Creepy Halloween Finger Cookies

Yes, I promise they're cookies.  These creepy fingers are really sugar cookies dusted with cocoa powder with almond slivers for nails. Prepare to freak some people out!

Tip:  To make your own vanilla extract, make a slit into a couple of vanilla beans and put them in a regular sized mason jar filled with vodka. All of your recipes will taste noticeably better if you use real vanilla extract instead of the artificial stuff. 

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1 large egg

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 1/2 cups flour

almond halves for nails

red frosting

cocoa powder

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until it's fluffy.  Add egg, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon and mix until just blended.

2.  Add baking powder and flour and mix dough until you can form the dough into a smooth ball without it sticking to your fingers. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.  

3.   Now, It's time to shape the dough into fingers.  Roll the dough in your hands into a long, rounded shape and gently form the knuckles by pushing the middle of the long shape together so that the knuckles are slightly bigger  Just do whatever you think makes dough look finger-shaped.  Create the knuckle scores using a toothpick or a skewer.  Then, press an almond half to the end of the finger for the nail.  

4.  Bake the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper until they are firm and you can just start to see a little bit of golden color on the bottoms of the cookies.  Cool Completely on a cooling rack.

5.  Using a small paintbrush (the kind that might be used for watercolors), lightly dust the cookies with cocoa powder to make them appear dirty and realistic.

6.  Finally, spread some red frosting onto the end of the finger cookies to make it look as if they were severed.

Time to eat....If you dare!