Pizzelle Maker – Non-stick Electric Pizzelle Baker Press Makes Two 5-Inch Cookies at Once- Recipe Guide Included- Holiday Party Dessert Treat Making Made Easy- Unique Birthday or Any Occasion Gift

FINALLY! The pizzelles I always wanted. The media could not be loaded. I have always liked pizzelles at weddings and other functions, and bought an iron a few years ago to make my own. What a nightmare! Sometimes they stuck…which resulted in TONS of fun with a toothpick! They would NOT turn out right, they were always too thick and not crispy. Even if I held the handles tightly the entire time. I tried many different recipes thinking I must be doing something wrong. Some with butter, some with margarine, some with melted crisco, some with oil. All the same..thick, waffle-y cookies. They tasted ok, but the texture was wrong.Last Christmas, I got so annoyed with it, that I got rid of that iron the very next day. This year, I looked around the internet to see if there was a better iron. ***I knew NOT to get the non-stick…but to get the polished one.*** The non-stick ones must not get hot enough or something. I didn’t want to buy some really old one (I worried about old electric components) and did see that this machine got nice reviews so I figured I wouldn’t be any worse off (than that last machine!) by trying it. It was hard to tell because so many people said “crispy” but I didn’t know if they meant “hard” or “dried out” (since some recommended putting the cookies in an oven when you were done to crisp them. I didn’t want too-thick and but dry cookies.) Some reviewed irons, but never gave their recipes. Some used REALLY old irons that you put over the stove or on coals! It was very hard to figure out both a recipe and an iron. I wanted thin cookies, not see through, but thin. And crispy enough to snap, but not so dry that they shatter. Crisp, but not hard so can see the crescent shape of your bite. I remember eating around the flower shape when I was little and THAT was the texture I wanted!I used an old old recipe from a relative’s Vitanonio machine(posted below). It is the same one I have seen many places. I figured I would start with a recipe that I knew worked for someone. I made some little changes based on different tips I have seen around and to my personal preference. I used all butter because I like the taste of it. I plugged it in, waited about 5 minutes, sprayed the machine with popular vegetable spray once, and began. I was actually scared to open that lid the first time fearing bits of cookie stuck in all those grooves!! (I have BEEN THERE!!) But it was perfect!! I did pitch the first two since it was a new machine. I did have to experiment slightly with the amount, placement and timing, but got it in about 4-5 tries. There is a little light under the handles that has an audible click and changes from yellow to green when it is ready to go. It does cycle on and off during baking to maintain the temperature, but I didn’t use it as a “ready” light for each batch…it doesn’t seem to be exact. The timer was much more accurate for me. Some people just watch for the steam to stop, but I like mine to have a tinge of toasty color, not just pale. You can time yours to as pale or dark as you want.Here is the recipe I used:6 large eggs (room temp.)1.5 cups sugar1 cup of butter (melted and cooled)3 tsp. anise extract (I couldn’t find anise oil which is supposed to be better)3 tsp. vanilla extract3.5 cups of flour (minus one Tablespoon…see below)4 tsp. baking powder (I made them a little less than a full tsp.)1 Tablespoon cornstarch1/4 cup water…more or less as needed (see below)Beat the eggs and gradually add sugar until they it light and fluffy-ish (I used a kitchen aid stand mixer because I am lazy!) Slowly add melted/cooled butter (you don’t want to cook your eggs!) and extracts. You can use all anise, all vanilla (or even other flavors,) but 50/50 anise/vanilla is the way my family likes them. Mix some more (I left it run at medium for about a minute.) SIFT flour, baking powder and cornstarch. (I KNOW…sifting seems so old-fashioned, but it seems to be needed for this recipe. I used King Arthur all-purpose flour because I always seem to have good luck with baked goods using it.) About the baking powder: I think the baking powder (though it seems counter-intuitive for a flat cookie) isn’t so much for puffiness, but to help the cookie “fill out” the mold. Also, regarding the cornstarch: I did read that adding a Tablespoon of cornstarch helps maintain the crispness of these. So I took OUT a Tbl. of flour and added a Tbl. of cornstarch. You don’t HAVE to if you’re eating yours right away, but needed mine for close to a week for holiday visitors, so I used it.Check texture. The batter should be thick and sticky, but still run off your spoon in a thick ribbon and still hold it’s shape when it lands back in the bowl. It depends on lots of things (humidity, subtle variations in egg size, etc.) so add water a little at a time and stir until you get that consistency. I ended up adding about 1/4 cup water. You may need more or none.Drop dough onto heated iron. I used a level scoop  this OXO small one , so mine would be consistent in size and so I wouldn’t have to use two spoons (or fingers.) I let the lid close itself (didn’t push) for about 3 seconds then squeezed. latched the handles. Fifty (50) seconds was the PERFECT time for mine. I used the stopwatch on my phone to make it easier. Just reset the timer each time I closed it. I didn’t have ANY trouble with the latch being hard like some reviewer did. You do have to squeeze the handles a little further-closed to latch and unlatch it, but it isn’t strenuous or hard at all (and my fingers are tired from baking all week!) I used a silicone spatula to lift them to a rack too cool (this is when you need to shape them if you are making cones, bowls or tubes.)Store them in a not-too air tight container. They seem to soften in a plastic/tupperware type of container (which is GOOD for some cookies, not so good for these.) My mother-in-law uses a cardboard oatmeal container, but my oatmeal container was too narrow. I used a waxed-paper cardboard container that store-bought cookies came in. Even a shirt size gift box lined with waxed paper would work or a tin (if you have one.)I was going to write how many cookies I got from the recipe, but my family has eaten too many while I have been typing so I don’t KNOW!! ha ha!! I would say 60-ish. 😀 They are really good. I know people have favorite recipes for these, but I wasn’t blessed with a mom or grandma who ever made these!!! I did want to post one that worked well for me and is pretty traditional. Please feel free to ask me any questions or post YOUR recipe if you think I could make these cookies even better than they are now!!! I hope this helps at least some of you who are having trouble or have never made these before!!

Update Why do you stick and how do I clean thee. UPDATEBought the kindle Cucina Pro Pizelle cookbook and tried the Crispy Chocolate puzelle recipe using country crock margarine and Pam spray. From my previous experience, I put the maker on a metal tray, sprayed top and bottom plates with Pam, you will find the oil will drip off the plates when you open and close, not to mention cookie crumbs. Plugged it in to heat up then used a tablespoon of batter in each cookie.Success at last! Was able to remove cookies with spatula and place on cooling rack. This batter used eggs the previous one used flax eggs. This batter was fairly thick. Will try other recipes but not the flax egg one. Even the recipe I tried which makes 24 got tedious after awhile of timing each batch of cookies. I finally set Alexa to a 1 hour countdown on the Show. It took more like 50 seconds for my cookies. Whenever one stuck to the top or bottom plates, I took that as a sign to mean more Pam spray needed. I sprayed Pam on several times throughput the baking cycle of about 50 minutes. I got about 32 cookies out of this recipe, of varying sizes, so 24 probably accurate.Should have made half the recipe that I decided to try – 5 cups of flour! I sprayed oil on the plates, let it heat up, first attempt, I had to muscle up to pull the plates apart, oh oh, it’s stuck! Laboriously cleaned this after plugging out the plug and putting a slightly damp dish cloth in between the plates to soften up the stuck pizelle. Used cloth to try and wipe off, lots of crumbs everywhere. Then had to get a toothpick to clean every nitty gritty. I realized that this was going to take a long time.I got out some baking trays, heated up the oven and dropped tablespoons of the batter on the trays and put in the oven. The first few got burned because I was so busy trying to clean this thing. Finally got it cleaned by which time I’d about halved the batter. Decided to really grease this thing with shortening. Shortening was in every groove. Heated it up, put in the batter, waited two minutes, same result. I plugged it out and put in the damp dish cloth again. This time I put it away and just concentrated on finishing up the cookies in the oven.The next day in the late afternoon (you can tell I was dreading cleaning this) I took out the pizelle maker and decided to try a bottle brush on it. That was a lot faster! Rotating it got the damp stuff out of the grooves! I then used a straw brush to get out the really stubborn bits!Not sure if I feel brave enough to test this again. Due to dairy allergies I used a vegan recipe, wonder if the non-dairy one that uses egg that I tried in the Dash griddle would work better in this maker? Will update if I try it again, but the time wasted trying to clean this is off putting, plus the fact that I didn’t get any pizelles.

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