Halloween baking with Michelle Darmody: Witches’ fingers, ghosts and Dia de los Muertos cookies

HALLOWEEN is a time to have fun with baking, the squishy, squelchy and gooey textures that you can achieve can be suitably spooky.

These witches’ fingers are very effective, I find them very gory. You can leave out the ‘blood’ if it is a bit too much and just press an almond into the tip of each digit. The recipe is for a simple shortbread but you can add a drop of almond essence if you wish or some vanilla. I put the dough into the fridge to harden so that it makes shaping the fingers a little easier. They will expand slightly as they bake so it is good to have them firm and cooled again before going into the oven.