Hi Lynne,

I took your advice and bought some plain sour cream instead of using my french onion sour cream dip, good thing I did. My 1st attempt wasn’t as smooth sailing as I hoped because after rolling the vanilla sugar, the dough started to become soft so I placed the dough in the fridge to harden a bit. Wrong move. The sugar ended up liquidity which made rolling it out difficult and it started to rip. I couldn’t twist it like yours without it puffing out of shape but I did managed to savage it by trying to shape them into palmiers. They had many layers and tasted incredible.
Since I knew what I did wrong, I just had to try it out again the next day but this time I didn’t put the dough in the fridge after rolling. It turned out quite well but I must work on the twisting part. I tried to press it down after twisting but some of them seemed stubborn and broke free so what worked best for me was to just fan them out. Is it because I baked them at 350 degrees in a conventional oven instead of 375? But 375 would burn the cookies too quickly on the outside before thoroughly baking inside.
I will definitely makes these again, next time I’ll press these suckers really hard to make them stay from fanning out and hopefully after more practice they will eventually turn out as beautiful as yours. Thank you so much for sharing this great recipe.
Here’s a picture of what both of my batches turned out to look like. The photo turned out a little dark…I need to also work on my photography skills. =)

~Laura~

I want to try making these to bring to a friend on a out-of-country trip in 2 weeks and I have all the ingredients except the sour cream part. I just bought a tub of “Heluva Good French Onion Sour Cream” today. If I pick out the onion parts and only use the sour cream part, would it work? I have to omit the salt ingredient too cause the savory dip should have enough salt right?
Also, the 1 tsp vanilla ingredient for the dough, is it vanilla extract?
I’d like to know what you think before I start it. Thanks so much.

Hi Lynne,

I was brought to your blog by a picture of the Twisted Cookies on Pinterest. When I started reading the story of the cookies, I thought I was reading about my in-law family. My husband’s mother has made what they call “Sugar Twists” since the kids were little – and only at Christmas, like your family. She had a terrible time hiding them away from her boys. One year, she found only empty cannisters when she looked for the cookies.

She is in the first stages of Alzheimer’s now so her baking days are over. She and most of Dean’s family live in northern Minnesota, a good 5 hour drive from our home in the Twin Cities. Last year my sister-in-law brought her down to our home, where she spent the weekend baking, under the supervision and with the help of Dean and my sister. I’m in a wheelchair, so I’m not of much use, but I can peel and chop!

Dean is hoping that she will be well enough to make the trip again this year, because he and his brother and sisters were all very happy to see Mom’s Sugar Twists one more time.

Back to the Pinterest picture — I thought maybe you had come up with an easier method of making these great cookies, but it looks like the recipe is the same as ours.

I’ll be following your blog from now on, and will read your archives for other good recipes.

Sharon Olson

Hungarian tranlation: These delicious cookies can twist a bit difficult, but give it a spin! Put the recipe in my library! Thank you!

Dear Lynne,

For years I have searched for the recipe for cookies made with yeast which my Aunt made every year at Christmas.I have searched so many cook books, and so many cooking sites without any luck. I searched again last Christmas without success, so I really had no hope of finding it as I searched today – just decided to try again, when amazingly I found your blog and the recipe for the Twisted Cookies! I am so excited, and so thankful to you for posting it. My daughter and I will make them when she comes home for Christmas. Love your blog and will be happy to share it with my daughter- she has introduced me to so many .

Thanks for the wonderful gift!

Wishing you a very merry Christmas,
Susan Mahnken