Every year before Christmas my mom makes pizzelles. Pizzelles are traditional Italian waffle cookies made from flour, eggs, sugar, butter or vegetable oil, and flavoring. My mom makes ours with Anise and Lemon. These cookies have been around every Christmas since I was born. And long before that too. It is a tradition from my Grandmother’s side. This iron, specifically.

My grandma told us the story about this iron:  “As well as I remember is, my mother bought the iron from a company no longer in business now (Vitantonio). They had the letters of S and A put on one side for Salvatore Albert, and on the other side two people toasting a cup to celebrate the year 1951, the year my sister Violet and Larry got married. The company I recall, is no longer in business because they were making the Mickey Mouse irons for Disney, when the wiring became faulty. My mother used that iron for a long time, then gave it to me. She bought an electric one which was easier for her as she got older.”

We used this iron to make Pizzelles for our wedding 6 years ago as well. The process is a little more extensive than making a chocolate chip cookie. The batter has to chill overnight to thicken. When using the iron, we set up a little burner in the dining room and get to work on finding the right amount of time and heat needed to make the perfect pizzelle. It is our family tradition to recite one Hail Mary, flip the iron, recite again and then off the heat. After the cookie is off the iron, it cools until it can be stored in an airtight container for transportation. Every other year we would be taking them to our annual Schneider Christmas in Joliet. However, this year, they were split between our 3 households.

Web wasn’t too sure about them at first. But, that quickly changed when Grandpops fed him a bite through his cardboard tunnel. He would crawl out, laugh and then crawl back in for another pizzelle bite. For the next week, he wanted a pizzelle for breakfast every morning. He truly is my kiddo 🙂

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