Hello friends!
The cookie that holds the most nostalgia for me is the pizzelle. For my family, it is a wonderfully, old fashioned staple cookie. We make dozens of them each year for Christmas. Pizzelles aren't only for Christmas, though! Adding some cherry syrup and a little food coloring creates a lovely dusty rose-colored treat. Fill that pizzelle with a delicious, condensed milk buttercream...and you will have yourself a Valentine's Day worthy treat.
Rolling a pizzelle, while not difficult, does require some trial and error. You want these to come off of the pizzelle iron just a smidge undercooked. The longer they cook, the browner they will get, defeating the purpose of our beautiful rose color. You also want to be gentle with them because they are delicate. I use a small rubber spatula to gently remove mine from the pizzelle iron. You then want to use a pizzelle mold and immediately roll your cookies. I use foil covered peg clothespins for my molds. I give them a light coating of Crisco and they are good to go to use year after year. You can also find metal molds on Amazon. It may take a few tries to see how much batter to use for your particular iron as well as how long to let the cookie bake. I personally don't see this as a problem. You get to eat the scraps during your trial runs! Now, on to the recipe.
Filled Pizzelles
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3 eggs
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3/4 cup sugar
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2 tsp. vanilla extract
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2 tbsp. cherry syrup
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a couple drops of red food coloring - more or less until you reach your desired color.
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1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
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1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
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1/2 cup melted, unsalted butter
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pinch of salt
*Heat and oil your pizzelle iron*
In a large bowl, whisk eggs until light in color, about 2-3 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, vanilla, cherry syrup, and food coloring (if using), until combined. Add in flour, baking powder, and salt whisking till combined. Add in melted butter and whisk till butter is fully incorporated.
**How much batter you add to your iron will depend on your machine. For my iron, I add a heaping teaspoon full of batter.**
Add your batter to center of iron and close. Cook for approximately 40- 50 seconds (more or less depending on your iron) Remove pizzelles from iron and immediately roll around mold. Repeat until batter is all used. Once pizzelles are cooled, remove molds.
Condensed Milk Buttercream
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1/2 cup unsalted butter
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4 oz. cream cheese
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1.5 tbls vanilla bean paste
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5-7 oz condensed milk
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese with stand or hand mixer. Add in vanilla. While still mixing, slowly stream in your condensed milk. We do not want it too runny - just thick enough to pipe into our cooled pizzelles. You can now use a piping bag or snip the corner of a zip top back and fill your pizzelles. I like to finish mine with a dusting of powdered sugar.
Tips:
The filled cookies are best the same day. I would only fill what you intend to use that day because the cookies will soften when stored in the refrigerator once filled. You can keep the unfilled cookies in an airtight bag or plasticware and then fill as needed with your refrigerated buttercream. The unfilled shells can also be frozen for use later.
You can also enjoy these pizzelles on their own, sans filling. Remove the pizzelles from the iron and place on a cookie rack to cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and store in an airtight container. No rolling or filling necessary!
Yield:
Your yield will depend on the size of your pizzelle iron. l use the Cuisinart Pizzelle press and yield approximately 3 dozen cookies.