Witch's Finger Breadsticks

Come hither, my pretties. That's right... just a little bit closer.

These numbers – or shall I say, digits – beckon everyone to bite the hand that feeds them. Well, at least the fingers. Possibly the creepiest breadsticks ever, these witch's fingers are great for dipping in soup or chili, or scooping up some marinara (ooh, bloody looking! Perfect!)

 

I wish I could say I pinpointed this idea all by myself, but I actually borrowed it from this Cheddar Witch's Fingers recipe from Sunset. While I'm all for homemade cheese crackers like in the Sunset version, (my mom makes the most amazing cheese crackers, that reminds me – I really need to get her recipe), I'm a little short on time lately, so I decided to do this the easier way.

Enter: Pillsbury!

With a tube of Pillsbury breadsticks and a pack of sliced almonds, I whipped up some creepy severed breadsticks in as many minutes as I can count on both hands. Too bad there are a couple of witches out in the world who won't be able to say the same anymore... mua ha ha ha ha!

Here's how to make 'em:

Witch's Finger Breadsticks

Ingredients:

• One roll of Pillsbury soft breadsticks
• Handful of sliced almonds (that pun was unintentional. Promise.)
• For some extra flavor, some melted butter and grated parmesan

Instructions:

1. Turn the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Unroll the breadsticks onto a large cutting board (or your counter or wherever you like to do doughy things)
3. Using a pizza cutter, slice each breadstick into two skinnier versions like so:
   
   
4. Place the long, skinny dough pieces in a row on a cookie sheet.
5. Pull each long skinny piece into two pieces. Grabbing with your very own fingers near the middle, pull them apart, and then cut again down the middle with the pizza cutter, so that each long skinny dough piece is now two.
6. Press a sliced almond onto the tip of the skinniest end of the breadstick dough (hopefully in the middle, this is why I had you pull them apart a little) - that'll help 'em look a little more like fingers. Really, it's all about the nasty almond fingernail. so even if you just cut them in half without all the pulling nonsense, they'll still look fine.
   
   
7. If you're adding butter and parmesan, use a pastry brush to brush a little melted butter onto the dough now, and then sprinkle on the the cheese.
8. Bake for about 12 minutes, until they're puffy and start getting the teensiest brown on the top. I start checking at about 10, but ovens vary.
9. Let cool for five minutes or so, then using a turner, remove the breadsticks from the cookie sheet.
10. Arrange on a plate or anywhere else you, and everyone else, will be able to fully appreciate them in all their super-severed glory.

 

And give yourself a hand!