Dolci Italiani (Italian Sweets

By Chris Cutler

If I’m to be honest, and heaven knows I don’t want Santa to think I am naughty, I was not wild about Christmas traditions we celebrated when I was a child. Christmas Eve at my paternal grandparents’ house was a dinner of dishes I didn’t like: sauerkraut soup, buckwheat pierogis, and some other things I have thankfully forgotten.

As Italian as I am, I wasn’t wild about a lot of the Christmas Eve foods on my mother’s side, either. I filled my plate with the pasta of the year and let the others enjoy the eel, anchovies, squid, and whatever other slimy fish happened to grace the table.

Desserts were another thing. My paternal grandmother ofered kolache, which was okay unless she made it with lekvar. The goodies my Italian mother and aunts made, though, made the table groan under their weight. We never had panettone because that particular sweet bread/cake originated in Lombardia, and we were Abruzzese. We had snowballs, cream wafers, amaretti, biscotti, and more. My mother also made scrucchiata, a rolled and filled cookie she called “little kolache” to appeal to my father’s roots. Instead of ground nuts and lekvar, though, she used apricot, cherry, and strawberry jams to fill them.

Of course, we always had pizzelles. My grandmother, mother, and aunts (I had seven!) had their own recipes. From the plain to orange, lemon, cocoa, and anise, we had every kind of pizzelle you could imagine.

I think I’ll take out the ol’ pizzelle iron and make a few dozen before Christmas.

Aunt Vera’s Pizzelles 6 Eggs 1 c oleo, melted 1.5-1.75 c sugar 1-2 tablespoons grated orange rind 2 tablespoons anise seed, crushed 3.5 c flour 1-2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat pizzelle iron.

Melt oleo and cool. Beat eggs. Add sugar gradually and beat. Add oleo, orange, and anise seed and mix together. Gradually add flour.

Coat pizzette iron with nonstick cooking spray. Drop rounded tablespoon of dough on iron and close. Do not press down.

Cook 30 seconds-to-one minute or until golden brown. Remove to cooling rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Did You Know….

Pizzelle comes from the Italian word, pizze, which means round and flat. The “elle” is a diminutive, meaning the cookie is small, round, and flat.