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Date: Wednesday January 07, 2009 |
If it's Christmas, it's time for pizzelle. By GRETCHEN BARRETT-HANAFY
Burlington County Times
Pizzelle, the traditional Italian waffle cookie, has become a Christmas staple in many kitchens, but they also are made and served at Easter, at weddings and on other feast days.
Thought to have originated in the Abruzzo region of south-central Italy thousands of years ago, the name pizzelle comes from the Italian word for round and flat (pizze).
Some link the cookie’s creation to the Italian village of Colcullo, which holds the Festival of the Snakes each year, honoring the divine intervention that expelled the snakes from the village. Others claim the tradition began in the village of Salle, where pizzelle are still baked to honor the feast day of Beato Roberto, a 12th century monk.
No matter how the tradition evolved, pizzelle became synonymous with celebration in Italy and with the immigration of many Italians in the 19th and 20th centuries, in America.
Many other countries have developed similar culture-specific cookie varieties, but what’s unique about the pizzelle is the baking process.
The cookie dough or batter, which is usually flavored with anise, is poured into a pizzelle iron, which works like an electric waffle iron. Older, more traditional irons have to be held over a hot stove burner.
The iron stamps a pattern onto both sides of the thin cookie as it cooks.
The most common iron pattern is a snowflake, but some families use a monogram or crest. Once it cools, the thin cookie is golden brown and has a crisp texture.
For those who love the taste and delicate crispness, but who don’t want to make them themselves, there are options.
Several years ago, Denise DiNorscia Williams of Morgantown, Pa., was trying to help her mother, Lucy DiNorscia, earn some extra money and ended up in the pizzelle business.
“When my mom was 76, she was complaining that my father never gave her any money. He had her on a very strict budget. She said, ‘I want to do something that I can do at my age that would bring in a little bit of spending money’.”
“I said why don’t you make meals for people or bake? People are busy. Why don’t you do some catering?” Williams said. “Or, I said, how about daycare? You could be a nanny or do after-hours daycare.”
Williams said her mother shot down every suggestion until Williams came up with the idea for bellapizzelles.com.
“It hit me at 3 in the morning. It’s my father’s mother’s recipe. Mom and I always made that recipe. We just enhanced (it),” she said.
Williams, who has a background in advertising, knew that the key to their success was not just a delicious cookie, but in the way the pizzelle would be shipped and packaged.
“They had to be wrapped in such a way that not one would break,” Williams said.
Williams and her mother experimented, shipping the dainty cookies in various containers, until they hit on the right packaging, which includes a gold foil tube and several types of bubble wrap.
“I had to ship them (to myself) in a variety of tubes to see how they would go through (the shipping process),” she said.
Once they had the packaging down, the women began making their cookies, one by one.
“People told me you won’t be successful because you can’t mass produce. We say we don’t want to mass produce.
“We bake together. We don’t bake them in ovens. We use traditional irons and we use 15 to 20 irons at one time,” she said.
Williams built a customized commercial kitchen at her home, with a large horseshoe-shaped butcher-block counter, and her mother lives with her on the property.
“They taste better the longer they sit (to dry). For some reason, the flavors get stronger.
“It’s something unknown about pizzelle. They taste better as long as they are packaged well.”
It has become a true family business, she said.
“My mother she still works at the bakery. My daughter helps put labels on and my husband does inventory,” she said.
According to Williams, an order through bellapizzelle.-com is baked within 48 hours and drop shipped. A stack of 20 bellapizzelle.com pizzelle costs about $20.
“We never take a break. This is our busy season. But they are not just for the holidays, pizzelle are an every day cookie. They’re good anytime,” she said.
Other busy times include Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and the May/June graduation season, she said.
Most of her customers are second or third generation Italians. “Their grandparents are dead and either their mom didn’t or doesn’t make them. Even if they make them, they can’t ship them.”
“The most fulfilling thing for me is, I know my customers,” Williams said.
“We get a lot of satisfaction out of the fact that there is a special connection between people who love pizzelle and people who remember eating them with their families and during their childhood.”
For a taste of an old-fashioned pizzelle at home, try the following recipe, courtesy of allrecipes.com:
PIZZELLE
- Pizzelle iron
- 6 eggs
- 1½ cups white sugar
- 1 cup margarine, melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons anise extract
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
Beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Stir in the melted margarine and anise extract. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir in gradually. Dough will be sticky.
Preheat pizzelle iron according to manufacturer’s instructions. Drop batter by rounded spoonfuls onto the iron. Close and cook for about 90 seconds, or until steam stops coming out of the iron.
Carefully remove and cool the cookie. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
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