Zombie Finger Cookies

 A few days ago I was flipping through a magazine and my daughter saw a picture of cookies shaped like fingers. She then declared that she wanted to make “zombie finger cookies.” When a six year old makes up their mind, it’s best just to go with it. 

Figuring it might be easier to try and alter a box mix, I found a sugar cookie mix and altered it by cutting down on the butter and adding flour until it was a consistency I could work with. After the dough spent about an hour in the fridge my Zombie Princess and I molded almost 50 fingers out of this dough. Much to both of our disappointments the cookies came out of the oven very very flat. They actually looked as though they had been run over. It was at this point my partner in crime abandoned me for a certain Cello sponge on TV. (I’m not a huge fan but grandma lets her watch it.) 

My cookie model

For my second attempt I made the cookie dough from scratch. I found a cookie press cookie recipe that required confectioner’s sugar instead of granulated and almost 3 cups of flour. I figured all of that powder would absorb moisture and these cookies would hold their shape in the oven. My biggest concern though is that this recipe only called for 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. With so much flour these cookies would taste like cardboard. I added a teaspoon of almond extract too, and that helped, but I personally still find the cookies somewhat bland.  (I will post the recipe at the end.) 

Once again the dough spent almost an hour in the refrigerator and I shaped over 50 fingers. Using a tooth pick and my own hand as a reference I marked off the knuckles. The final touch was adding slivered almonds to one end as a “finger nail.” 

"Blood" is still wet

Once I was done shaping and marking I placed them about 16 to a cookie sheet. While my severed fingers were the oven I emptied about half of a jar of strawberry jelly into a sauce pan and cooked it down over low heat until it was a saucy consistency. After the fingers came out of the oven and had cooled each one got dipped into the jelly. As I picked them up, a lot of my cookies “nails” fell off and I used my jelly/sauce/blood to glue them back on. In retrospect strawberry is the wrong color and I probably should have gone with either seedless raspberry or black currant. Another option would be to use red decorating gel instead of the jelly/sauce/blood. The benefit to the sauce is that it adds an additional flavor to a rather bland cookie. 

I would consider this experiment a success however I am still on the hunt for a better tasting cookie that holds its shape. I’m extending a big thank you to the October edition of Everyday with Rachel Ray for the picture that inspired my Zombie Princess. 

 

Final Zombie Fingers

Zombie Finger Cookies

·  1 cup butter, softened

·  1 cup confectioners' sugar

·  1 egg

·  1 teaspoon almond extract

·  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·  2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

·  1 teaspoon baking powder

·  1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 ˚F 

• In a large bowl beat the butter until creamy. Then mix in the sugar, egg, and extracts until smooth. Then slowly add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Once incorporated wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 
• Take a heaping tablespoon and fashion into a finger shape using your own hand a guide. Place about 3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Taking either a dull table knife or a tooth pick add the knuckle creases. 
• Then place a single slivered almond on the end. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. 
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. While the cookies cool, cook the jam over low heat until a saucy consistency. Dip the ‘severed’ end into the sauce.