Classic Vanilla Pizzelle Recipe

Ah, the pizzelle — that sweet, airy Italian cookie with its lovely vanilla flavor with a light lemon essence. Not to mention that perfect balance of sweetness! Pizzelles pair beautifully with ice cream, with coffee, with white wine, with fruit, and so much more. If only this fine, tasty treat weren't such a rare luxury, right? If only you could make a pizzelle at home!   

Actually, you can — and in fact, thanks to this recipe from Melissa Olivieri of The Olive Blogger, you can crank out a freshly-cooked pizzelle in all of 1 minute once you have the  batter whipped up. But mind you, there's one catch here: you will need to have a pizelle maker in order to churn out sweet, airy cookie after cookie. But you can order an affordable one of those today and have it in no time.

And in even better news, you probably won't have to make a trip to the grocery store to gather any pizzelle ingredients. You likely have all you need right there in your kitchen already, so what are you waiting for? Let's whip up some homemade pizzelles.

It takes just seven ingredients to prepare the batter for these perfect pizzelles. You'll need eggs, sugar, butter (melted and then cooled), baking powder, flour, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.

"The lemon zest is a special ingredient that I like to add to my pizzelles," says Olivieri. "It gives a subtle citrus hint."

Start off by combining the flour, sugar, and baking powder in medium bowl, gently whisking these dry ingredients to mix them together. Next, to that dry mixture add eggs, butter, vanilla, and the lemon zest. Whisk everything together until they are fully combined, but without over-mixing after that.

Now it's time to preheat your pizzelle maker. "Each machine is different," says Olivieri, "so be sure to read and follow the directions for your make and model."

Once the pizzelle maker is hot, add a dollop of batter to the center of the molds and gently close the machine. Allow the cookies to cook for about 1 minute, or until the pizzelle is golden. "If you like yours extra crunchy you can them cook longer," Olivieri says.

Once a batch of pizzelles is done cooking, remove the cookies using either a spatula or bamboo skewer and set them on a flat surface to cool. "I prefer to use a bamboo skewer to remove the pizzelle, as it lifts the edge just enough for me to grab it and move it to a flat surface to cool," Olivieri says.

Finish the pizzelles off with a dusting of powdered sugar if desired, then enjoy! Note that Olivieri calls the sugar dusting "totally optional," but it's definitely advised!