Pizzelles: The Perfect Italian Wafer Cookie

Posts on Happily Homegrown contain affiliate links. When you make a purchase through an affiliate link, your price will be the same, but Happily Homegrown will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!

One of my favorite cookies of all time has got to be pizzelles.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, pizzelles are a thin, crisp, Italian wafer cookie flavored with anisette.  Some people also flavor them with vanilla, chocolate, or lemon, but anise flavor is very traditional.

There is one special piece of equipment needed for making pizzelles, and that is a pizzelle iron.  A pizzelle iron is similar to an electric waffle iron.  There are two plates that heat up, and you put a scoop of dough between the plates.  When you close the iron, the dough is pressed out thin to the shape of the cookie.  With being so thin, they cook up quickly – less than one minute each.  However, since most pizzelle irons only cook 2 cookies at a time, I decided that I had to have 2 pizzelle irons.  It has made pizzelle production so much faster!

For some reason, I only make these at Christmas, but at the request of my husband and the kiddos, that has now changed!  Since these have quickly become a family favorite, we make them a few times a year, and if I’m lucky they’ll last two days before they are all gobbled up!

 Pizzelle Recipe

This recipe makes about 8-10 dozen cookies depending on the size of your pizzelles. For smaller batches, just divide in half.  It scales beautifully!

12 large eggs
2 2/3 cups granulated sugar
2 cups vegetable/canola oil
4 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons anise seed
2 ounces anise extract (yes, the whole entire bottle)
8 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt

Crack eggs into a large bowl and beat lightly by hand. Add sugar and stir. Add oil and stir. Next, stir in salt, both extracts and anise seeds. Gradually add 6 cups of flour, mixing well after each cup. Combine 1 cup flour with all of the baking powder and add to dough. The addition of the last cup of flour will depend on the consistency that you desire. A firmer dough will produce a firmer/harder cookie. A thinner/stickier dough will produce a thinner and crispier cookie. This is a matter of personal preference.

Heat the pizzelle iron. Place a tablespoon of dough to each section of the iron and “bake”. The amount of baking time required will depend on the pizzelle maker. The usual time is between 20 and 40 seconds.

Cool thoroughly and store in an air-tight container (if they last that long).