Scary Halloween Witch Fingers

There...simple. But how many pies could you get out of that recipe? She rarely made one pie, so it was common sense that you could figure on two pie tops and bottoms depending on how many you needed of each would determine increasing the ingredient quantities as long as the basic rule of halving as my mother called it was applied. If you want to double the number of pies made, use four cups of flour with half that amount of shortening, and then half of that of the milk.

Well, that is easy enough for just about anyone to remember, but my mother always made too much. She would darn and dang and make a lot of noise about being so forgetful and then it would get quiet in the kitchen again and magically, there were Pie Crust Cookies. As simple as the recipe itself, were these light, flaky, delicious works of art my mother's "mistake" would create.

Was it really a mistake? The little girl I was at the time believed my mother's rantings to be genuine, but the mom I am now with the experience pleasing my children and the natural high it brings leads me to believe my mother was an even better actress than she was a baker. As I got older, I would tease her about her memory when it came to pie crust and the pie crust cookies became known as the "Mom Made Too Much Pie Crust Again Cookies", equally delicious as they were when I was a young girl, but now with an admiration for the woman who created them. Thanks, Mom. You'd be pleased to know that your grandchildren love them too, so much so that they inspired me to make scary Halloween witch fingers with them. I didn't think you would mind.

Scary Halloween Witch Fingers

Two cups of Flour

One cup of Shortening

1/2 cup of Milk

Desired amount of Sugar

Desired amount of Cinnamon

Almonds -- Exact count as required for each finger

Pre-heat oven to 375

Roll out dough as for pie crust.

Sprinkle Sugar and Cinnamon over entire crust.

Roll crust into a tube, sprinkling sugar and cinnamon over the top before placing on ungreased cookie sheet.

Cut slits across top of rolled crust every one to two inches to allow air to escape, but for this project, they make excellent looking knuckles.

Cut into finger-length sections, placing an almond on the end of each "finger".

Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown and allow to cool before serving while cackling to the delight of your children and company. Enjoy!