Honoring My Grandma Through Baking

I have had the blessing of having all my grandparents and some of my great-grandparents living until I was in my early twenties. When I talk to my friends, I realize how rare that truly is - many of them have only one or two of their grandparents still living, and some have never known any of their grandparents.

Me with my Grandma and Grandpa at Christmas

My grandpa passed away just a few years ago, after a long battle with cancer, and we lost my grandma this past July. As we sifted through all of her stuff, I remembered all the times we spent together and all the memories I had of them. One of my favorite memories was every Christmas, Grandma would make all kinds of baked goods. My absolute favorite was pizzelles, these pretty lacy cookies that I would dump inordinate amounts of powdered sugar on. So when Grandma passed away, I knew I wanted to carry on the tradition of making these wonderful cookies.

Grandma's well-loved pizzelle maker

I don't have the original recipe Grandma used, so I used one I found online and modified a bit to suit my needs. Traditional pizzelles are made with a strong anise flavor. I don't really like anise, and Grandma didn't use very much in her pizzelles either. I decided to use cinnamon in place of the anise, because cinnamon is my absolute favorite spice and nothing says autumn like cinnamon. 

My KitchenAid doesn't get used often, but when I need to bake, it is a lifesaver

Cinnamon Pizzelles

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Powdered sugar

1. Sift together flour and baking powder and set aside
2. Beat together the eggs and sugar, then add the melted butter, vanilla, and cinnamon. 
3. Add the flour mixture and beat until smooth.
4. Preheat the pizzelle maker. Once it's preheated, spray the plates with Pam. Make sure to get a good coat on the design part so it doesn't stick. 
5. Drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto the center-ish of each design. It takes a couple tries to figure out how much batter you need and where to put it.
6. Close the pizzelle maker and wait for them to cook. You will burn/undercook the first few until you figure out the right timing. On mine it was about 1 minute 40 seconds.
7. Use a fork to gently lift the pizzelles out of the plate and put them on a cooling rack. 
8. Once they are fully cool, put them in an airtight container in the fridge. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when you're ready to eat them.

The inside of the pizzelle maker. It's kind of like a waffle iron
but with more intricate designs. Hence, you need lots of Pam.

How the first few looked - burnt then underdone. 

This is what they should look like, minus the one on the left trying to ooze out the side.

My recipe made about 15, not including the first few I messed up.

You can never go wrong with powdered sugar.
NB: I added more powdered sugar after taking these pictures,
because there should be a visible cloud puff of sugar when you take a bite.

Grandma always stored all her home-baked Christmas cookies in the fridge.  As a kid, I always knew where to find those tupperware containers full of goodies. I have no idea how I didn't gain 30 pounds every holiday season, because I pretty much ate only baked goods when I was at Grandma's house. Now my own cookies are residing in the fridge (or they were before I ate them all) and come Christmastime I'll carry on the tradition of making these cookies for my family and friends.