Pizzelle all'Anice

Abruzzese anise wafers pressed thin between two carved irons

Origin: Abruzzo, Italy

From the journey of Anise.

Pizzelle are the oldest biscuits in Italy that anyone still makes at home, and they are a direct descendant of the Roman kitchen's habit of finishing a meal with anise. The claim usually made for them is that they were first baked at Ortona in Abruzzo in the eighth century for the feast of San Costanzo, and whilst that particular date is impossible to verify, the technique is certainly ancient: a thin batter closed between two hot iron plates is how the Romans made crustula, and the same method produced the oublies of medieval France and the communion wafer. The iron is the whole thing. Traditional Abruzzese irons are long-handled and carved with a family crest, a saint, a monogram, or a geometric rose, and they were made by the village blacksmith as part of a bride's dowry. A household's iron was expected to last generations and to leave the family's own mark on every biscuit it produced, which is why an old pizzella is a small piece of local heraldry. The regional names change with the valley: ferratelle in most of Abruzzo, cancelle where the pattern is a lattice, nevole in Molise, catarrette in parts of the Marsica. Anise is the classic and by some distance the oldest flavouring. Lemon zest and vanilla are common now and are not wrong, but a pizzella all'anice is the one an Abruzzese grandmother makes, and the seed is used in two forms at once: whole for the small crunch and the visible speckle, and as a few drops of anise extract or a spoonful of anisette for the perfume that carries. They are baked in quantity at Christmas, at Easter, and above all at weddings, where they are stacked in towers, and they are also rolled hot around a wooden dowel into tubes and filled with sweetened ricotta or a chocolate cream. The batter is stiffer than a waffle batter and closer to a soft dough. The whole art is in the timing: too little and the wafer is pale and bendy, too much and the sugar burns and the anise turns acrid.

Ingredients

Batter

3 whole eggs, at room temperature
150 g caster sugar
110 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, or 110 ml mild olive oil
2 tsp anise seed, lightly crushed in a mortar
1 tbsp anisette, sambuca, or 1 tsp anise extract
230 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
0.25 tsp fine sea salt

To Finish

2 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting

Method

Whisk the eggs and caster sugar together until pale, thick, and doubled in volume, about four minutes with an electric whisk. This is the only aeration the batter gets.
Whisk in the cooled melted butter, the crushed anise seed, and the anisette or extract.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over the bowl and fold in until just combined. The batter should be thick enough to drop reluctantly from a spoon and to hold a soft mound.
Rest the batter for fifteen minutes whilst the pizzelle iron heats. If using an electric iron, set it to a medium setting; if using a traditional stove-top iron, heat it over a medium flame, turning it every minute until a drop of water skitters across the plate.
Drop a rounded teaspoon of batter slightly behind the centre of the lower plate, close the iron, and press firmly. Bake for 30 to 50 seconds, depending on the iron, until the steam slows and the wafer is pale gold with darker edges.
Lift the pizzella off with a palette knife and lay it flat on a rack. It will be soft for a few seconds and will crisp as it cools.
Repeat with the remaining batter, adjusting the timing after the first two or three. Turn a stove-top iron over halfway through each biscuit for an even colour.
Cool completely, then dust lightly with icing sugar and stack. They must be quite cold before they are stacked or they will steam each other soft.

Notes

Stored in an airtight tin, pizzelle keep crisp for two to three weeks, which is why they were made in such quantity for weddings and for Christmas. If they soften, five minutes in a 150°C oven will restore them. A pizzelle iron is a specific piece of equipment and there is no true substitute; a Belgian waffle iron makes something thick and quite different. Electric pizzelle irons are widely sold and are much easier to control than the traditional long-handled kind. The most common variant is lemon zest in place of the anise, and a Neapolitan version adds a tablespoon of cocoa to half the batter. For cannoli-style filling, roll the hot wafers into tubes and pipe in sweetened ricotta beaten with chopped candied peel just before serving; filled pizzelle soften within the hour.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pizzelle all'Anice
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 30
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 3 whole eggs, at room temperature; 150 g caster sugar; 110 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, or 110 ml mild olive oil; 2 tsp anise seed, lightly crushed in a mortar; 1 tbsp anisette, sambuca, or 1 tsp anise extract; 230 g plain flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 0.25 tsp fine sea salt; 2 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control