Double Chocolate Pizzelles

Background: The pizzelle is a classic Italian cookie.  Light, crisp, and delightfully imperfect, pizzelles are all about the holidays, the powdered sugar, and the sneaking a couple extra ragged broken pieces off of the cookie tray when Mom’s not looking (even if she DID know what you were up to.)  The traditional flavoring for the pizzelle is anise, and less often almond, lemon and orange.  But I find that vanilla is by far the most popular (and my favorite too).

Now, I love traditions, but who said I have to wait to Christmas to bust out the pizzelle iron? How about a twist on this classic cookie:  double chocolate?  I mean, why not?!

Materials:

A pizzelle iron is, sadly, required if you wish to make this cookie.  They run ~ $40 at Bed Bath & Beyond, but my mother was awesome enough to gift me my own pizzelle iron for Christmas last year.  (Thanks Mom!)  Secret bonus:  if you have a pizzelle iron, you can make cannoli shells too, and who doesn’t love those at weddings and Christmas parties?

1-½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup Dutch-processed cocoa

2 ounces very finely chopped bittersweet of semisweet chocolate

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Methods:

Preheat the pizzelle iron.

Place flour, cocoa, chopped chocolate, and baking powder in a small bowl and whisk together.  Place eggs and sugar in a medium bowl, beat with a mixer for 1 minute, until smooth and thickened.  On low speed, add the melted butter and vanilla in a steady steam while mixing constantly, about 15 seconds.  And the flour mixture and stir on low until just combined, about 10 seconds.

Lightly spray the iron with non-stick cooking spray and spoon ~ 1-½ – 2 teaspoons of batter onto each cookie grid (my iron has 2), just barely behind the center of the pattern (the dough will squish forward as you close the lid).  Now, from here, my iron has 5 settings and an auto-indicator light (1 – the lightest, 5 – the darkest).  If you don’t have this feature, you’ll have to use the first couple cookies to get your timing down.  I use setting 4, because I think a crisp pizzelle is a happy pizzelle.  When they are ready, remove the cookies with a heat-safe plastic spatula or spoon (so you don’t scratch your precious iron!) and cool on a rack.  The cookies will be soft and bendable (and this is where you’d roll them if you wanted to make cannoli shells.)  Don’t worry, they’ll harden quickly.  Dust with powdered sugar, if desired (I desire it!)

Results/Discussion:  This was my first run with a chocolate pizzelle, and while they tasted AWESOME, they were pretty troublesome in the iron.  My mistake?  The “finely chopped” chocolate.  I chopped it with a chef’s knife, and while “most” of it was very finely chopped, chunks remained, and they stuck to the iron much like chocolate sticks to the pan while making chocolate chip pancakes.  My next strategy?  Pulse the chocolate in a food processor with a tablespoon or so of the cocoa powder from the recipe to prevent sticking.  I’ll also take the time to pick out big chunks (and eat them, of course! J) before adding to the batter. Another possibility that might work:  substituting a tablespoon or so of the butter with a semisweet chocolate baking square, to boost the chocolate and keep the sweetness and the batter consistency.

Let me know below if you try this recipe for Double Chocolate Pizzelles.