Yummy Fingers & Toes

I am reminded of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel where the wicked witch wanted to fatten up the children to eat them.   Surely she would have started with fingers and toes.   

Serving fingers and toes is the perfect way to compliment a Halloween Buffet.  These fingers and toes were our breadsticks for the dinner.   

Blanching the Almonds: The first step in making finger and toe breadsticks is to blanch the almonds.  This is to remove them from the shell.  You may be able to buy almonds already blanched, but finding whole blanched almonds can be difficult.   

To blanch almonds:

1. Boil water.
2. Place almonds in a bowl.
3. Pour boiled water so that they barely cover the almonds.
4. Let almonds sit in boiling water for 1 minute.  
5. Drain and rinse under cold water.  Drain again.
6. Pat dry.  Slip the skins off the almonds.

Hint: Don't let almonds sit in water to long or they would lose their crispness.  

Painting the Nails Red: The next step is to "paint the nails" red.  To do this you need to take a little bit of water and add red food coloring.   You want to concentration of food coloring to water to be high.   Soak the almonds in the food coloring.  You will probably be able to do only a few at a time.   You have to leave them for at least 5 minutes.  But keep pulling them out and checking them until you have them at the desired color.   Because your soaking the almonds in liquid they will lose their crispiness.  Luckily your not really using them for the taste.  But you will still want to crisp them up.  Once they are all red place them on a sheet of wax paper, in a single layer, on a shallow baking pan.   Put them in the oven on 350 degrees F.  Bake 5-10 minutes taking them out and stirring them occasionally.  Note: Normally you would toast almonds for 10-15 minutes.  But since you will be baking the breadsticks with the almonds in them, I would only bake them for 5-10 minutes.  

Now its time to make the fingers and toes.   I used Pillsbury Crescent Breadsticks, in the pre-packaged rolls or you can make your own dough.

For the Fingers: Roll out the dough and then take pieces of dough and shape them into long skinny fingers.  From the Pillsbury crescent breadsticks you want to cut them into thirds.    Try to pinch the dough in the middle twice to form the look of a knuckle.  Brush a small amount of egg white on the dough.  Place a single almond into the tip, at the skinnier end, to look like a fingernail.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 14-15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow them to cool and then place them in a serving basket.

For the Toes: Basically follow the same directions for the fingers only making them thicker and shorter, the way toes are compared to fingers.  You can use red almonds for the nails or I chose to keep them white.

Note: Depending on what your serving you might want to add some garlic powder to the top of the breadsticks before baking them.   I added the garlic powder to the toes but not the fingers, giving my guests a choice.   I chose to add them to toes figuring toes are more pungent then fingers naturally.