Pizzelles | Using the Ancestral Italian Family Recipe

About a month ago, I was gifted a pizzelle iron from my aunt. After a coworker brought in a box of some pizzelles, I knew it was time to try making my own. Using one of the ancestral recipes granted to me, I got to work.

I had most of the ingredients already, including my homemade vanilla extract (after all these years, yes I still have it). The one ingredient I needed to source was anise. Anise extract is derived from the anise plant. It has a strong, licorice-like flavor to it. You'll know it when you taste it. A few $$$ from the grocery store and it was time to bake. Here are all the ingredients:

Della's Pizzelles
3 Eggs
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter of Margarine, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Anise extract
1 3/4 cup Flour
2 teaspoon baking powder

For my work in the kitchen, I scaled the recipe down to 2/3rds. Starting off by beating the eggs and sugar together in a small bowl. I used a spoon and mixed vigorously as I didn't want to bust out the egg beaters.

After melting the butter, I mixed that into the beaten egg and sugar mixture. I had to really beat that good because the butter wanted to solidify while mixing. Next added was the vanilla and anise extract. Very potent stuff.

Next the baking powder and flour were gradually mixed in. The dough came out pretty tough and custard like texture.

Now comes the time to start cooking the pizzelles. I preheated the iron over the gas burner. Some cooking spray on both sides ensures the pizzelles do not stick to the metal.

Now I wasn't able to capture a good picture of how much dough to load the iron with, but a little goes a long way. A spoonful the size of a quarter is enough to fill the mold once flattened. I learned that fast with my first cookie. A lot of dough spilled out out the mold! The key is that less is more.

Due to how little dough goes into each pizzelle, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen using it all up. I didn't get an accurate count of how many cookies I made, but the regular sized batch can probably make 3 dozen.

For a first time, these pizzelles came out great. Next time I'll record myself making these for the YouTube channel. There aren't too many videos of others using a hand iron to make pizzelles, so you'll be in for a real showcase of culinary skill! Here's a printer friendly recipe and directions below:

Della's Pizzelles
3 Eggs
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter of Margarine, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon anise
1 3/4 cup Flour
2 teaspoon baking powder

1) Beat Eggs & sugar
2) Add Butter and flavorings (anise/vanilla) and mix in
3) Mix the flour with the baking powder. Sift into the egg mixture gradually.
4) Spray pizzelle iron with cooking spray. Preheat iron over the stove
5) Drop dough by spoon into the iron and cook over heat for 30 – 45 seconds
6) Remove from iron and allow to cool on a wire rack.

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