Firenze

Passport & Plate - Pizzelle

Italy | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 4 photos

Ingredients


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PITZEL'S

6 eggs
4 c. flour
1 1/3 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 c. Wesson oil
1 oz. Anise extract


Batter will be thin. Place by teaspoon in Pitzel oven for 30-40 seconds.

 

How to prepare this recipe

Preheat pizzelle griddle. Beat eggs, add sugar gradually and beat well. Add butter and anise. Sift flour and baking powder and add to creamed mixture. Dough will be very sticky. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto pizzelle griddle sprayed with Pam. Cook until steam stops and cookies are a rich golden color. Cool on wire racks and store in air-tight container. Makes five dozen.

 

The story behind this recipe
A simple pizzelle cookie has brought my family together since I was a child. With a large Italian family spanning the country and globe, it was hard to celebrate holidays together very often. Granny Garofolo, or Gilda as her siblings called her, did not find this distance challenging. Despite our physical proximity or divergent schedules, Granny relied on this simple cookie, and the trusty family pizzelle maker (the "zelle" as my brother and I called it as kids) we used to make them, to seemingly transcend time and space to get all of us to celebrate together. Whether we made the cookies together with Granny herself in New York, or at my Aunt Edwina's in Hanover, Massachusetts (and here many of us made hundreds together to send), or opened the resulting cookie packages with family in California, Florida, Ireland, England and Italy, the vanilla sweetness and crunchy texture, even the familiar design carved into the well-known shape reminded of us of the tradition, heritage and mostly of the love we all shared. When we all ate them around the same holiday time each year, we were together in spirit.

Pizelles were one of three recipes Granny insisted I bring to college. It was a necessity for entering into adulthood and living on your own she said- to make spaghetti from scratch, a decent meatball and this sweet dessert (a perfect addition to any party to which I might be invited.) We practiced each recipe many times using the same recipes, process and machine her mother had used to teach her- right down to the broom handles to hold the pasta as it dries, the way to hold the zelle as it heats, and the Italian love songs to sing while you worked.

Celebrating love and life through food is our Italian heritage and pizzelles have always been a key part of that celebration. Eating, cooking and sharing food and recipes has and always will be the most powerful way I know to show love to my family.
When I make pizelles with family, I carry on a long tradition of love.