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Beautiful traditional Italian Pizzelle cookies laying on a wooden serving board with powdered sugar dusted over some of them.
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5 from 8 votes

Traditional Italian Pizzelle Recipe

This Pizzelle Recipe will teach you how to make Italian Pizzelle Cookies, the oldest cookies in the world. Pizzelle are a classic Italian cookie that are thin, snowflake-shaped and delicate. They are great served plain, with powdered sugar, nutella, or even ice cream!
Course Cookies, Dessert
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 15
Calories 160kcal
Author Alexandria Drzazgowski

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • ¾ cups sugar
  • ½ cup butter melted and cooled
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp anise seed optional
  • 1 ¾ cup flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

  • Beat the 3 eggs and ¾ cup sugar together until well-combined.
  • Add the ½ cup butter, 1 tsp vanilla, and ½ tsp anise seeds. Beat again.
  • Sift 1 ¾ cup flour and 2 tsp baking powder into the egg mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The batter should be thick enough to be dropped by a spoon (a mix between pancake batter and cookie dough).
  • Spray a pizzelle maker with nonstick spray and drop a tablespoon of mixture onto the pizzelle maker.
  • Close the pizzelle maker and allow the pizzelle to cook until they are brown. My maker takes about 1 minute and 40 seconds.
  • Remove the pizzelle from the pizzelle maker and place flat on a cookie sheet to cool. Spray pizzelle maker with nonstick spray between each new round of pizzelle.
  • Dust with powdered sugar if desired. Enjoy!

Notes

Recipe Copyright The Foreign Fork. For educational or personal use only.
  • Anise Seeds: Anise seeds or anise extract have a very distinct flavor, that is known to taste like black licorice. If you think you won’t like this flavor, you can also eliminate the anise seeds from the recipe. Anise is a very traditional flavor. You can substitute vanilla extract or almond extract if you prefer.
  • Baking Powder: Make sure you do not use baking soda
  • Vanilla: I use pure vanilla extract. I don’t find the anise flavor overwhelming in this recipe. However, if you want to try the flavor without the risk of overpowering your cookies, you can add only half the amount of anise to the recipe. Alternatively, you can make half of the pizzelle plain, then add anise into the second half of the batter.
  • Don’t forget to spray the pizzelle maker with nonstick spray or cooking spray between each batch of Snowflake Cookies. It is common for the Pizzelle to stick if not greased enough.
  • Keep a close eye on the pizzelle. These thin waffle cookies can go from perfectly browned to burned in a matter of seconds if not watched closely.
  • Use a fork to remove the pizzelle from the iron.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 160kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 49mg | Sodium: 118mg | Potassium: 31mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 237IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 41mg | Iron: 1mg