Krakelingen - Dutch Pretzel Cookies
Classic krakelingen, well known in the Netherlands and worth trying for yourself. These crunchy sugar cookies are absolutely delicious and so much fun to make.
Servings: 12 cookies
Ingredients
- 250 grams all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp instant yeast
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- generous pinch of salt
- 50 ml lukewarm milk
- 100 grams unsalted butter melted
- 1 medium egg beaten
- 200 grams light brown sugar
Instructions
- Put the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add the milk, butter, and egg, then knead into a soft, smooth dough that isn’t sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place. Let the dough rise until it has doubled in size (about 1.5-2 times bigger).
- Sprinkle one-third of the brown sugar on a tray or large plate. Put the rest of the sugar on a separate large plate. Punch the air out of the dough and knead briefly. Divide into 16 equal pieces and roll each piece through the smaller sugar portion.
- Roll a piece of dough into a rope about 30 cm/12 inches long on a clean (unfloured) work surface. Roll it through the sugar on the other plate, fold it in half, press down, and roll out again to 30 cm/12 inches. Roll again in the sugar. Repeat with all pieces. The sugar will start to “sweat” on the ropes of dough, which actually helps with the end result.
- Take each rope, roll again to 30 cm/12 inches if needed, and twist into a pretzel shape. Tuck the ends underneath. Place the krakelingen on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 15-30 minutes.
- Bake at 200 °C/400˚F (conventional oven) for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
- Leave on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tips
Since this dough is different from bread dough, the rising behaves differently too. Mine took about 2 hours to increase by 1.5x in volume.
How to store
Keep krakelingen in a cookie tin for up to one week. In the freezer they will keep up to 3 months.