December 6, 2017
Pizzelle punctuated my childhood.
Pizzelle were present at every holiday, birthday, wedding, and festive event as well as at random times throughout the year.
They usually came from Aunt Margie, though other folks made pizzelle, too.
My mother never did. Though she liked to bake, and made some wonderful pastries, pizzelle were not part of her repertoire.
The classic flavor is anise, though vanilla, and to a lesser extent lemon and orange, are common as well.
Aunt Margie would use pizzelle to make ice cream sandwiches. She would roll them around a tube to make faux cannoli. She would even roll them into ice cream cones. Of all the permutations, though, my favorite is just the classic, flat, crispy anise-flavored cookie.
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I don’t know anybody who doesn’t use an electric pizzelle iron these days but originally Aunt Margie used one of cast iron that was heated on the stove. It came from Berarducci Brothers in McKeesport, Pennsylvania and is most definitely iron, not aluminum. I have the pizzelle maker in its original box.
Unfortunately Berarducci Brothers is no longer around. Not only did they manufacture stove-top and electric pizzelle irons, they made ravioli molds, crank-handle vegetable strainers, and an array of other culinary tools.
In my experience, anise oil is essential. Anise extract simply does not pack enough flavor to give pizzelle the punch they need.
When I was young, anise oil came from the pharmacy. It was not uncommon in those days for pharmacies to routinely compound medications to a physician’s specific instructions. Compounding is now limited to a few specialty pharmacies but not so back then. Anise oil was commonly used to flavor what might otherwise be a noxious medication.
It was common practice among the Italian families in my hometown to go to the pharmacy to buy a bottle of anise oil. One upside, besides the easy availability of the stuff, is that it was pharmaceutical grade and, therefore, very pure.
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I tried that in Santa Fe after my mother-in-law kept failing to get enough anise flavor out of anise extract. We even have actual compounding pharmacies in Santa Fe as well as pharmacies that specialize in herbal and homeopathic medications that also make up their own medications. No dice. Not one of them carried anise oil.
Amazon to the rescue. There are other on-line sources, too, like the King Arthur Flour people. So, if you want to try your hand at pizzelle, get anise oil, not anise extract. If you don’t like anise you could give vanilla, lemon, or orange a try. If you do, I suggest the lemon and orange oils from Boyajian rather than extract.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Passive Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
dozen
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- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 extra large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon anise oil or to taste
- 1/4 pound unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
Ingredients
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- Combine flour, salt, and baking powder.
- Mix well. Reserve.
- Combine eggs and sugar.
- Mix until well combined.
- Stir in vanilla and anise oil.
- Stir dry ingredients into egg-sugar mixture.
- Stir in melted butter.
- Lightly grease the pizzelle maker (with lard, preferably) before the first ones are baked. After the first, additional greasing is not needed.
- Add a rounded tablespoon of batter to the center of each shape, depending on the size of your iron.
- Cover and cook until light golden but not really brown. The length of time will vary based on the specifics of your pizzelle iron. With mine, it took 30-45 seconds per batch.
- Cool the pizzelle on racks.
- You can dust with powdered sugar if you'd like but I rarely do unless it's a really festive occasion.
Copyright © 2017 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.
love it these have been a staple at our christmas table since I can remember
Amazon has a lot of pizzelle makers, ranging from $35 to $90. Noticed that Cuisinart has one for $50. It makes two 4-inch pizzelles at a time. Any recommendations for a brand of pizzelle maker? If not, do you think the Cuisinart is okay? On the Amazon page it had Customers Who Bought This Also Bought… and right there was the Anise Oil for $4.03, the very same one as pictured on this site.
Four inch pizzelle are a bit small in my experience. Mine makes pizzelle closer to 5 inches. The size, of course, is your preference. I don’t have any experience with the Cuisinart product. The one I use is not non-stick. I don’t know if that makes a difference or not. In my experience, pizzelle don’t really stick so a non-stick finish wouldn’t influence my decision of which one to buy.
I follow Aunt Enes’ recipe which is essentially the same. Love these any time of the year. Of late we have taken to adding limoncello or jack daniels and even other liquors in place of the traditional anise. All taste great–even if not the traditional way. They also make great cannoli shells if molded while warm.
That sounds like a great idea. I have been thinking of using pure lemon oil and pure orange oil to flavor some. I’ll definitely try that now!
Does anybody have a recipe for lemon-rosemary pizzelles, or, could those flavors even work with pizzelles?
Thank You…..
I think the flavor would work. I don’t have a recipe but for the lemon part, I would use lemon oil. The rosemary part would be more difficult. My first thought would be to finely grind the rosemary and use just a small amount to start.
Now 100% pure anise illicium verum essential oil,is it safe to use in my pizzelles
Illicium verum is star anise. This will provide a different flavor.
Now pure anise illicium verum essential oil.is it safe to use in making my pizzelles
Decided tI give a different recipe a try this year. This one has all the others beat. Very nice flavor and crispy like we like them! 5 star quality!!!
I’m so glad you’re happy with the recipe.
Excellent recipe! Makes a perfect pizzelle. I used large eggs so I upped them to 4. Perfect results. It was the first time using my Palmer 75th anniversary pizzelle maker and I’m in love with this recipe and my stainless pizzelle maker. I made pizzelle cannoli shells using metal tubes and adapting the recipe for cannoli shell flavor adding cocoa powder, cinnamon and a splash of red wine. Perfection! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! Having eaten them either store bought or made by others, this is 100% authentic. Great recipe.
I’m really glad that you like the recipe. My Aunt Margie would sometimes use pizzelle to make cannoli shells but she didn’t change the flavor. I really like your idea.
Thanks. I love this recipe because of the results and it’s not way too much batter for smaller batches. For the cannoli shells, I used a teaspoon of cocoa powder and a teaspoon of cinnamon. The flavor was on the mark but just not enough. Next batch will up it to 1 1/2 t’s. I saved the red wine till the very end to get the batter to loosen just a touch. Just a splash. I used butter flavor crisco on the spoons and on the heated pizzelle maker only at the start. No sticking at all. I make my own ricotta and mozz so I have these heavy rubber gloves to handle hot things. Got them from walmart. Black and think they were made by libman. So easy to work with the pizzelles off the maker and onto the tubes. No burns or tools needed to remove and manipulate them. Thanks again for sharing the recipe. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for your technique and changes to use the pizzelle for cannoli shells. When I was in culinary school in Italy we had to form the mozzarella with bare hands!