recipe said but I was so not happy...the almond taste didn't come through at all...too bad, The kids and I were sadly disappointed.

I made these last year for our neighbor's Halloween party. They were really a hit.

Very cute idea and great tasting! I made as instructed and had no problems. The dough is a little sticky which is why it needs to be chilled. I scooped out a teaspoon of dough, rolled it into a ball and pinched/squeezed the finger into shaped as oppossed to trying to roll it. Use your pinky finger as a guide for width. I made mine like old knotty bent fingers. I couldn't find red decorating gel so I used the "Sugar Cookie Icing" recipe on this site and food colored it red.

I have made this for the past two years and now it's just a given. Changes: I used sliced almonds and put raspberry jam under the "nail" and at severed end - cooked with the jam on. It makes it look coagulated. Ewwww. :-)