Holiday Pizzelle

Pizzelle are a traditional Italian waffle-like cookie made to celebrate annual festivals.  The word meads small flat round.  The tricks to a good pizzelle include a sturdy iron and a reliable recipe.   The origin of these cookies dates back to the 8th century in the south-central area of Abruzzi (now Abruzzo).

This is another recipe that can cross over ethnic palates and go fusion if you'd like.  I made about 50 of these yesterday for the kids using the following recipe.  They came out perfect which means thin enough to have a crispy snap when you bite into them, not too sweet, with hints at the key spices, and of course not too oily (which can be a problem if you use a traditional recipe with butter - which as you'll see below we substitute for...)

Batter Recipe:
5 eggs
3 teaspoon of almond extract (traditional recipes call for anise or anise seed)
2 table spoons of baking powder
1 cup of canola oil (standard is to use butter - which I think makes the dough cloying and greasey)
1 handful of coco or chocolate chips
4 pinches of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of sugar (2 brown and one white or 2 brown and some honey) - don't go for all white processed sugar it will make the batter way too gritty no matter how you mix it
1 twist of some citrus - orange or lemon
3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons of garam masala, red hot pepper (if you are ok with sweet and hot mixed together)

Cooking:
Heat your iron or pizzelle maker for about 5 minutes, batter should make a sizzling sound when touched to the iron.
Press about a teaspoon of batter in each mold for 1 1/2 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool on a rank individually first.  Hold stacking them until they are not hot.

Cheers.