Spooky Witches' Fingers - Home Baker's Challenge # 6

October is the month of Halloween and for the first time in my life I have made something creepy as this. This month's challenge for Home Bakers Challenge was announced by Nalini's Kitchen . She gave us four choices for Halloween  - chocolate glazed pumpkin cookies, spooky witch fingers, Halloween whoopie pies and ghostly cupcakes. 

I was really excited to make these unique and creative spooky witch fingers. They were quite simple, easy and delicious to make for such a realistic and impressive outcome. These spooky witch fingers, according to my husband were hilarious but a little more horrid at the same time. My son loved these frightful cookies especially when I was taking the pics - the whole dramatic blood and all.

On this note, I hope everyone has a scary (but safe) Halloween this year!

Ingredients:-

• 2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cup icing sugar 
• ¾ cup whole almonds
• 1 egg  
• 1 tsp almond extract 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract  
• 1 tsp baking powder  
• 1 tsp salt 

Method:-  

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  
• Line your cookie sheet with a parchment paper. 
• Combine butter, sugar, egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl and beat well.
• Gradually add flour, baking pdr, and salt. Beat well to form a soft dough.
• Wrap in a cling film and refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Remove dough from refrigerator and scoop 1 heaped teaspoon at a time.
• Roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie. 
• Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. 
• Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance. 
• Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets.  
• Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes or until the cookies are slightly golden in color.

Notes:-

• For the eggless version use the same dough for Thumbprint Cookies  just omit the strawberry crush. 
• If the almonds keep falling after you've baked them, Just add little jam and stick the almonds back to the fingers.

Happy Baking!!
 
Sending this to :- Sharanya's Let's Celebrate Halloween Event 

 5.11.13 - +Joerg Sterner  tried the spooky witches fingers I made for October Home baker's challenge... Thanks Joerg for sharing your feedback... God bless..  

Eggless Strawberry Nutella Thumbprint Cookies - Home Baker's Challenge # 3

Hey Friends.. I'm back after a month of blogging break.. My Father-in-law passed away on the 9^th of last month.. Just before the arrival of the auspicious month of Ramadan.. May Almighty bless his soul and grant him Jannah…

Last month's challenge for Home Bakers Challenge was announced by Viji of Viruntha Unna Vaanga . She chose cookies for this month's challenge with two choices – Eggless Strawberry Nutella Thumbprint Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Pinwheel cookies and Shortbread sandwich cookies. Out of these, I chose to bake the Strawberry Nutella thumbprint cookies. It was a huge hit with the kids. I’m really sorry for the late post dear but I didn't want to miss this post. Hence posting it now.

Ingredients:-

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 7 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 3 tbsp strawberry crush
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• nutella for filling 

Method:-

• Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
• In another bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar using a hand whisk or electric blender for about 4 minutes.
• Add the vanilla essence and strawberry crush to the bowl and combine well with the butter mixture using a whisk.  
• Fold in the flour mixture with the butter mixture gently to form dough. The dough will be soft and a little sticky but not loose. Do not over mix. You might need to oil your hands and bring the dough together. 
• Once combined, cover the dough with plastic cling film and refrigerate for ½-1 hour.   
• Preheat the oven to 350 F/175 C. 
• Line your cookie sheet with a parchment paper. 
• Take out the refrigerated dough, lightly oil your palms and make small balls with it. (You can use 1 Tbsp or ice cream scoop for even measurement). Put the balls on the cookies sheet and press down slightly to flatten out.  
• With the help of your thumb or back of a tea-spoon make a small hole in the middle of the cookies where you’ll fill the nutella after baking.   
•  Bake the cookies in the oven for about 8-12 minutes or until the bottom starts turning brown. Do not bake them beyond 12 minutes. These will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven.
• Take out the cookie sheet from the oven and using the teaspoon again press out the hole in the cookies. You will not able to do this after the cookies have cooled. 
•  Once cookies have cooled, fill in the nutella in the little holes in the cookies.    

Notes:-

• You may replace the nutella with your choice of filling like melted jam or melted chocó chips. 
• Do refrigerate the dough to work easily.  
• Every oven is different, hence the time of baking may vary from appliance to appliance.

Happy Baking!!

Sending this entry to :- Birthday Special Event