My favorite Italian cookie is the pizzella. I’m not normally a fan of single-use appliances, but I couldn’t do without my pizzelle maker. It’s roughly the size of a waffle iron and well worth the space it takes to store it. They are available at most major retailers for under $50. I highly recommend getting one.

When I was a child, my grandmother made pizzelles using a cast-iron press my grandfather, a machinist, had made. It looked something like this.

She’d sit on a stool in front of the gas stove and hold it over the burner. My father loved pizzelles, but it pained him to see his tiny mother-in-law lifting and flipping, the heavy pizzelle maker on and off the stove. He bought her an electric pizzelle iron. She was so insulted that she refused to take it out of the box and didn’t make pizzelles for some time. When one of my cousins announced her engagement, Nonna, getting older and possibly daunted by the idea of another round of wedding baking, decided to give it a try. Happy with the results, she retired the old press. She never did thank my father, and he was wise enough not to say I told you so. Eventually, my aunts all got their own pizzelle makers and would come to help my grandmother make the holiday and wedding cookies. Nonna believed the proper cooking time was how long it took to say the Hail Mary. It was such a Catholic way to spend an afternoon, in the kitchen, with a group of Italian women mixing batter, and making cookies, all the while murmuring prayers.

Pizzelles – makes around 3 dozen cookies

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pure anise oil
• optional – anise seed to taste

You can find anise oil at Italian markets or wherever candy making supplies are sold. If you can’t find the oil you can substitute anise extract, but you’ll need to double or triple the amount to your taste. I don’t use anise seeds in mine.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 10 to 12 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time beating well after each. Mix in the rest of the ingredients to create a smooth batter. Chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.

Oil your pizzelle iron. I spray mine heavily with cooking spray. You’ll ruin the first couple of cookies but it’s very important that every bit is oiled. If the batter sticks at all you’ll have to completely clean it before starting over and the crevices are much smaller than that of a waffle iron. Heat the pizzelle maker, when it’s ready add a heaping tbsp of batter to the center of each design.

Close the lid and say your Hail Mary. Just kidding, the cooking time will depend on your temperature and how you like them. I like mine light in color but crispy, so I keep my temp low, set at 2.5 on my appliance, and cook for 80 to 90 seconds. There is a bit of a learning curve. The first couple will be very brown and greasy from the excess cooking spray. Taste before you throw them away, you can add a bit more oil/extract to the batter if needed. Pry the cookies off the plates with a fork and place on a wire rack. They will be soft when you remove them but will crisp up when cooled. Repeat until you’ve used up all the batter. If you see bits of cookie accumulating on the cooking plate during use, brush them off with a pastry brush and lightly reapply cooking spray. After your pizzelle maker has cooled down clean it very well so you don’t have any problems the next time you make your cookies. I use hot water and a dish towel, toothpicks for any stubborn pieces stuck in the design. Make sure to get all the oil off of it before you put it away.

It may sound like a lot of work but once you get the hang of it they’re very easy. And versatile. You can use any flavor extract you like and add lemon or orange zest. You can make chocolate pizzelles by replacing 1/4 cup of flour with cocoa powder and omitting the anise oil. Some recipes call for chocolate chips but in my experience, it makes a mess of the pizzelle iron. Chocolate pizzelles are often used to make sandwich cookies filled with a thin layer of jam or hazelnut spread. I even have a recipe for pumpkin pie pizzelles but haven’t tried it yet. At Easter, I like to add food color to my batter for bright, pastel cookies. And you can roll them up while they’re warm and fill with cannoli cream. Store in an airtight container for up to a month. If they last that long.