Pizzelles

These are a couple of Easter gift baskets/cards I made for neighbors. I loaded them with 3 different flavors of pizzelles. I first learned about pizzelles years and years ago from an older Italian woman who made them every Christmas. They're a waffle-like cookie that is really fun to eat......you can try to break them aong the lines of the designs. There are a million different flavor combinations, but I grew to think of the original with an anise flavor, so I've always made them with anise extract and anise seed. I also like a pizzelle flavored with almond extract. And a week or so ago I ran across a food blog that had a coconut/pandan flavor. I'd never heard of pandan and love the taste of coconut, so it sounded interesting. I had to order the pandan extract on-line and it certainly smelled quite nice, but the coconut/pandan flavors weren't strong enough for my tastes (they say you lose about half of your tasting ability after the age of 50 or so...how in the world do they measure that?!!!!). Anyway, it was still quite nice.

This is a fun "cookie" to make and eat. You need a special pizzelle baker....it's just like waffle iron, but makes much thinner cookies. You can also make ice-cream cones by rolling the pizzelles the second they come of the cooker.......it's a special cone-shaped wooden tool that you simply roll the warm cookie around to shape it.

If you would like any information or any of the recipes I used, let me know. I've made half a dozen different variations and would be happy to share if anyone would like to give it a try.

Have a nice Easter weekend!