These aniseed flavoured slightly crunchy cookies are shaped like pretzels. My cookie book tells me that these holiday cookies are great for serving at parties, giving as gifts or for hanging on the Christmas tree.
This recipe is from Cookies Step-By-Step Techniques from Sunset. The original recipe calls for eggs which I have substituted with flax seed.
I usually run about 6 to 8 tbsps of flax seed in the small jar of my mixer/ grinder to powder it. I store this powder in the fridge for when I need it. I have given the ingredients as given in the recipe with my adaptations within brackets.
I liked these cookies, but both my husband and daughter didn’t seem to like them very much. A part of the reason could be that anise seed is not something they particularly like. One thing both of them said was that the cookies were not sweet enough, though I thought the sugar was enough. So you might want to increase the sugar according to your taste.
Egg Free Anise Pretzels
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter , softened (I used salted )
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs (I used 2 tbsp flax seed powder + 4 tbsp water)
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsps anise extract (I omitted this)
- 1 to 2 tbsps anise seeds aniseed , coarsely crushed ed
Instructions
- Beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition till well combined. I used a flaxseed- water mixture and added this at this point. I ran 2 tbsp of flax seed powder with 4 tbsp water in the small jar of my mixer/ blender till well blended.
- Beat in the anise extract at this point, if using it. I omitted this because I didnu2019t have the extract.
- Gradually add the flour and the crushed anise seeds, blending well into a dough. I used less than the specified amount of anise seed as I didnu2019t want an over-powering smell and taste. I also coarsely crushed the seeds to release the flavour.
- Divide the dough into two and roll each half into a log 2 inches in diameter. Wrap tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, until the dough is easy to handle.
- Take the dough out, and work on one log at a time. Cut each log into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 14u201d long rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Place on greased baking sheets about an inch apart and brush with the beaten egg-water mixture and lightly sprinkle the anise seeds. I didnu2019t use this glaze and brushed the pretzels with plain water. This would explain the slightly paler brown colour of baked my pretzels.
- Bake at 170C for 20 to 30 minutes till light golden in colour and firm to touch. Cool on racks and store in airtight tins.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
Lovely Aparna,I too love anise flavour now that I had made my cookies.Lovely entries to both the events.Anise is sweet and these pretzels look delish.
Pretzels looks lovely. I might have to try with star anise since I don’t get anise seeds here and with some more of sugar.
So prettily presented, Aparna! I too am not very fond of pretzels though I did make them twice – I guess one needs to develop taste for certain things. Anyway, pretzels are said to best taken with beer which I do not consume!!
Lovely Christmasy presentation…I love pretzels especially for their twisted shpe…your cookies look lovely and I love the flavour…
thats so cool that they are eggless. they look really soft.
That’s such a lovely pic!
Well, I actually love anything with anise seed in it, so these are really appealing to me, Aparna. Thank you for a unique contribution! 🙂
Hi Aparna,those pretzel shapes cookies look mighty gorgeous. I am amaze that you able to substituted the eggs with flax seed powder and water. Such a great idea. I guess you can eat lot of these cookies then.Cheers,Elra
That knot reminds me of some symbol …
Aparna, these sound delicious. I posted my Anise bread rolls participating both at Manuella’s event and the Worldwide Blogger Bake-Off Challenge you invited me to attend.
Anise is such a nice flavor for the holidays. I like the way you made them into pretzels! Nice contribution to Susan’s blog.
Aparna, these pretzels are so beautiful and lovely picture dear
Oh, I should make pretzel for holiday weekend project with my kids! YUM!
Aww! Those are cute! With the little red ribbon…
Perfect for the season :)Very pretty indeed!
They looks so cute and beautiful.
Beautiful….esp the one with the red ribbon.
Look beautiful! I’m sure the taste wonderful!
Hi aparnai think you made lovely cookies and shape has come exactly like pretzels. Though not very sweeet but it can be varied, isnt it…nicely done.
Hi I am new to your blog and I just wanted to say how much I’m loving it
those are looks lovely!
Your cookies look lovely. I like the anise flavor in anything.
omg, your pretzels look so cool!!! got to try these – arundathi had also posted jalapeno pretzels a while back.
I love anise – love it! I can’t wait to try them out.
Those Pretzels looks lovely!! Well done and what a great entry for all the events :)Rosie x
They are very perfect Aparna. Viji
Jayasree, you could also try making these with “saunf”.We don’t drink beer but I like pretzels, the savoury kind too.Thanks everyone.Sra,Celtic knots maybe?Welcome to my kitchen, Sorina.