Making Pizzelle

Every Christmas, my grandma would make a sh*t ton of pizzelle in three different flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and anise. 

Now that she's no longer with us, I decided to take over the tradition. I began by buying myself a pizzelle iron (the exact same model as Grandma's). I then looked up her pizzelle recipe (photographed above), which stands as a living testament to my grandma's personality: as her recipe states, she usually quadrupled the recipe because "anything less is [sic] waste time." And, to be clear, she did this with all three flavors.

Only, I didn't want to use vegetable shortening like Grandma's recipe calls for and I wanted to have a little more fun with the flavor options. I ended up going for Meyer lemon and chocolate-orange. The only thing is that I made the Meyer lemon batch while Matt was at work and therefore wasn't around to take photos. He was home, however, for the chocolate batch, but as that recipe needs more tweaking (they weren't as chocolatey as I wanted), I'm only giving you the recipe for the Meyer lemon here. 

Teddy stopped by the studio while I was recording the audio version of the book!

(This photo is here mainly to brag: I recently vacuumed!)

Teddy LOVES picking and eating our Meyer lemons.

Happy holidays, everyone! Thank you so much for reading and for your support all year long. 

Much much love, 

Amelia, Matt, and Teddy (and Mavis)

Meyer Lemon Pizzelle adapted from Food 52

makes 40-50 cookies*, depending on iron size

*if you want to make a sh*t ton like Grandma, you should double this recipe.

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

6 large eggs, room temp
2 sticks of butter, melted and cooled plus more for brushing on the pizzelle iron
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest of 2-3 Meyer lemons (If you can't find Meyer lemons substitute with regular lemons or oranges!)
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup

Combine the sugar and eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes until well incorporated. The eggs must be at least room temperature. 

Slowly drizzle the melted butter into the mixture, while mixing on medium speed. Add the extract then the zest. 

On low speed, add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time and the baking powder, one teaspoon at a time. 

The batter should have a satin sheen to it, but should be light and stiff. If your batter is too liquid, add more flour, a tablespoon at a time until the batter is stiff. 

I can't speak for other pizzelle irons, but I have this one, and here is my advice for using it: make sure the iron is super hot before beginning! Also, to avoid getting the batter stuck in the iron, I would quickly brush all four sides of it with melted butter. Using a tablespoon scoop, place dollops of batter onto the iron. Close iron tight and wait about 30 seconds before opening. Repeat 20-25 more times depending on iron size. Fresh, hot cookies can be rolled or shaped into cups, although I haven't experimented with that yet. Next year!