Fun With Food

It all started with the Taste of Home Halloween magazine. 

The 'Ghouls are in Town' stated the shower invite; please bring 'finger food'. We ran with it.

The witches fingers were delicious, I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe found at Our Best Bites. I made the dough several days before the party. Forming the cookies was fun, kids might get discouraged but the eight women (age 24-81) at my house enjoyed the activity!

Sugar Cookies

1 C real butter (no substitutions!)
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t almond extract (I only used pure almond extract, I tried imitation once and it was not as good)
3 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Add egg and extract, mix to incorporate.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined.

Shape the dough into 2 flat disks and wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours. Or let it chill for several days. In my perfect life I will always have chilled sugar cookie dough at my disposal!

 Form a small ball of dough into a finger shape, keep it on the thin side as these will expand a little. Make knuckle marks with a butter knife. Press a whole blanched almond for a fingernail. Bake at 350 for about 8-10 minutes. While cooling pop off 'fingernail', when cool attach nail with red gel. Looks spooky! Check out Recipegirl for the finished cookie. They were devoured quickly, we didn't get a shot of the finished digits.

We created Witches Fingers, Mummy Dogs, Bones and Blood, NutterButter Ghosts and Cheesenstine. Thanks to Our Best Bites and  Recipegirl for inspiration and recipes. Our spooky creations were tasty too!

The Mummy Dogs were good (for hot dogs), we cut hot dogs in half and wrapped them with thin strips of thawed puff pastry. The were baked in a hot oven 400 degrees till just beginning to brown. They had mustard eyes and were served with dipping sauces.