Nothing says Halloween more than a great costume party and a goulishly devilish spread of taste tantilizing treats. You can make these up ahead and keep them in a plastic container for freshness. I have kept to store bought icings for the red color, but you can certainly use the icing glue recipe and add red food color for the fingernails.

This is one simple recipe that we use for our Witches Brew tea party. These cookies served with a pot of rasberry zinger tea -- great red color and and some sugar cubes decorated with miniature red roses. Tea biscuits with cranberries and fresh strawberry jam. Look visually appealing for this little get together.

Ingredients
Makes 2 dozen cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup slice almonds
2 tablespoons Icing Glue (see below)

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
Add sugar, egg, and vanilla extract and mix well.
Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until completely mixed.
Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preaheat oven to 325F
With your hands, roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a finger shape for each cookie. If the dough gets sticky and hard to work with, put it in back in the refrigerator for a little while. Place fingers on an ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.
Use a butter knife to make knuckle marks on the finger cookies. Slightly flatten the front of the cookie to create a nail.
Bake 20-25 minutes, until fingers are slightly golden or tanned/skin tone. Remove from the oven, let cool.

Prepare Icing Glue: Mix 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl until consistency is similar to that of a paste.
Attach almond slice fingernails to the tips of the fingers with Icing Glue. Let glue dry for about 30 minutes.

Tip: Use red tube icing to paint nails or blood on the fingers.

Idea: You can allso add a couple of drops of green food coloring to the dough to make the fingers green tinged.