Pizzells, My Mom's recipie, some history, and a ramble

Firstly, a few clips from various "Googles"  about pizzelles

  

Pizzelle (Italian pronunciation: [pitˈtsɛlle], singular pizzella) are traditional Italian waffle cookies made from flour, eggs, sugar, butter or vegetable oil, and flavoring (usually anise or anisette, less commonly vanilla or lemon zest).

Pizzelles are the oldest known cookie and originated in the mid-section of Italy. They were made many years ago for the “Festival of the Snakes” also known as the “Feast Day of San Domenico” in the village of Colcullo in the Italian region of Abruzzo.Nov 30, 2020

 

Pizzelle originated centuries ago in the Abruzzo region of south-central Italy, according to 19th-century Italian historian Giuseppe Tassini, and are still common in the neighboring regions of Molise (formerly part of Abruzzo) and Lazio, home of Rome.

 

 

According to history, the first pizzelle cookies were made in the region of Abruzzo (geographically located in Central Italy) back in the 8th century. These highly recognizable Italian cookies get their shape by flattening the batter between two hot iron plates (just like waffles).Mar 6, 2021

 

 

 

 

Classic Pizzelle

No Italian-American holiday is complete without crisp, buttery pizzelle. Rather than the typical anise flavor, we've made them a bit more neutral with a splash of good quality vanilla. Nonna turning over in her grave? You can still use the anise.

Prep

55 mins

Total

55 mins

Yield

30 to 50 pizzelle, depending on size

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup (149g) sugar
• 3/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups (210g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 8 tablespoons (113g) butter, melted

Instructions

1. Beat the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla until well combined.

2. Stir in the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

3. Add the melted butter, again mixing until smooth; the batter will be thick and soft.

4. Heat your pizzelle iron. Grease it as directed in the manufacturer's instructions. As the iron heats, the batter will stiffen.

5. Cook the pizzelle according to the instructions that came with your iron. In general, they'll take between 45 seconds and 2 1/2 minutes to brown.

6. Remove the pizzelle from the iron, and cool on a rack. If desired, use a pair of scissors to trim any ragged edges.

7. Dust cooled pizzelle with confectioners' sugar, if desired.

Tips from our Bakers

• Flavor to taste: classic pizzelle are often flavored with anise extract or anise seed. Butter-rum, lemon, or rum flavors are also delicious. Simply add extract to the batter to taste. Start with 1/4 teaspoon; amounts will vary a lot, depending on the strength of the extract you choose.
• One reader suggests the best way to grease your pizzelle iron is to dip a towel in vegetable oil, and wipe it all over the iron's interior plates. This helps avoid the sticky residue you may get from spraying the iron with non-stick spray.

THE GooD folks at King Arthur flour like us so much they have an answer line......855 371  2253 {toll free}

 

When I was a kiddo, my mom had a pizzelle iron like this one.  Each year before Christmas I would come home from school to find her working at the kitchen stove making pizelle, and eating the ones that either got too toasty or broke as they came out of the pizzelle iron.  the iron rested on the burner of the old gas stove and Mom would drop balls of dough one by one onto the hot iron close the lid wait a bit and flip it over resting that side of the iron on the burner, then open the iron and lift the soft cookie out with a fork and place it gently on the pile that were cooling and getting delightfully crispy.  her favorite was anise, a taste I never acquired, though I have saved a bottle of anise flavoring carefully all these years.  My dad liked the chocolate...which was really good, as was the coffee, ground nut and vanilla ones.  she made mountains of pizzelle and often wrapped them in cling wraps  and froze them.  Coffee and pizzels was a common winter breakfast or snack.  Mom liked to edit or even redo recipes, making them the way she thought they should be made, Oh, and her recipes, the few she wrote down were pretty much just list of ingredients. 

Mom's pizzells

 

7 to 8 cups of flour

1/4 cup baking powder 

1/4 cup oleo  {use butter}

1/4 lard      {use butter]

6 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 tsp anise oil

You may add a little more sugar

Flour can vary depending on the weather.

Do not cook the same day you make the dough.

 

 Enjoy!!!