Mercedes Ariana: WEDIN Day 3: Pizzelle Baking

My Spanish class is having a multi cultural "art gallery" tomorrow and everyone was encouraged to bring some sort of food to celebrate. I decided that I would make pizzelles, which I describe as an Italian "cookie" because I really don't know what else to call it. (I just googled pizzelle and it is described a waffle cookie, so I was pretty close.)

I first tried pizzelles at a very close family friend's home, where every party or event, even now, there is plate full of them. She knew that I liked them very much and that I enjoyed baking, so as a gift she gave me a pizzelle maker. It works like a waffle maker just with a different pattern. I've baked pizzelles about 6 times- I don't really get to do it very often.

The dough of pizzelles isn't very special. There are variations, like chocolate or maple pizzelles, but I made the original recipe today. Vanilla extract and anise are two ingredients that, while optional, really change the flavor of the entire cookie. I only used vanilla because I personally do not like anise and I think that, because it isn't a common ingredient, many of my classmates might not like it. The baking part is also very basic. All you do is scoop the batter into the center of the shape and close the baker. They take about 1 minute or less to cook because they are very thin. When they are barely removed off the baker, they are still very soft and can be shaped, maybe into cones, and then they harden. They are usually topped with powdered sugar, which I did.

My favorite part about making pizzelles is the smell. I absolutely love the smell of vanilla extract. The smell reminds me of walking into Cold Stone on a cold day, when it's very warm and you can smell the sweet waffle cone smell. ( I don't know if everyone notices that, but it's one my favorite parts of Cold Stone.)

Tomorrow I'm going to add my class's reaction and update about how it all worked out. (Whenever I bake anything I'm always extremely nervous about how people will like it, so I hope this goes well.)

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Everyone really enjoyed them, so it was a success!! It made me pretty happy to hear everyone be so nice about it.