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I mentioned last week that Jack and I have been going through my mother’s old recipe box – recreating a few of the recipes we found to share here on A Family Feast! The recipe for these Pretzel Cookies is one of those recipes that immediately caught Jack’s eye as we went through the box – and the very next morning, he set out to bake these wonderful cookies!
These pretzel cookies are a fun and delicious surprise! They look like a pretzel, and their texture is a lot like a soft pretzel – in fact, you roll out the dough into a long, thin strip and then twist the dough, just like you would if you were making a pretzel!
But these pretzel cookies are sweet like a cookie – and they are topped with a light coating of finely chopped nuts, sugar and coarse kosher salt – so you get a fantastic salty-sweet taste that is deliciously unexpected!
We updated my mom’s original recipe a bit by using Turbinado sugar
for extra crunch and texture in the topping, and we used a mix of peanuts and walnuts as well. But your standard granulated sugar will also work, and you can use whatever nuts you prefer.
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Pretzel Cookies
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup softened butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs divided
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups sifted flour
- 1/2 cup Turbinado sugar
- 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
- 1/4 cup finely chopped peanuts
- Non-stick cooking spray for after the cookies come out of the oven
- Kosher salt to sprinkle on top after the cookies come out of the oven
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla and 2 eggs and beat until combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour and salt and slowly add to the wet while the mixer is at low speed until combined.
- Beat the mixture on low until a smooth dough ball forms. (May need to switch to dough hook if the mixture binds the motor of the mixer, or knead by hand)
- Cover the bowl with plastic and let sit at room temperature for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Divide the dough in half then in half again and form into four fat logs. Cut each log in half and in half again and then cut each piece in half to yield 8 pieces per log, 32 pieces total.
- Roll to pencil thin about 10 inches long with the center fat and the ends tapered.
- Bring the two ends towards you and twist them twice then fold the twisted ends up and connect to the center as you widen the circle to form a pretzel shape. (See photos above). Leave them on your counter as you finish all 32. (Don’t put on pans yet)
- Mix turbinado sugar with chopped nuts and pour onto a plate.
- Beat remaining egg with a teaspoon of water and brush the tops of each pretzel a few at a time.
- Then dip the wet part of the pretzel into the nuts and sugar and place sugar side up on a parchment lined sheet pans about an inch apart. (16 per pan)
- Bake for about 25-27 minutes or until light golden brown.
- Remove from oven and spray with pan spray and sprinkle on Kosher salt.
- Cool on racks.
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Thank you! I just LOVE good recipes that are DIFFERENT! I’m going to make these, and everyone will love them and have absolutely no idea where to start to find out how to make them! I’m going to make this one soon!
Thanks Heather! I hope you enjoy the cookies as much as we do!
These look like they would be a lot of fun for the kids- they love making pretzels- I’m sure they’d like it even better if they were cookies! I was very fortunate that my family made a cookbook out of my great-grandmother’s and grandmother’s Italian recipes. It is such a blessing to be able to look back and remember, I use it all the time.
How wonderful Sherri – such a precious family keepsake!
These are my kind of cookie. My Mom is going to love them too. I have a feeling they are going to become annual Christmas cookies.
Thanks Christie! They are definitely going to be in our holiday cookie jar too!
Pretzel Cookies that’s a new one for me. They looks so good and it’s going to be a blast making them with, Emma, my four year old.
We hope you enjoy the cookies Tom! (We have a 7-year-old Emma at our house.) 🙂