Yes, You Can: Dairy-Free Christmas Cookie #2: Pizzelles

Make dairy-free Italian Pizzelles Christmas Cookies - yes, you can! I can't remember a Christmas in our family without Pizzelles, the Italian waffle cookies. For those who grew up without little old Italian zias (aunts) baking furiously in fragrant kitchens, Pizzelles are similar to the waffle cones offered in ice cream shops, but infinitely more delicate and flavored with anise and other delights.

Pizzelles are surprisingly adaptable, baking up beautifully crisp and light when made with oil. I've used several types of flour, including whole wheat and spelt, and have had great success substituting ground nuts for a large part of the flour. This cookie depends on the eggs (lots of protein) rather than gluten to hold it together.

Raw sugar produces perfectly lovely Pizzelles. Coarse raw sugar, which does not dissolve entirely into the oil and eggs, gives the cookies a very nice texture and crunch. I like the traditional anise flavor, which can come from either extract or the whole seeds. Not everyone likes the licorice fragrance of anise, so vanilla is a natural option, and feel free to play with other possibilities such as cinnamon or the zest from any citrus. Chocolate Pizzelles are delicious, so I've included that variation as well.

Recipe: Pizzelles, Italian Waffle Cookies

1 c. canola oil
1 1/2 c. raw sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp. anise or vanilla extract
1 c. all-purpose unbleached flour (whole wheat also works nicely)
1 c. spelt flour
2/3 c. ground pecans or hazelnuts
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

 Combine oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla in mixer bowl. Beat until thoroughly blended.
Stir in combined dry ingredients and mix until all the flour is moistened.
The batter may be covered and chilled for up to two days at this point.

Heat pizzelle iron, then spritz or brush with oil. Drop batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto hot iron, close iron and bake until very lightly browned. (If cookies are too fragile to handle, add additional flour to the batter, a tablespoon or two at a time, stirring to blend.) Time will vary with different types of iron, so give yourself grace and practice a few times.  Lift baked pizzelles from iron to cooling racks with a fork; they will be limp when hot and become crisp as they cool.

If the cookies stick to the iron  remove the residue with a fork or silicon brush, spray again with oil, and continue baking. I do not trust any Non-Stick (Teflon) coatings, so I use a plain metal Pizzelle Iron, pre-heated then sprayed or brushed with pure olive oil. The first few I bake always stick, which is why the family hangs around the kitchen ready to snatch up the imperfect cookies.Rumor has it that the newer irons are less finicky than the old ones, so maybe I'll find a new one beneath our Christmas tree.

Chocolate Pizzelles: If you want a whole batch of chocolate Pizzelles, reduce all-purpose flour to 3/4 cup and add 1/4 cup cocoa. I usually reserve about a cup of the vanilla batter and add about 2 Tbs. of cocoa to that.

I don't remember my Zia rolling Pizzelles - ours were flat and disappeared as my cousins and I ran through her kitchen.

But it is fun to roll the hot cookies over different kitchen gadgets just to see what they become as they cool. Draping or rolling over a wooden spoon or rolling pin produces crispy tubes and "tacos" for fillings, and I'm sure Tupperware doesn't know that their Midgets are perfect molds for Ice Cream Cups. Besides Ice Cream and Whipped Cream, you can offer sweetened Ricotta filling to the dairy eaters. Dairy-Free folk get to enjoy all sorts of Sorbets, fruit fillings and Zabaglione.

Traditional Christmas Cookies, all Dairy-Free - you bet you can!