I’m about to start baking a doghouse cake (carrot cake with cream cheese icing…which should make decorating all kinds of fun), and make chocolate dog and bone for Igor’s birthday. And like any impossible task, I have to try and get the whole thing done before he gets out of school. I’m apparently quite insane.
Creep out everyone at your Halloween party with witches finger cookies. You can use any shortbread cookie recipe, but here’s one for you to use if you prefer.
Witches Finger Cookie Recipe
Yield: 5 dozen
Combine the sugar, egg, butter, almond extract, and vanilla in a bowl. Mix in the flour, and salt. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes, or until it’s firm.
When you’re ready to shape the cookies, only take out a small portion of the dough at a time. Shape the cookies into fingers by rolling and working with your hands. Score the top of the cookie with a knife or spatula to make it look like the wrinkles in your knuckle. Press an imprint into the tip of the cookie with your finger to make a spot for the almond finger nail. Press an almond into the tip of each finger to look like a fingernail.
Placed on a cooking sheet lightly coated with no-stick cooking spray and bake at 325` for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cookies are a very light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on a drying rack.
Use melting chocolate to go around the outside of the almond nail, giving a ghoulish appearance. Just melt the chocolate, put it in an icing piping bag, and cut a very small hole in the tip. Then pipe around the nail.
If you use red melting chocolate the look will be even more dramatic, you can also make small drops of chocolate blood, or chocolate cuts on the cookies if you really want to gross out your guests.
Image via stock.xpert, recipe from Linette, recorded here because stuff on the intarwebs tends to go poof in the night, and I didn’t want to lose this recipe. It’s great fun.
Carrot Bread
This experiment turned out so well!
Ingredients:
Directions:
Sprinkle the yeast, then the sugar into .5 cup of water and let proof for 10 minutes. Stir to dissolve.
Mix the flour and the salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the dissolved yeast, then add carrots, then add butter. Mix in the flour from the sides of the well.
Add water, as needed to form a moist (sticky) dough.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Flour your hands, and knead for 10 minutes. This dough is super sticky, and you may need to add a tablespoon of flour now and then to hands and surface, but try to not add very much, to avoid a dense bread. The dough will still be sticky at the end of your kneading time…that’s ok.
Put the dough in a lightly buttered/greased bowl and cover with a linen towel. Let it rise until doubled in size…about 1.5 hours. Punch down, and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
Shape the dough into a round loaf and place on either a floured baking tray or a parchment lined baking tray. Cover with a linen towel and let proof until doubled in size…about 45 minutes.
It should look like this:
Carrot bread dough - 2nd rise
Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven (200 degree C). Steam is optional, but I think it made the crust nicer. You can add steam either by adding icecubes in a baking pan below the bread, or do what I do, which is to spritz the oven (careful to avoid electrical elements) right after I put the bread in.
Bread should be golden and hollow sounding when tapped underneath.
Cool on an elevated wire rack.
Enjoy!