Pizzelle ~ For My Gram M.

I can’t tell you what joy it brought me to see my sweet little guy eating his very first Pizzelle last weekend.  He took in its pretty lacy design for just a moment before happily gobbling up the cookie in what seemed like only a matter of seconds.  It took me back to my childhood days, making countless batches of pizzelle with my Gram, and then eating one after another, after another.  I will never forget our many shared afternoons spent over her fancy pizzelle iron. 

Gram and I used to always make the classic “anise” flavored pizzelle.  We would use anise extract, but we would also add anise seeds so that each pizzella was flecked with little black specs that would pop with licorice flavor when you bit into the light, crispy, snowflake shaped cookie.   

I love the classic anise flavored pizzelle, but because my hubby is not big on licorice flavor, I made these wonderful almond flavored pizzelle last weekend, and they did not disappoint in flavor, or in taking me back to my childhood.  I watched, just as I did as a child, as the pizzelle iron’s light went from red to green to indicate that my cookies were perfectly browned and ready to be removed from the iron and set to cool. 

One of these days in the very near future I plan to make some chocolate pizzelle or maybe even try wrapping the warm pizzella around the little dowel that came with my iron (a gift from my sweet Gram a few Christmases back) and then stuffing them with something creamy, or nutty, or chocolaty (or all of the above).

The recipe below is for the almond flavored pizzelle that I made last weekend (which I decided to decorate a bit with some ganache and almond pieces).  The decoration was completely unnecessary as these cookies are made beautiful by the iron, but who doesn’t like a little extra flair from time to time?

 

Ingredients & Instructions

1-3/4 C. King Arthur’s All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 large eggs
3/4 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbsp. Almond Extract
1 tsp. Vegetable Oil (to coat the iron from time to time in between cookies)

Preheat the Pizzelle Press on Setting 3 while preparing the batter. Place flour and baking powder in a small bowl, stir and set to the side. Blend eggs and sugar in a medium bowl with a hand mixer for about a minute. Add the melted butter and extract to the egg mixture and blend until combined, about 15 seconds. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined; do not over mix. It may be necessary to lightly brush both the top and bottom grids of the pizzelle iron with vegetable oil or melted vegetable shortening before baking. Use a teaspoon to scoop the dough, about 1 ½ - 2 teaspoons, onto one of the patterned cookie grids; repeat to make a second cookie. Close the lid and lock. The red indicator light will come on. When the red indicator light goes out and the green indicator light comes on, the pizzelle are ready. Remove pizzelle from the press using a heatproof plastic spatula and place on a rack to cool completely. Completely cooled pizzelle may be decorated with chocolate or dusted with powdered sugar before serving.