Grandma's Pizzelle

I am completely indulging myself with this post.  I truly don't believe there are too many folks out there looking for pizzelle recipes.  First of all, you probably need to be Italian.  You also need to have had a grandmother or great aunt or someone who made them for you, as they're pretty old school.  Then, you need to actually like the taste of anise; in my experience, not many people do.  And finally -- and this is the biggie -- you actually have to have access to a pizzelle maker.  It's essentially like a waffle iron, only it makes thin cookies into their distinctive floral/star shape on one side, and grid pattern on the other side.

  

I actually meet all four of those requirements, including owning a pizzelle maker.   My grandmother used to make pizzelle all the time.   She always had a stack of them in her house, and we were constantly going home with a package of them wrapped up in foil.  For holidays she would even make the chocolate variety.  

So, there is nothing inherently Christmas-y about them, but for me, I can't imagine a Christmas without them.  This is my first Christmas without my grandmother.  She died this summer at 91 years old -- and she was making pizzelle almost until the end.  It's a tradition I want to pass along to my girls.  As they grow up, they won't really remember their Bisnonna, but I can continue her tradition through the pizzelle.   Her recipe follows. 

Big Vick's Pizzelle

(makes about 3 dozen cookies)

6 eggs

2 sticks of softened butter

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of anise oil

3 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/2 cups of sugar

4 teaspoons of baking powder

3 tablespoons anise seed

-- Heat up the pizzelle iron

-- Cream eggs, butter, vanilla, and aniseed together

-- Add dry ingredients and blend until smooth.  Batter should be thick

-- Spray canola oil or some other non-stick spray onto both the top and bottom parts of the pizzelle iron.  You may need to repeat this a few times as you work through the batter

-- Drop about a tablespoon of the batter into the center of the iron, depending on how thick you want the cookies to be.  Shut iron and keep pressed for about 30-45 seconds.   The tighter you keep it, the thinner the cookies will be. 

-- Use a spatula to remove the cookies from the iron

-- Let cool, and then pack airtight

Once you make these a few times you'll learn that the first few cookies are your "mulligan" cookies.    It will take you a few cookies to figure out how much batter to use, how thick/thin you want them to be, how long to keep the iron shut, how often you will need to re-spray the iron, etc.  But once you get the hang of it, they're fun to make.   The cookies are a yummy alternative to biscotti with coffee in the morning.   And the anise has a nice digestive flavor for after dinners. 

If you're at all interested in buying your own pizzelle maker, you should check out Fante's.  It is located in the Italian market area of South Philadelphia, but has an online storefront as well.   This is where my own grandmother bought some of her own equipment.   

Enjoy your pizzelle, and Buon Natale!

Figgy Pork

My parents visited the wine country in Sonoma earlier this fall and brought me back a jar of dried fig compote from the girl & the fig.  I looove figs.  I've been saving this jar until I could find something really special for which to use it.  I didn't want to just spread it on bread like it was some pedestrian jelly.  I wanted to use it on something more exciting.  But after looking at it sitting in my pantry for two  months, I finally decided to just use it.  Since pork lends itself so well to sweet sauces, I decided to use the compote with pork chops.  I looked at a few different recipes for inspiration, and came up with the following.    I suspect you could tweak it a bunch of different ways and still come up with something equally tasty.  The key here was the fig compote.   It was definitely a keeper recipe.   And, the ingredient amounts listed below are mostly approximations -- I did this one mostly by sight rather than by measuring utensils.   

Pork Chops with Fig Compote

(makes 4 servings)

4 bone-in pork chops

2 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt 

fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup diced onion

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup red wine

1 cup chicken broth

pinch of dried thyme

1 jar (about 1 cup) dried fig compote 

 

-- Season pork chops on both sides with salt and pepper

-- Heat large heavy skillet over medium high heat.  Add olive oil and swirl to coat pan. 

-- Sear pork chops on each side until just golden brown, turning only once. 

-- Remove to a platter and keep warm

-- Reduce heat, add onions and saute for about 2 minutes

-- Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute

-- Pour the red wine into the pan to deglaze and scrape up browned bits

-- Cook one minute, then add chicken broth, thyme, and fig compote

-- Cook over medium heat until sauce thickens

-- Return chops to the pan to warm and cover in sauce

-- Serve chops with sauce spooned over top

My Achilles heel is pork.  For some reason I have a lot of trouble not over-cooking it.  Chops, especially the thinner cuts, just cook so much faster than I anticipate.  So if you have this tendency at all, I would recommend that when you remove your seared chops from the pan, leave them a little undercooked.  They'll cook more once you return them to the pan.  

Lastly, this is a fast recipe, perfect for weeknights.  I served it with some roasted blue and red potatoes and some zucchini rounds sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with fleur de sel.   

Note:  Since posting this, I've created a new variation on this recipe to make an orange-y pork.  Instead of deglazing with white wine, I use orange juice.  And I replace the fig compote for about a cup of orange marmalade.  All of the rest stays exactly the same.  I love the combination of citrus with pork, so for me, this is an even tastier recipe.  

Florentine Cookies for Christmas

Here we are again:  Christmas cookie season!  I've already made a batch of sugar cookies which my four-year-old liberally sprinkled with red and green sugar.  Today we made milk chocolate florentines. There isn't anything inherently Christmas-y about them.  I just love them and since I generally only bake cookies once a year, they've become Christmas cookies for me.  

I've actually posted this recipe once before.  However since then, I've amended it slightly. So, I am actually re-posting it now.  Hopefully, I'll be trying another cookie recipe this week.  If it's at all successful, I'll share that one too!

Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies
(makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies)

2/3 cup butter

2 cups quick oats
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon. vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 oz (3/4 cup) milk chocolate morsels

-- Preheat oven to 375F.  Line baking sheets with foil, parchment or silpat.

-- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and remove from heat when melted.

-- Stir in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt.  Mix well.

-- Drop by level teaspoons, about 3 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets. 

-- Spread thinly with rubber spatula. 

-- Bake 6-8 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges.

-- Cool completely on baking sheets.

-- Remove cookies (if using foil, peel cookies from foil) and place on wire racks.

-- Microwave morsels in medium, microwave-safe bowl on medium-high (70%) power for 1 minute.  Stir.
-- Microwave at additional 10-20 second intervals, stirring until smooth. 

-- Spread thin layer of melted chocolate onto flat side of half the cookies.  Top with remaining cookies. 

I love these cookies because you can let them sit in a cookie tin or on a covered plate on your counter, and the cookie remains soft and kind of chewy.  Or you can chill them in the refrigerator and the chocolate firms a little and gives the cookie a somewhat different texture.   Either way, they are always the first cookies to go in my house.