Cookie Calendar: Pretzel Cookies

Here's another variation on plain old icebox cookie dough. The recipe calls for vanilla or chocolate dough - I assume because they look most pretzel-like - but I substituted my extra fruit-flavored cookie dough.

You'll notice in the pictures that my cookies are not even remotely pretzel shaped. I elected to make this a kid project at our cookie-decorating party, so I let the dough get very soft. Part of the problem was timing: The dough sat around outside the fridge waiting for us to be ready for it too long. Still, part of the problem was that I feared the kids wouldn't be able to roll snakes with cold dough, and so I took the dough out earlier than I would have for myself.

The kids did easily roll the dough into snakes, but the snakes fell apart when we tried to bend them into shapes. I settled on making looped ribbon shapes with the remaining dough.

I also neglected to make the egg white glaze. I don't know if this negatively affected the luster of the finished product, but it didn't seem to affect the ability of the sparkling sugar to stick where it managed to hit the dough.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

My comments in [brackets].

Pretzel Cookies
Source: The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
Yield: 3 dozen pretzels

1 recipe Vanilla Cookie Dough or Chocolate Cookie Dough [or Fruit-Flavored Cookie Dough], chilled
Egg White Glaze
Coarse sugar or pearl sugar [You can find Swedish pearl sugar at Ikea, at least around Christmas.]

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

2. Break off a piece of dough the size of a table tennis ball. On a very lightly floured work surface, shape it into a rope about 10 inches long. Form the rope into a pretzel and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. Brush each pretzel with the egg white glaze and sprinkle with coarse or pearl sugar.

3. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, until they feel firm. Remove them from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.

Egg White Glaze

1 large egg white
1 tablespoon water

Whisk together the egg white and water until slightly foamy. Refrigerate until ready to use.