Pizzelle Italian Cookies
Pizzelle are nothing short of delightful. They are lightly sweetened with a crisp texture, easy to make, and perfect for holiday gift-giving.
I just said this, but I’ll say it again: Pizzelle are nothing short of delightful.
Everything about them is pleasing. They have a crispy yet delicate crunch. They have a beautiful, fascinating, and intricate pattern. Their lightly sweetened taste is addictive.
I learned about Pizzelle from one of my good childhood friends. Her family made pizzelle the traditional way, with an iron that had engraved plates and a clamp to hold it together.
It reminded me of a campfire pie iron.
Put away your kindling, though. These days, pizzelle are easier than ever to make, and just as delicious.
Modern pizzelle irons
If you love tossing all your ingredients together in a bowl, this recipe is for you. 6 ingredients, 1 bowl, and a partridge in a pair tree.
While I love the sweetness of vanilla in my Pizzelle, experiment with your favorite flavors. One time I made lemon-flavored pizzelle and turned them into tiny ice cream cones for blueberry ice cream. Or, roll the pizzelle and fill them with sweetened ricotta cream for an easy mock cannoli. Anise, chocolate, hazelnut, and almond also sound so tempting!!
Pizzelle are ideal for a bake sale or cookie swap because they are more rare than the usual chocolate chip cookies or brownies, and they look so fantastic wrapped in a small plastic treat bag tied with a pretty bow.
In fact, this is the cookie I chose to make and share for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Every year, hundreds of food bloggers from around the country (and the world!) bake and share cookies with other food bloggers.
It’s a chance to connect, share our treats, and raise money for a good cause. This year, we raised money for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. I am so proud to be part of the team!
Save this Pizzelle Italian Cookies to your “Desserts” Pinterest board!
And let’s be friends on Pinterest! I’m always pinning tasty recipes!
Pizzelle Italian Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ cup butter melted and cooled
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat pizzelle iron and lightly coat with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, baking powder, and eggs. Drop slightly rounded tablespoons of batter on to pizzelle iron and close.
- Bake as directed by manufacturer or until golden brown, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Using a nonstick spatula, remove each pizzelle to a cooling rack; repeat with remaining batter.
- Cool completely and dust with powdered sugar if desired.
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I am definetely going to try this recipe.Got to add the powdered sugar.
My uncle uses a waffle iron to make these, they lack the all important pizzelle iron!
They look very cute.. I think if they wouldn’t be made with pizzelle iron they wouldn’t look that good.. :)
I bet these pizelles smell amazing when they’re cooking up. I’m looking into a pizelle iron…thanks for the inspiration and friend invite on FoodBuzz! ;)
I like pizzelles. I haven’t had any in a very long time. Now I have a recipe I can make my own. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Norma! I hope you enjoy them. I wonder if a cardamom version would be good? :)
These pizelles were AMAZING! My kids were fighting over them!
So glad you loved them! :) I can’t wait to make some more for you!
These cookies are so pretty. I’ve never heard of a pizelle iron – I’ll probably see them everywhere now. But now I’ll know! All the flavor possibilities with extract sound yummy. Could you do a cocoa version?
Luci’s Morsels – fashion. food. frivolity.
Luci, I have done (and loved!) a chocolate Pizzelle with cocoa powder. So delicious! I will look for my chocolate version and comment again once I find it, it should be something like “use x-cups of cocoa powder in place of y ingredients” or something like that. Or pinterest will have a bazillion options I’m sure! I saw a version on Pinterest that was chocolate and orange, sounds pretty good to me! Thank you so much for stopping by! :)
Lucy I’ve made chocolate ones and honestly I prefer the ones made with anise. You can but a pizelle iron from many places. I would not recommend the teflon coated ones. I love my pizelles.
I have a granddaughter that is allergic to eggs– Is there any way pizzelle could be made without using eggs?? I have a pizzelle iron but have never been able to find an eggless recipe Thank you!
Hi Mary! I have never tried to make egg-less pizzelle. I am certainly willing to try it out and report back to you, but I won’t have access to my pizzelle iron until after the holidays (I’m visiting family right now). But, in this recipe, eggs are being used as a binder more than a leavening agent (in my opinion). So I feel like you could substitute applesauce or bananas to go egg-less the way cake mixes do it. To replace 4 eggs, you’d want to use 2 medium bananas, mashed, or 1 cup of applesauce. Feel free to give it a try if you are adventurous, or I will tackle it in January and let you know! Such a shame to not be able to use your pizzelle maker otherwise!
Thank you so much for your question.
Hi … I was also looking for egg free recipe and I found one using pizza doug (for 1 third cup of dough – add 3 tble sugar and lemon for flavour. What I am not sure of is if the dough needs to rise or use it as soon as it is mixed …
Hi Diane, I cannot say for sure whether you should let the dough rise or not. With regular pizzelle dough you just use it right away. I think trial and error will be your friend here. You could set half of the dough aside and let it rise, and proceed immediately with the other half? Good luck to you, and thank you for stopping by!
Thanks for posting this recipe.
Ahhhh! Love these, Meggan! Why have I never heard of pizzelle before?
I love love love that you can keep them as simple cookies or make canoli (& ice cream cones!) with them.
Merry Christmas! :-)
Dang, I wish you’d gotten my name for the swap–I would have loved to try your pizelles! So pretty and delicate and they just scream “Christmas” to me. :)
Just a caution…depending on where you get your pizza dough, it may contain egg. It shouldn’t, but I bought frozen once (I was traveling, so didn’t want it to go bad on the 10 hour drive.) and I noticed the ingredients included eggs. If you purchase from a real pizzaria, it shouldn’t…but ask!
Been eating and making pizzelles for many years. My iron was a gift from my grandmother on my first wedding anniversary. My 30th anniversary is on April 5, and it is still going strong, knock on wood. We use it at least twice a year (Christmas and Easter) and crank out many dozen when we do. After moving to four states over those 29 years, it’s one of my favorite reminder of home…… :)
What a lovely story, Diane! So you probably have a traditional pizzelle iron, then. It’s the kind of thing where once you get going, it’s really easy to just make tons of them, isn’t it? And they are just so good. Thanks so much for sharing your story. :) I hope mine is still working when I get to my 30th anniversary (will be 7 years married this year so I still have a long way to go)!
I love pizzelles I add anise.
Yes, Betty! Anise is so classic, I should post that version. Thanks for reading.
Hello! I am brand new to the pizzelle world. I have a stainless steel pizzelle maker, and I am having trouble with sticking. Orginally I used vegetable oil (poured it on the maker), and the cookies came out great, but made a HUGE mess. I then tried butter spray, and I didn’t like the texture and it discolored the cookie, as well as it completely absorbed the powered sugar (even after it cooled). Do you have any suggestions of how to keep the cookies from sticking without making a big mess?
Also, keeping them for long term (A week or 2), I’ve heard to not freeze them…could I refrigerate? Or just put them in an airtight container in the cupboard?
Thank you! I’m very excited to try this recipe!
Hi Isabelle! I have always used just regular Pam nonstick spray, not anything flavored. When you say Stainless Steel, though, do you mean the cooking surface is stainless steel? Or just the outside like mine? I would say that if regular nonstick spray still gives you problems, I would put vegetable oil in a bowl and get a brush and just brush the surface with it. Hopefully that keeps the mess down but gives you the results you want. That’s probably what I’d do. Regarding keeping them long term, I have not heard about the no-freezing rule, but I haven’t frozen them either. You could try the refrigerator but not sure I’d do more than a week. They might be fine in the cupboard but I feel like the quality will suffer over time. I will look into the freezing thing and comment again if I find any info!! Good luck and thanks for your question. :)
I have found that storing in an air tight container the cookies go soft. To keep them crisp my mom used a cardboard box, they have nice ones at Joanns, they have a clear window so the cookies show through.
Meggan. This recipe is amazing. Thank u so much making my second batch because the first is almost gone
So great to hear!!! I love pizzelle; I’m obsessed. Happy cooking making!
Hi Megan,
Every time i make pizzalles they smell like eggs. How do I avoid that smell.
Jyothy
Hi Jyothy, have you tried using more vanilla or almond extract? Or you could try a stronger flavor such as lemon or anise. Good luck!
Have you had any luck on the applesauce or banana? I have a granddaughter who is dairy free?
Hi Patricia, unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to test those! :(
This recipe turned out really well! Thanks for sharing it :D
Thanks Nicole, I’m so happy to hear that! Happy New Year. :)