Braces Friendly Recipes - Frightful Finger Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup almond slices
• 1 tube red decorating gel
• 1 tube green food coloring

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Slowly beat in the flour, baking powder and salt. Add drops of green food coloring to dough until you achieve a nice deep green color.

Divide the dough into four equal parts, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.. Take one quarter of the dough at a time from the refrigerator. Break off one heaping teaspoonful and roll it into a finger shape. Squeeze in around the middle of the finger to create a knuckle shape. Then, using a butter knife, make indents in several places to resemble a finger. Repeat with rest of dough.

Place cookies on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes - let cool. Then, squeeze red decorating gel onto the tip of each finger and gently press an almond sliver on top so the gel oozes out from underneath.

Remove cookies from baking sheets and let them cool on wire racks. Then serve and enjoy!

Adapted from "CDKitchen.com's" Marlene C. Mcasias