Contents
The oldest cookie in Italy that is still made the same way, and one of the oldest in Europe: an anise batter pressed between two hot carved plates. The name means little pizza, in the old sense of a flat round thing. Ortona in Abruzzo claims it, dating the practice to an eighth-century festival, and the snowflake pattern on the iron is the point of the whole exercise.
A pizzelle is a batter, not a dough, and it needs no rest, no chill and no oven.
What makes it work
- The iron sets the cookie, not time. 30 to 45 seconds per pizzelle. Steam stops escaping when the water is gone, so a slowing hiss is the timer.
- The batter must be thick enough to hold a spoon shape. Too loose and it runs out of the iron and burns on the hinge; too thick and it does not fill the pattern.
- Anise is the traditional flavour, in two forms: anise extract for the aroma and crushed anise seed for the bite. Vanilla and lemon are the common modern substitutes.
- Crisp is a cooling property. They come off the iron pliable and set hard within a minute — which is the window for rolling them into cannoli tubes or draping them over a cup to make a bowl.
Ingredients
Method
Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thickened, about three minutes. Whisk in the melted butter and the flavouring, then fold in the flour, baking powder and salt. The batter is like a thick pancake batter.
Heat the pizzelle iron fully. Drop a rounded tablespoon slightly behind the centre of each pattern — the press pushes it forward — close, and cook 30–45 seconds until the steam slows and the cookie is pale gold.
Lift with a fork onto a rack. If you want tubes or cups, shape them in the first 20 seconds while they are still soft.
Notes
- No iron, no pizzelle. There is no oven substitute; the pattern and the thinness are what the tool does. A krumkake or stroopwafel iron works with the same batter and a different pattern. See stroopwafels.
- Do not grease a modern non-stick iron. Butter in the batter is enough, and added oil polymerises into a sticky film.
- Store bone dry. They soften within hours in humidity; a tin with a desiccant sachet holds them a fortnight. Crisp them back at 150 °C for three minutes.
- Ferratelle, cancelle and neole are regional names for effectively the same cookie with a different plate.
Elsewhere on the site
Method and theory: Cookie recipes · cookies · baking equipment
Nearby: stroopwafels · tuiles · fortune cookies