Looking for spooky Halloween party food ideas to delight and repulse your friends in equal measure? These creepy Witch Finger Cookies will do the trick!
Made with a deliciously soft, moist, buttery, rich French butter cookie dough (sablé breton), and naturally colored to achieve 4 distinct colors (no artificial coloring at all!), and so many decorating options. SO easy and ridiculously fun to make!
Why these are the perfect Halloween cookies
Halloween is my absolute favorite time of the year! I go a little nuts when Halloween rolls around – from decorating our house to making spooky Halloween recipes.
My witch’s heart cocktail recipe and video went viral online in 2017, and I still love making Halloween cocktails every year (witches brew drink, hocus pocus cocktail and unicorn blood cocktail are also reader-favorites). One of the very first Halloween props we got for decorating was a witch prop (that makes an appearance in these pictures!).
My favorite scary movie growing up was “The Witches” with Anjelica Huston (and I may even have had a slight fascination/obsession with spells).
I wanted to make these witch finger cookies look really creepy, while of course tasting absolutely delicious! So, instead of using my shortbread cookie dough, I made these with French butter cookie dough (or Sablé Breton dough).
The result is an even more buttery, rich, refined flavor, with cookies that are so light and delicious!
Why you’ll love these witch finger cookies for Halloween!
- The sable breton cookie dough is super simple to make, and tastes even better than shortbread cookies.
- Witches come in different colors (even more so than us regular folks, of course!). So, I show you how to make these finger cookies in different colors WITHOUT using artificial food coloring.
- The natural coloring also adds flavor! So you get multiple flavors of witch fingers (nom, nom, nom!).
- The best part is decorating the cookies! The more wonky, crooked, weird, and creepy the final cookie, the better! So, you don’t need to worry about perfection. Best excuse to get kids involved with making the cookies too.
- These can be made ahead of time and frozen to be baked later. Handy if you’re making these for a Halloween party.
- I show you how to decorate the baked cookies WITHOUT food coloring too. But, as a bonus, I also show you how to get creative with food coloring as well.
- You can make multiple batches, and make multiple colors and flavors with this Halloween cookie recipe.
Ingredients
This witch finger cookie is not made with a shortbread cookie dough. I love shortbread cookies, but I wanted to make this with a richer tasting, soft cookie that isn’t too crumbly.
Instead I made these with a sable breton cookie dough, which is a French butter cookie dough. This dough is rich in flavor, holds its shape, doesn’t crumble, and is incredibly delicious!
Cookie dough
- Butter
- Confectioner’s sugar
- Sea salt
- Egg yolks
- Vanilla
- Flour
- Baking soda
Decoration
- Blanched whole almonds (for the witches’ nails)
- Strawberry or raspberry jam (for a “bloody” effect)
- Cocoa powder (as dirt)
Other alternatives
- White chocolate (instead of jam to stick the almonds to the nail bed)
- Red food coloring (as blood)
- Mini marshmallows or melted chocolate (nut free alternatives for almond nails)
Naturally colored Halloween witch finger cookies
To add color to the dough, you can of course use food coloring. But I know some prefer not to.
Which is why I extensively tested this recipe with natural food coloring, so you can add color to these spooky witch finger cookies without using artificial food coloring.
- Plain witch finger cookies – Vanilla flavored, and has the natural pale yellow of the dough.
- Green witch finger cookies – Made with matcha powder, and adds matcha flavor as well.
- Purple witch finger cookies – Made with purple sweet potato powder. Adds a lovely purple color and the flavor of purple sweet potato isn’t too strong.
- Brown witch finger cookies – Made with cocoa powder. I wanted some representation for my brown pals, including myself, of course! Witchy witches come in all different shades. You can add less or more cocoa powder to get the desired brown shade, plus adding cocoa powder makes for delicious chocolate witch finger cookies!
However, you’re more than welcome to use artificial food coloring if you prefer. It’s easier, and does give you a vibrant color with just a small amount.
It also does not alter the taste of the final cookie. But it was very important for me to make sure both methods are available to my readers, and they work perfectly!
How to make witch finger cookies
It’s so easy to make these witch fingers, and you can get so creative with them too! Make ’em look nice and pretty or gnarly and creepy.
Before we get to the dough, let’s talk about the almond nails first.
How to blanch almonds
You can buy already blanched whole almonds for convenience. However, raw almonds with the skin on are cheaper to buy. So here’s how to blanch the almonds yourself at home to remove the skin. It’s easy, but a little time-consuming.
First bring a pot of water to a boil. When the water is boiling, add the raw almonds. Make sure you don’t add too many, because the water needs to come back to a boil fast afterwards.
Let the water come back to a boil (within a minute). Then allow the almonds to boil in the water for 1 minute. Remove the almonds immediately with a slotted spoon and plunge the almonds in an ice water bath, OR in a bowl with running cold water.
When the almonds (in the water bath) have cooled down enough to handle, take each almond and pinch it at the wider end. The blanched almond should slip right off the skin, leaving the skin between your fingers.
Repeat this with all the almonds. Place the blanched, skin-free almonds on a paper towel or kitchen towel to dry. Pat dry to remove excess water, and let them dry for a few hours before using.
How to make the French butter cookie dough
Place the softened butter, salt, confectioner’s sugar in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar mixture until it’s creamy and light (image 1). You can either use an electric hand mixer OR the stand mixer.
Softened butter will cream much better than cool butter, so make sure the butter is soft, but not melted.
Once the butter mixture is creamed, add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and mix them in well (images 2 – 3). Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are well-mixed.
Adding colors
Adding the color to the wet ingredients ensures that the color uniformly mixes through the dough WITHOUT having to overwork the flour.
Weigh the butter and egg yolk mixture, and divide it into portions. Here, I make a double batch of dough and divide it into 4 (to make four colors).
To each portion, add the color and mix it through (image 4, and panel below).
- Plain, light color – No added color.
- Green – Matcha powder OR green food coloring.
- Purple – Purple sweet potato powder OR purple food coloring or ube flavoring / coloring.
- Brown – Cocoa powder. I use dutched cocoa powder. Or you can use brown food coloring.
Adding dry ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder really well (image 5).
Divide the flour mixture by four to add to each color portion. Add the flour to the butter mixture and gently mix it in to form a soft dough (images 6 – 7).
For this, you can use your stand mixer on the lowest speed. This is easier for larger batches. But for smaller batches, I prefer to use a spatula to form the dough.
Be gentle and fold the dough to mix in the flour, to prevent the flour from over-working and becoming too tough (image 8).
Forming the dough
Scrape all the dough out onto a work surface and gently form it into a dough with lightly-floured hands. Wrap each portion with plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes (images 9 – 12).
Shaping the witch finger cookies
Once the dough has chilled for about 30 minutes, it’s ready to be portioned and shaped. While you’re shaping the witch fingers, keep the dough covered (since the surface of the dough can dry out and form a “skin”).
Take a tablespoon portion from the dough. For this, I use a 1 tbsp cookie scoop, and this portion should be about 17 – 20 g by weight (image 13).
Roll this portion in your palms to form a smooth ball (image 14). Use a light dusting of flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or work surface, if needed. Next, roll the dough into a finger shape (image 15).
To create the shape of a gnarly finger, form two thick points for the knuckles (images 16 and 17).
This doesn’t have to be neat. I like to twist the finger a little bit to make it look like a de-formed and twisted finger, with two thick knuckles (image 18).
Decorations
This is where you can have fun and get creative!
Use a butter knife to create the lines on the knuckles. You can just create neat, horizontal lines for a cleaner look. I prefer to create a messier, hashed look to mimic the more rounded knuckle lines we have.
Take an almond and press it into the top end of the cookie dough to create the nail bed and nail. To have deformed nails, just press in the base of the almond, so that the tip is angled up, OR press the almond in at an angle (image 19).
Along with the knuckle lines, I also use the knife to create scratches or wrinkles as well. Dust these lines with a little cocoa powder (optional), to create a creepy aged look (image 20).
Freeze the cookies
This step is very important as it helps the cookies retain their shape as they bake. Soft cookie dough will spread more as it bakes.
Place the cookies on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet or container, in a single layer. Then freeze for about 1 hour, or until frozen solid.
TIP : Place the cookies in the baking sheet as you shape and decorate them. Then the cookies can be baked in the order they were placed in the freezer!
You can continue to shape and decorate the French butter cookie dough, as you freeze and bake separate batches.
Bake the witch finger cookies
Just before baking, preheat the oven to 325 F.
Place the frozen witch finger cookies (with enough space between them) on a baking tray that is lined with parchment paper or silpat (image 21). Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. The cookies should not brown on top, but will start to brown on the bottom, or the bottom edge (image 22).
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool down. Repeat with the remaining cookies.
While the cookies are cooling, get the final decorating ingredients ready.
Making these Halloween cookies extra creepy!
The almond nail needs to be secured at this point, so you can add a bloody effect at the same time to make it even more appropriate for Halloween!
You can either decorate the cookies with no food coloring, or with some food coloring, or even a combination of both.
- For a no food coloring “bloody” look – Strawberry or seedless raspberry jelly for blood and to stick the almond to the cookies, and cocoa powder as “dirt”.
- To create a more realistic bloody look – Mix corn syrup with some red food coloring, or get some red colored cake writing gel for the blood. Melted white chocolate to stick the almond nail to the cookies, and cocoa powder as “dirt”.
Remove the almond from the baked cookies (they will fall off easily) (image 23). Place a small amount of jam or white chocolate in the cavity and place the almond back (images 24 – 25).
The jam will squeeze a little out from the edges to create a “bloody” look. Or you can brush the “nail cuticle” with the red corn syrup or writing gel (image 26).
Brush the knuckles with cocoa powder to create darker creases and a dirt-clad appearance (image 26).
Enjoy!
Recipe tips for success
- Make sure the butter for the cookie dough is softened. This way it creams well, which ensures a light cookie.
- Add the coloring to the butter-egg mixture. Whether you’re using natural coloring or artificial food coloring, add the color to the wet mixture base. By mixing in the color BEFORE adding the flour, you prevent the flour from being over-mixed, and still have the color uniformly spread through the dough.
- When adding the flour, make sure not to overwork the dough. The more that you mix the flour, the more gluten the dough will form. This will lead to a tough cookie at the end.
- The cookies do not need to be neatly formed into fingers. The gnarly, twisted look adds to the creepiness of your Halloween cookies, making them even more perfect for Halloween parties!
- Freeze the cookies before baking. Baking these cookies from frozen will help the cookies retain their shape and minimize spreading.
- Freezing the cookies also allows you to store the cookies in the freezer, to bake them at a later date too!
- You can use strawberry jam to stick the almond back on the baked cookie. To make the strawberry jam stickier, cook the jam to make it thicker and stickier. This is optional, but it helps to keep the almond in place. Alternatively, you can use melted chocolate.
Variations
This recipe includes SO MANY variations that you can make to make your witches’ fingers even more delicious (and nasty)!
Instead of a simple vanilla French butter cookie, I share how to easily flavor and color the cookie dough to make,
- Matcha green witch finger cookies
- Purple sweet potato witch finger cookies
- Brown chocolate witch finger cookies
In addition, you can also make,
- Raspberry flavored pink witch finger cookies by adding freeze dried raspberry powder.
- Turmeric and lemon zest for lemon flavored yellow witch finger cookies.
- Sweet potato powder and orange zest to make orange colored and flavored witch finger cookies.
You can also add other flavored extracts for more flavor. Such as,
- Coffee extract
- Pandan extract (with or without the green color)
- Red velvet emulsion
- Mint flavoring
If you want to make nut free witch finger cookies, you can replace almonds with other options.
- Create a little impression on the dough with a chopstick before freezing and baking (like in thumbprint cookies, but smaller). Then fill this cavity with melted chocolate / candy melts in the color of your choice.
- OR don’t make any cavities, and simply color the tip of the cookies with food coloring or with candy melts.
To make the witch finger cookies even more creepy,
- When rolling out the cookie dough, add just a little bit of cocoa powder for a marbled look, which will make the fingers look wrinkly.
- Add small dried currants to the unbaked cookie, so that they will look like warts after baking.
- Create little cuts on the unbaked cookie, so once they are baked, they can be painted with red, or brushed with cocoa powder to look like cuts or burn scars.
- This is a little tricky to do, but you can use a sharp knife to make cuts or notches in the almonds for a broken fingernail effect.
- Combine two different colored cookie doughs to make marbled witch finger cookies!
Storage tips
These cookies are soft, buttery, and absolutely delicious!
Leftover cookies can last up to 4 days in an airtight container. And 5-6 days in the fridge, but they do taste better at room temperature.
Unbaked cookie dough can be kept in the fridge for about 3 – 4 days, if wrapped properly. But you can easily make this ahead of time as well.
Form the witch fingers with the unbaked dough and then place them in the freezer. Once frozen, wrap the fingers with plastic wrap and keep in an airtight container. The unbaked cookies can last in the freezer for about 2 months.
Serving ideas
If you can’t find any witch blood, but still want to serve these with a dipping sauce, here are some ideas,
- Strawberry jam or plum jam or raspberry jam
- Chocolate ganache
- Nutella or any chocolate hazelnut spread (or homemade vegan nutella)
More Halloween recipes you’ll love
- The phoenix cocktail (color changing shimmery cocktail)
Commonly asked questions
Can I use a different cookie dough to make these?
You can also use my shortbread cookie recipe to make these cookies. Shortbread cookie dough will result in a more crumbly, slightly drier cookie compared to these.
You can also use any other cookie dough that spreads minimally during baking.
Can I make these cookies in advance?
Absolutely.
The unbaked cookies can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months, with proper storage.
The baked cookies can also be stored in the freezer, prior to decorating. But the flavor will be a little stale than fresh baked.
What do these witch finger cookies taste like?
These cookies are SOOOO good! They don’t crumble like shortbread cookie witch finger cookies.
Instead, they are soft, moist, buttery, with a richer taste! The salt in the dough really enhances the buttery flavor, while not being too sweet.
This sable breton cookie is one that I like to make (and eat) on its own too!
Why are my witch finger cookies spreading too much?
Cookies are usually meant to spread as they bake. Dough being too soft before baking, extra sugar, too much butter, too much liquid, or less flour are all reasons for cookies to spread too much.
This is why in this recipe, I do recommend weighing the ingredients, especially the flour, so that the cookies won’t spread too much.
Freezing the cookies before baking also helps to prevent the cookies from spreading too much.
Can I use salted butter to make these cookies?
You can! But it’s hard to know how much salt is in the butter, and how to reduce the salt added to the recipe.
Salt is an important ingredient in this recipe because it helps to bring out the buttery flavor. Too little salt will result in a bland cookie.
So yes, you can use salted butter, but the final flavor of the cookie can vary depending on how much salt is in the final dough.
Recipe
Creepy Witch Finger Cookies
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
Witch finger cookie dough base
- 226 g unsalted butter 2 sticks (softened)
- 140 g confectioner's sugar 1 ¼ cup (spooned and leveled)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 4 egg yolks from large eggs (at room temperature)
- 5 mL vanilla extract
- 454 g All purpose flour 1 lb / 3 ⅔ – 3 ¾ cups (spooned and leveled)
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 50 whole blanched almonds
Coloring and flavoring (for 1 batch – divide by half for ½ batch)
- 4 – 6 g matcha powder For GREEN color – 2 – 3 tsp (I use high grade matcha powder, if you’re using baking matcha powder, you will need to add more)
- 20 – 30 g purple sweet potato powder For PURPLE color – 2 – 3 tbsp
- 5 – 15 g cocoa powder For BROWN color – Add less for a lighter brown color, and up to 15 g for a darker color
Decorating
- Cocoa powder
- Strawberry jam or raspberry jam
- Red cake writing gel / piping gel or red food color and corn syrup mixed together
- Melted white chocolate or melted candy wafers in a preferred color
Instructions:
Witch finger cookie dough
- In a bowl, place the softened butter, salt, and confectioner's sugar. The butter should be very soft, but not melted.226 g unsalted butter, 140 g confectioner's sugar, 1 tsp sea salt
- Cream the butter sugar mixture until the butter is very creamy and light in color. For this, you can either use the flat beater with your stand mixer, or an electric hand beater. Make sure to scrape down the bowl halfway through to ensure all the butter and sugar are creaming well together. This can take as little as 2 minutes or as long as 10 minutes depending on the temperature of your butter and ambient temperature.
- While the butter is creaming, separate the egg yolks into a separate bowl. The egg whites will not be used in this recipe (and you can use it in other applications).
- When the butter – sugar mixture is ready, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then add the egg yolks and vanilla extract.4 egg yolks, 5 mL vanilla extract
- Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure the egg yolks are mixing well with the butter.
Optional step to color the dough
- At this stage, you can add the food coloring / flavor to the dough. You can either color the entire batch of dough in one color / flavor, OR divide the butter mixture to make several colors / flavors.
- To make two colors – Weigh the butter mixture and equally divide it into 2 portions, by weight. Place each portion in a separate bowl.
- Choose two colors for the dough you want to make, and add the powder to the butter mixture.
- Matcha for green. Sweet potato powder for purple. Cocoa powder for brown (adjust for color intensity), and no addition for a pale color. Mix really well until the powder has evenly mixed in with the butter mixture. Set aside.4 – 6 g matcha powder, 20 – 30 g purple sweet potato powder, 5 – 15 g cocoa powder
- If you only want to make 1 color, just leave the mixture in the mixer bowl and add the color you like (or none for pale color). Mix well and set aside until needed.
Adding flour to form the dough
- Next, place the flour and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine very well, OR sift together to ensure that the baking powder mixes evenly with the flour.454 g All purpose flour, ¼ tsp baking powder
- For 2 colors, divide the flour into two equal portions (ideally by weight). For 1 color, you do not need to divide the dough.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter egg mixture.
- Gently fold in the flour with a spatula. The butter and flour will incorporate together to form a soft dough. Be careful not to overwork the dough as this can lead to tough and rubbery cookies.
- Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour the surface of the dough as well, and fold it over itself 2 -3 times, to ensure that the flour is mixed in evenly. Lightly flour your hands if you need to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.
- Shape the dough into a disc, and wrap it well with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 20 – 30 minutes.
- Repeat for other doughs if you're making multiple colors / flavors.
Shaping the finger cookies
- Remove the rested dough from the fridge. Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop, and take a portion of the dough. This should weigh between 16 – 20 g. Keep the rest of the dough covered with the plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.
- Roll this portion into a smooth ball, and then roll it into a sausage / finger shape on your work surface.
- Then create two thick, raised areas for the knuckles by gently squeezing the dough together in two separate spots.
- The final cookie is about 1 cm thick, with the knuckles being slightly thicker and raised. The finger does not need to be straight, and can look “de-formed" or misshapen for a more spooky, crooked look.
- Use the dull side of a butter knife or toothpick to create lines on the knuckle. I like to create more wrinkly knuckles with a hash pattern, but you can also create parallel lines for a cleaner look.
- OPTIONAL – Use a dry paint brush and dab cocoa powder on the knuckles and other parts of the finger to make the finger look dirty.Cocoa powder
- Next, press one whole almond on the tip of the cookie, with the wider base of the almond as the base of the nail.50 whole blanched almonds
- Place the cookie on a half sheet pan or tray that is lined with parchment paper (or silpat).
- Repeat this process with the rest of the dough until the half sheet pan / tray is full of a single layer of cookies.
- Place these cookies in the freezer until the cookies freeze, i.e. about 40 – 60 minutes minimum. If you want to keep the cookies in the freezer overnight, wrap the tray well with plastic wrap.
- Repeat with the remaining dough and freeze as needed.
Baking the witch fingers
- Preheat conventional oven to 325°F / 163°C.
- Take the frozen cookies from the freezer. Place the cookies on a parchment paper or silpat lined half sheet pan, with about 1 ½ inches of space between the cookies. I.e. about 16 – 18 cookies per tray.
- Bake from frozen in the preheated oven for 20 – 25 minutes. The cookies should not color on top, and will only start to brown on the bottom. The precise time will vary, depending on your oven and the material of the half sheet pan.
- Remove the baking pan from the oven and let the cookies cool.
- Repeat with more of the frozen cookies with the second half sheet pan, while the previous batch cools.
Decorating the cookies
- Once the cookies are baked and cooled, the almonds will come off easily. The first step is to securely stick the almond nail back on the cookie.
- Place a small amount of strawberry jam in the nail bed cavity. Then place the almond back on top of the jam and gently press it in. The jam should slightly ooze out from the sides to create a “bloody” nail bed.Strawberry jam
- Brush on more cocoa powder to create a dirty look, if needed.Cocoa powder
- OPTIONAL – You can also use melted white chocolate to stick the almond back on the cookie, and use red piping gel to create the bloody nail bed.Melted white chocolate, Red cake writing gel / piping gel
- The piping gel or red corn syrup can also be used to brush on the cookie to create bloody scrapes and bruises on the cookies, and to color the nails.
- Let the chocolate set, and then serve.
Recipe Notes
STORAGE
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days at room temperature, or about 5- 6 days in the fridge. But the cookies will become stale the longer they are stored. Alternatively, the cookies can be stored in the freezer for about 1 month. Let the cookies thaw at room temperature before serving. Unbaked cookies can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months, IF stored properly to prevent freezer burn. Once the cookies are frozen on the baking tray, transfer the cookies into an airtight container. Cookies are then baked from frozen.Almond alternatives (nut free alternatives)
If you want to make nut free witch finger cookies, the nail can be replaced by brushing on melted chocolate or melted candy melts in a color of your choice. You can also create a small cavity where the almond is supposed to go with a chopstick before baking, so that the cavity can be filled with the melted chocolate to look like a nail.Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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