My Mom and I made Twisted Cookies for the first time in 1959 from a recipe printed on the inside of a cake yeast wrapper. My Mom made bread from scratch, without a recipe, and this tricky and unique recipe using yeast was right up her alley. When I left home and married, this recipe went right along with me. You might say I have been leaving a trail of Twisted Cookies behind me for the last 48 years. This is our family cookie and I only make them at Christmas time. If I ask my older son (age 42) what he wants for Christmas, he always says, “You know what I want, Mom.” And my older daughter and grand daughter have taken up the baton and are making their own Twisted Cookies now, carrying on the tradition.
My two older beautiful red heads, David and Anna, as teenagers at Christmas in 1986 with their gift cans of Twisted Cookies
In fact, originally I was going to call my blog Twisted Cookie. I even have a photo file on my computer called Twisted Cookie pics that I took in anticipation of my blog launch. I looked online to see if the domain name was free and it was! The next day I went to purchase it and someone had bought it and was offering it for sale for $16,000. I was furious and I cried. I had never thought of calling my blog anything else, so I had no Plan B. My blog was ready to launch and had no name. It took me 6 months to come up with a new blog name I felt I could live with. But that is a story for another post.
The Twisted Cookie Affair Menu in 1992
In 1992 I took my third hands-on cooking class in culinary school at UCLA. At the end of the quarter, we prepared a banquet for about 100 friends and relatives. It was held at historic Castle Green in Pasadena. If you go to their website and look at photos 10-12 in the gallery, you will see the gorgeous dining room we were so lucky to use. During the quarter, all the students brought different dishes we thought might go on the menu, and one of mine was my Twisted Cookies. They liked them so much, they decided to call our event The Twisted Cookie Affair. The other recipes that were mine were the Potato Blocks and the Chocolate Praline Terrine, both of which may appear on this blog at some point. In retrospect, I cannot fathom why the potatoes were given such a pedestrian title. Couldn’t we have called them Potatoes Lynnaise or something. Lol. Oh well, I was younger then.
I have already told the story of my second culinary school banquet in 1995 in my post titled Mini Lemon Tartlets and a Culinary School Banquet, which you can read here. That was the class where I had to seduce the other students into using my recipes, one of which was my Twisted Cookies. You can see one on the plate above at that banquet sitting proudly with the Mini Lemon Tart, Sabayon and Berries.
The Twisted Cookies photographed for this post were made at Christmas 2011, and the whole batch went to my older son for one of his gifts. It made him very happy. Here is how you make them:
After the dough is made, it is divided in two, wrapped in plastic and refrigerated.
The dough is rolled out over half the vanilla sugar and the excess around the edges is scooped up and rolled in on top.
The dough is folded in thirds and rolled out, and folded and rolled two more times.
The edges are trimmed to form a neat rectangle.
The dough is sliced in half, and each half divided in two. Just eyeball it.
Each of the four slices is divided in two to form 8 1-inch strips.
The cutting board is turned so the long side is facing you and the strips are cut in half, and each half divided in two to form 32 4×1-inch strips.
Each strip is twisted 2 times and placed on an ungreased foil-covered sheet.
They are baked to a golden brown and the sugar on the bottom caramelizes. The sugary top is crispy, and the yeasty pastry dough inside is soft and layered. I bet you have never had anything like this.
Print Recipe
Twisted Cookies ~ with Rolled-In Sugar
Yield: 64 cookies
2 ¼ teaspoons Active Dry Yeast (1 pkg) (NOT Rapid Rise, Pizza Crust or Bread Machine)
¼ cup warm water (100 – 110 degrees F)
½ teaspoon sugar
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup salted butter (2 sticks), chilled, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
2 large eggs
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 1 cookie sheet with foil. Double pan to bake.
1. In a warm medium bowl, combine water, yeast and sugar. Proof until frothy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a separate large bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Cut butter into flour until rice-size with two knives or pastry cutter.
3. In the medium bowl, mix eggs, sour cream and vanilla into the yeast mixture. Pour the egg mixture into the large bowl with the flour. Stir thoroughly with a fork to make a dough.
4. Divide the dough into 2 patties, wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours or overnight. Place patties side by side, not stacked to assure even cooling. My patties were 18.5 oz each.
5. In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix together the sugar and vanilla until evenly distributed. Cover the bowl with a plate or plastic wrap so the sugar doesn’t dry out.
6. On a dry surface, place ½ of the vanilla sugar. Place one patty of dough on the vanilla sugar (leaving the other patty in the refrigerator) and roll into a 16 x 8-inch rectangle. Scoop up all the sugar from around the edges and spread evenly over top of dough.
7. With the long edge toward you, fold both edges toward the center, making 3 equal layers. Turn one quarter around and roll into a 16 x 8-inch rectangle. Scoop up any extra sugar and smooth onto the dough. Do not discard any of the vanilla sugar. Use it all.
8. Fold and roll into a 16 x 8-inch rectangle 2 more times. The dough should be about 1/4-inch thick.
9. Trim the edges slightly with a sharp knife to as perfect a rectangle as possible.
10. With the knife, cut the dough the long way into eight 1-inch wide strips. Cut each 16 x 1-inch strip into 4 equal pieces, each 4 inches long.
11. Twist half (16) of the 4 x 1-inch strips 2 times, over-twisting to stretch the dough in the middle. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Make sure the dough twist lies flat on the sheet. You may need to fan out the layers on the ends somewhat to make sure each is touching the sheet. Press down a little to help it adhere.
12. Double pan. Bake at 375 degrees F, 15 – 20 minutes or until a rich golden brown. With a spatula, remove from sheet immediately before the caramelized sugar hardens and sticks to the foil. Cool on a rack.
13. Discard foil on cookie sheet and replace with new foil. Repeat with remaining 16 dough strips.
14. Start over with the second dough ball and remaining half of sugar.
Note: Store in airtight container at room temperature for 3 days. Freeze in ziplock freezer bag for 2 weeks. Defrost at room temperature with top of bag unzipped, so that moisture can evaporate and not melt sugar or make cookies soggy. When room temperature is achieved, re-zip bag.
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Hi Teresa ~ I am so glad you love these cookies and I’m honored that you included them in your gift trays. Thank you for your lovely email and for taking the time out of your busy day to write to me. Lynne xo
What a fun and delicious recipe!! I made them today for the Senior Café we have at our church–a huge hit! From now on, these are absolutely going to be keepers in my family as well. Thank you so much for sharing.
Greetings from southern Germany,
Karen
PS: I also grew up in the Midwest in a Norwegian family–fun to hear of all the yummy Christmas treats that I don’t have here in Germany. Maybe I’ll have to try some Lefse and Sandbakkels this year….
How far in advance can you make the dough? If I made the dough on a Tuesday could I wait until Saturday to make the cookies?
Hi Andrea ~ You can make the dough 1 day ahead. Any more than 1 day and the dough’s flavor degrades to sourness. Sorry. I know this from experience. You could make and bake the the cookies and then freeze them for future eating. I have done this many times. Defrost in the ziplock bag with the top open so condensation can evaporate. Whatever you decide, you will be so glad you made these. Happy Holidays! Lynne xo
Hi Lynne… I will be trying twisted cookies tomorrow! Wish me luck!! I love the little bees. Your blog/site is warm, inviting, and full of joy. There isn’t a hint of “loftiness” in anything that you write or comment to. It makes me feel like trying all of these things that you make. If there is a question to be asked, there will be a kind and enthusiastic “go for it” “you can do this” type of response. Thank you!!! LEAH
These look so delicious. Do they taste like a palmier? Also, can I use instant yeast? Not rapid rise, but instant. Thanks so much!
Hi Emily~ No, I’m sorry, but you cannot use instant yeast. I use Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast Original to achieve the desired results. The instant yeast uses a different strain of yeast that works a little different and tastes a little different. Twisted Cookies do not taste like a palmier, except for the carmelized sugar on the bottom. The dough used for palmiers is puff pastry made from flour, salt, water with rolled in butter. Twisted Cookies includes those four ingredients with the additional flavors of yeast, eggs, sour cream and vanilla, with rolled in sugar, creating a taste and texture more like a pastry. Just much smaller. I hope you try these and let me know how they turned out. Happy Holidays! Lynne xo
I am so glad I chose your blog when I did a Google search for this recipe. The first time I made these was for a home economics class in high school. They were so delicious and your recipe and photos of the Twisted Cookies were inspiring and brought back the time when I first made them. Thanks for sharing:)
I started making these this morning, using my mother-in-law’s recipe. She was from Hungary, and called these Ice Kipfal. When I made them, I usually doubled the batch, as I had a huge family. I would put the twists all on their cookie sheets and just wait until I was done rolling to start putting them in the oven. So I had pans of twists sitting on table, chairs, etc. Once a young nephew, about 8 or so, was there and SAT on a pan of twists……..we sort of rescued them. When he was a young man, he asked me if I remembered when he sat in the twists! The ones I am making today will go to church on Sunday, to be served with coffee after services. Everyone loves them.
Hi Phyllis ~ Thank you so much for your dear comment. You really made my day. I have always wondered where this recipe originated, so now we have a good clue. Thanks again. Lynne xo
LOVE! these. Just fd yr site (061416), I got so lost in all yr great stories and recipes, I almost forgt y I came here. Thx 4 the great work.
Hi Lynne, Thank you so much for such a yummy looking cookie. After drooling over the photos on your site for a year or more, I finally decided to give them a go but unfortunately the first half of the recipe is a distinct failure so I have a few questions. First, after you have rolled in the sugar mixture, do you add flour on the board to keep them from sticking? Mine totally stuck to the board and the butter just kept getting softer and softer so that after only 2 tri-folds it really was beginning to leak and would never have held up in the oven. Also, do you try to keep the folds in the same direction, as for other laminated doughs like croissants, or do you turn the dough squares as you roll? I’ve got the other half in the fridge and am hoping to not lose the whole batch. But this is baking and it’s always a journey, albeit a fun one! Many thanks! I’m not giving up yet. Nancy
Hi Nancy ~ Just a few questions: Did you thoroughly chill the dough in a flat disk before rolling in the sugar? Four hours or overnight? When I make them, the sugar is just starting to melt by the time of the final roll out and cutting. However, if your kitchen is really hot, the butter may become softer faster. You can put the dough in the frig after each folding.
Flour would not be used as the sugar makes the crunchy top and caramelized bottom the of cookie.
In the directions, #7 says “turn one quarter around and roll out. #8 Fold and roll two more times.” Implying turning a quarter round each time. I’m sorry this wasn’t made clear.
I hope you didn’t throw out the first half of the dough. You can chill it, roll it out into a 8×16-inch rectangle, and cut into 1×4-inch pieces. You may not get the fancy layers, but the taste will be the same and your dough will not be wasted.
Just to confirm: you used butter and not margarine. Sorry, I had to ask. Margarine has a much higher water content that would melt the sugar, if that is the problem.
Let me know how you’re doing, ok? Lynne xo
Made these cookies and they are delicious! The directions are so thorough and detailed. Basically, just do everything Leslie says, and the cookies will turn out wonderfully. I tried using parchment paper instead of aluminum foil. Just use the foil. I tried not double panning them. Just double pan them. I’m still working on making them fan out beautifully, but man they taste awesome!
Oops, and I put “Leslie” but I meant Lynne. Thanks for the recipe, Lynne!
I just discovered your site this week and have spent many lovely hours reading through your stories and recipes. I decided to give these delicious looking cookies a try. After rolling out and baking the first half, I had a disaster on my hands. The sugar and the flour had combined together so that when they baked there were no layers, just a melted sugar mess that looked horrible but tasted pretty good. I studied the recipe again and all the photos and noticed that you have 9 distinct layers of dough and realized my mistake. The recipe says to roll out the dough on the sugar and then fold in thirds, rotate and roll and fold 2 more times for a total of three folds. That number of turns gave me 27 layers which just absorbed all the sugar so no flakiness. For the second half of the dough I rolled and folded only two times total and then rolled them and cut them. Success! The texture is completely different- crispy, well defined layers!
Thanks for your recipe.
I have been looking on the internet for this recipe for YEARS! I had a very similar recipe and lost it. A forum friend pointed me here. I plan to make some for my daughters for Xmas. Thanks for posting this!
My great grandmother was famous for making these and the recipe has been passed down 5 generations now. My recipe is just slightly different from yours so I decided to make your version and I will have to say that yours are even better than my version. So, once again I hunted down this recipe on pinterest and will be making them for a gathering with my husbands side of the family. I really like how you’ve shown all the steps in making these cookies. Thanks so so much for sharing!