Sharon's Pretzel Cookies

These pretzel-shaped cookies are all about the dough. Powdered sugar instead of granulated gives them a fine, melt-on-your-tongue crumb, and egg whites (no yolks) keep them light with a delicate snap. The butter and vanilla round things out into a simple, clean flavor that works whether you frost them or eat them plain.

The key step is chilling the dough for a full hour before rolling. Warm dough will stick, tear, and fight you the whole way. Cold dough rolls into smooth 9-inch strips that twist into pretzel shapes without cracking or springing back.

An optional chocolate frosting drizzled over the top turns these into something a little more dressed up for a cookie tray or holiday spread.

Pro Tips

• Roll the dough strips on a lightly floured surface, keeping them an even ¼ inch thick so they bake uniformly
• If the dough gets warm and sticky while shaping, pop it back in the fridge for 10 minutes
• Don’t grease the baking sheet. The butter in the dough provides enough fat to prevent sticking, and greasing can cause the cookies to spread and lose their pretzel shape
• Watch closely after 15 minutes. Golden edges mean they’re done; browned edges mean they went too far

Variations

• Dust with coarse sanding sugar before baking for sparkle and crunch
• Dip half of each cooled pretzel in melted white chocolate for a two-tone look
• Add almond extract in place of vanilla for a distinctly different, fragrant cookie