My Pizzelle Recipe
My husband is Italian and his mother and grandma introduced me to pizzelles many years ago when we were dating. These wafer-thin disc-shaped Italian cookies are easy to make and so beautiful, with their intricately patterned appearance, often resembling a doily, snowflake or geometric design. There was always a stack of them at my husband's Christmas Eve celebrations and, his grandma insisted that almond extract is better than anise and that lemon is not necessary, so that's how I make them. I've also been told that Italians make them with oil and Americans make them with butter. So oil it is. Here is my recipe:
Pizzelles
You Will Need
pizzelle maker or iron (CLICK HERE for a link to the one I use)
hand or stand mixer
Ingredients
- 3 eggs (room temperature)
- ½ c sugar
- ½ c cooking oil (I use EVOO)
- 1 tspn vanilla extract
- 1 tspn almond extract
- 1 c flour
- ½ tspn baking powder
- 2 pinches salt
- powdered confectioner's sugar
To Make
- Mix eggs and sugar together until well combined. Add oil and extracts until well combined. Then mix in flour, powder and salt.
- Preheat your pizzelle iron and coat it with a layer of cooking spray.
- Drop a silver-dollar-sized dollop of batter in the center of each iron pattern, close, and lock (if it has a lock).
- Bake for 45 seconds.
- Open the pizzelle maker and carefully remove each pizzelle with a fork. The cookies should just begin to turn golden. Transfer to a drying rack. Make sure the pizzelle lays flat while it cools.
- Repeat to use the remainder of the batter.
- Sprinkle cooled cookies with powdered confectioner's sugar using a sift.
This recipe yields approximately 2 dozen delicate discs.
Tips and Tricks
If you find that your batter oozes out the sides of the pizzelle maker when you secure it closed, slightly decrease the size of your dollop.
If your pizzelles begin to stick to the iron, add a bit more cooking spray.
Pizzelles should be crisp, delicate, and brittle. If your pizzelle does not cool to a crisp delicate cookie, add 10 seconds to the baking time in the iron.
Do not sprinkle with powdered sugar or stack until your pizzelles are completely cooled (I wait at least 10 minutes.)
Using kitchen shears, trim access batter from the edges of the design as needed.
Store pizzelles in a parchment paper-lined cookie tin.
