Fingercooks, Cat’s Tongues, and Witch’s Digits
No, this title is not a recipe for some evil French witch’s potion. Tis the season to dream of cookies–and these biscuits, two French and one decidedly American, seem to be named after body parts.
What started me on this hunt for delicious Christmas cookies happened recently in a boulangerie in Cluny, where I saw long skinny cookies labeled fingercooks, pictured above. C’est what? Then I saw “fingercooks” in a boulangerie in yet another town. They looked good, but what’s with the bizarre name that is an English mashup? Research was required.
So when I googled fingercooks, what came up was American Halloween cookies dressed to look like witches fingers. Not so appealing, I think I will skip these.
Photo and recipe from Eat Yourself Skinny.
But other French digit-shaped cookies popped up, which are classics. Notably the crispy langues de chat (cat’s tongues) and of course, the spongy, more delicate lady fingers (biscuits boudoir, or biscuits à la cuillère).
Langues de chat, from Pastry Like a Pro
Biscuits, for the bedroom, from Chez le Rêve Français
So the search continued. An old favorite cookie recipe from the late great Gourmet magazine came to mind, which resembled the fingercooks, though not in shape. I decided to use this as a starting point for my recipe, since of course I had to try to turn out some French fingercooks myself.
Click on the above photo links if you want to make the classic langues de chats or biscuits boudoir. Or if you’re brave enough to make green doigts de sorcière. But if you want to try my newly imagined fingercooks, the recipe is below.
And I want to wish all of you a joyeux Noël, une bonne fête. And croisons les doigts for a très bonne année!
RECIPE: Lynn’s French Fingercooks
My version of these cookies are caramel-y and full of pecans with a smear of chocolate or nutella added. They are a snap to make, and the chocolate isn’t really necessary, except for the visuals. If you want to skip that, make them into a log and slice them into ovals.
1 stick (113 gr) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup (70 gr) firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour (125 gr)
1/2 cup (60 gr) lightly toasted pecans, chopped, plus more for garnish
1 ounce (28 gr) melted dark chocolate, for optional garnish
In a bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and mix just until a dough forms. Add the pecans and mix in until incorporated.
If you want to keep it easy and make ovals: form the dough into a round log, about 10″ long, and press it down to make it an oval, then wrap it up and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
Or, for the fingercooks, press it into a square then roll it out into a 10″ square. Put this on a plate, cover it, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 350F (175 C). For ovals, slice them into 1/4″ ovals and press a half or piece of pecan into the center to garnish. If making fingercooks, slice the square into about 1/2 inch wide fingers, then cut them in half crosswise.
Put cookies about 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Put them on a rack to cool.
To garnish the fingercooks: melt the chocolate and put it in a small plastic bag and cut off the tip (or into a pastry bag). Make a line down the center with the chocolate and sprinkle a few finely chopped pecans on each cookie.
By the way, these are easy to overcook. They are already pretty golden in color when you put them in, so if you let them brown up, they are going to be overdone, as mine were just a bit.
In the COMMENTS: Thanks for all the kind Thanksgiving wishes. Chris and Bonnie: yes!– Thanksgiving is a great reminder to think about gratitude, daily. And Francine has a funny, and true comment about Thanksgiving in France. it doesn’t exist, but they do celebrate “Le Black Friday”! Cynthia, thanks for following the blog for so long, great to hear from you. And now you and Steve are on the NC coast, sounds like a fun place to end up.
Now about those pecans—don’t miss Vicky’s unique cranberry sauce recipe, with lots of ginger. And Ian, I’m drooling over that pecan and sweet potato salad, perfect for the Christmas table, too. Next up for me to try is a buche de Noël, after practicing, as Françoise says, with buche de Thanksgiving (with pumpkin).
Another long time reader is Debbie Ambrous—good to hear from you Debbie, and readers you might want to check out her guest post on my blog, 12 years ago! And her book, a French Opportunity.
Favorite READS: Natalia’s book this week sounds really intriguing: A mystery called French Windows, about a photographer who catches a murderer on camera. I am enjoying a book my friend Pascale loaned me, The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled it. If you’re looking for a cute Christmas movie–also with a French Champagne theme!–try Champagne Problems on Netflix. And if you’re interested in learning about another expat in France, this time a woman living alone in the Dordogne, you might want to follow Jenny Becker (Substack, etsy). She’s wonderfully funny.
