Celtic Knot Cookies

With St. Patty's Day approaching, the possibilities of paying tribute to the Irish  through tasty treats are nearly endless. I stumbled across these Celtic Knot Cookies on Sprinkle Bakes and wanted to recreate them. Her original knots turned out much prettier than my attempt, but mine are still tasty and bear enough resemblance to identify them as Celtic knots.

Celtic Knot Cookies
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups graham flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. graham cracker crumbs (2 sheets)
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Sift together flours, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Stir in graham cracker crumbs.Using electric mixer, beat butter in another large bowl at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar, and beat 1 minute. Add molasses, and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, and beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low, and beat in vanilla.

Add flour mixture and graham cracker crumbs; beat on low speed just to blend. Gather dough into ball, and wrap in plastic. Chill until firm, at least 4 hours and preferably overnight.

Working with small portions of the dough at a time, shape about 2 Tbsp. dough into a long rope and then twist into a Celtic knot. (See the original Sprinkle Bakes posting for step-by-step instructions with photos.) You'll want to make your knots fairly large out of a skinny rope to help define the knot shape rather than having a cookie sans holes.

Position rack in center of oven, and preheat to 350°F. Bake for 8-12 minutes until cookies are lightly browned on the edges. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheets, and then transfer carefully to wire racks to cool completely. The amount of cookies this recipe yields depends on how large your knots are and whether you enclose them with circles. Makes between 1 to 2 dozen cookies would be the average if I had to guess.