The Pizzelle Gains Popularity
By: Alicia Contadino Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 Time: 5:20 PM
Pizzelle is an Italian waffle cookie that is especially common around Easter and Christmas. They are somewhat wide, at close to five inches, and are most often cooked one or two at a time. It is normally made with a pizzelle iron, similar to a waffle iron, held by hand over a stove burner. With the introduction of electric pizzelle irons, they are growing to be a popular snack for those who don't have the free time to fix them in the old fashioned way. The irons create a snowflake design on the waffle cookies.
The normal recipe for them has the ingredients of eggs, flour, sugar, and butter. Vegetable oil and margarine can be substituted for the butter. These cookies also require flavoring. You can also get creative, but if you want to use the most frequent try vanilla, cinnamon, anise, chocolate, orange, and lemon zest. Of course, not everyone likes creating a recipe from scratch. Luckily, you can get mixes that you can use in a pizzelle iron. If you don't own an maker, you might wish to look for them in the grocery store or on the internet in a specialty store.
The pizzelle is the most familiar name for this waffle cookie, but in other parts of Italy it goes by cancelle and ferratelle. It is one of the earliest cookies known. It is descended from an old Roman sweet called the crustulum.
How you fix them will affect what they are like. Most individuals want them to be slightly crunchy. In some cases they will be sort of hard, but some people like them when they are soft and chewy. The basic shape is round and flat, but a wooden dowel can be used to roll them into a cone right after they are cooked. This cone is then filled with something such as cannoli cream. If you don't have a dowel, you can always add the filling between two pizzelles and make a sandwich cookie.
Special occasions like Easter weekend and the Christmas season are when most of these cookies are made. You can also frequently discover them at Italian marriage ceremonies. One reason why they normally weren't prepared during all seasons is that it used to take some effort to prepare them. Now with the electric makers they can be prepared in a just a few minutes and by pushing a button. Because of this they look to be getting year-round popularity.
Though they may always be most frequent in Italian homes, they are gaining mainstream appeal. If nearby supermarkets don't carry them pre-prepared, they can always be gotten over the internet. Pizzelle bakers have made it easy for anyone to bake a stack of these on a Sunday evening. They are good both freshly prepared and after they have cooled off.
About the Author
Rating: Not yet rated
