From my Christmas kitchen to yours–Everything you need to know to make the best pizzelles ever!

pizzelle and canolli shells

In my Christmas kitchen, 2011 was the year of the pizzelle press! Long fascinated and appreciative of these beautiful Italian wafers, I decided to splurge and buy a press of my own. It took me a bit of time online to gather all the information I needed to make my purchase and perfect the technique; because of that, I’m putting together in one place everything you need to know about how to make the best pizzelles ever!

First, the pronunciation: Pit-zel-ee, accent on the second syllable. Pizzelle is an Italian word. Pronounce the two zz’s as you would in the word pizza.  The final e is pronounced, too. You will hear people commonly say “piz-ell,” with the accent on the second syllable. Just because something is commonly accepted does not make it right. Pizzelle is the plural form of the word; pizzella is the singular form.

The press: My decision to purchase the Cuisinart WM-PZ2 Pizzelle Press was driven by online reviews and pricing. The best price was found on Amazon.com. While shopping, I noticed that a box of cannoli forms was available for just a few dollars, so I added this to my cart, as well. My press arrived within just a few days.

The pizzelle recipe: My first recipe came from the owner’s manual, and I used vanilla rather than anise as the flavoring element. The cookies turned out great, but the flavor was pretty bland. I then searched for a better recipe online and settled on this one from Paul J. Sciullo which was included in an online column by Suzanne Martinson for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, dated May 24, 2001

6 large eggs
1 cup margarine, melted
11/2 cups sugar
Pinch salt
1 shot whiskey (optional)
1 teaspoon anise oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
31/2 cups flour

Beat eggs; add melted margarine and beat again. Add sugar, salt, whiskey, anise oil and vanilla; beat until well mixed. Add flour gradually, mixing well (usually the last cup of flour has to be mixed with a spoon). Drop by teaspoon on hot iron. Bake until done or golden.

When I shopped for my ingredients, I mistakenly bought anise extract instead of anise oil. Because the extract is less potent than the oil, I decreased the vanilla to 1t., and increased the anise extract to 2t.

My technique for making perfect pizzelle:

• Make sure you have all the equipment you need at hand. I purchased a good pastry brush which held up to heat so that I could oil the press if the cookies began to stick to the plates.
• Have a small cookie spatula for removing the cookies from the press.
• Have a cooling rack in place.
• After you mix the dough, chill it. I made a few cookies immediately after mixing my batch of dough; it was only because I had other things going on that evening that I decided to pop the rest of the dough into a storage container and refrigerate until the next day. This turned out to be a great decision! Chilling the dough allows you to roll the batter for each cookie into a ball before placing it on the press. Doing so will give you greater precision over your cookies than simply spooning a dollop of dough on the press.
• Place your ball of dough slightly behind the center of each press pattern, closer to the hinged side of the press.
• Experiment with the size of the dough ball. I found that about 1 ½ teaspoons was a good size; however, this is an approximation, not an exact measurement.
• Try different settings. The press comes with five different settings, and the instructions recommend that you start with setting three. For slightly darker cookies, I settled on setting 4.
• Once the cookies have cooled, dust them with confectioner’s sugar. I used a small mesh strainer for this purpose.

Cannoli: Listed for sale below the press on Amazon.com was a box of four cannoli forms. At five dollars for four forms, I thought that was a bargain, and added the cannoli forms to my cart.

As it turns out, the pizzelle press came with one cannoli form, which wasn’t mentioned in the online product description. This form was a wooden dowel of approximately six inches in length and approximately ¾-inch to one inch in diameter; if you’re handy with power tools, you could make a set for yourself.

The set of forms that I purchased was stainless steel. I quickly discovered that the downside of using these forms when I began to wrap the hot pizzelles around them; they immediately got hot, and it was rather uncomfortable to handle them! Stick with the wooden form that is included with the press. Remove one cookie from the press and roll it; the second cookie can sit on the press for an additional few seconds while you are doing so without burning.

Making pizzelles for the first time was a fun and rewarding cooking experience. You will have dozens of cookies to share, but save some of these delicious treats for yourself, too!

Laurie and Linda’s Excellent Icelandic Adventure

Lief Erickson Statue by the Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik

Last October, as we turned 59, my friend Linda and I discussed the possibility of doing something very special to celebrate our 60th birthdays. We both made suggestions:  A hot air balloon ride, perhaps? What about a weekend back in our hometown? No? What then? Well, we discovered that we both wanted to see the Northern Lights. We began exploring the possible options and decided upon Iceland.  We first booked our tickets to Reykjavik, then selected a hotel, chose a Northern Lights tour and eagerly anticipated the date of departure during the month in which our birthdays are celebrated. Linda lives in Minneapolis, so it was great to find a nonstop flight from Minneapolis to Iceland’s Keflavik airport.

October 15, 2011, Saturday: We’re Off!
I departed Omaha for Minneapolis late morning. We met up, checked our bags, passed through security, and had dinner at the airport. Our flight to Keflavik Airport departed Minneapolis at 6:30 pm, delivering us to Iceland at 6:30 am, October 16. The flight was a comfortable five hours.

Hotel Óðinsvé

October 16, 2011, Sunday: Arrival and Exploration
At 6:30 a.m. —that’s 1:30 a.m. Central Time—we arrived at the airport in Keflavik, Iceland and caught a bus to the Hotel Óðinsvé in Reykjavik. It occurred to us, after booking the hotel, that it might have been a good idea to have stayed at a hotel whose name we could actually pronounce. We were caught short when the bus driver asked where we were staying. But the Óðinsvé was a great choice, and we did, finally, learn the correct pronunciation:  O-thenzh-via, with the accent on the O, and a soft th-sound, as in the word thin. After you say it a few dozen times, it just rolls off the tongue!

Breakfast buffet

We arrived at the hotel at about 8:00 am, and our room was available to us within the hour. While we waited for our room to be readied, we went to the hotel restaurant for their breakfast buffet. What a treat to experience some Icelandic delicacies so early in our trip. The buffet included delicious homemade breads: excellent rye and white bread, croissants, and small, crusty dinner rolls. To accompany the bread there were thin slices of salami and cheese, a small round of brie, mashed fish spread, hard- and soft-boiled eggs, deep yellow butter, whole fruit, fruit salad, Skyr, coffee, tea, and hot and cold cereal. We sat at a corner table, where we had windows on two sides. To

Hotel Óðinsvé, Room 404

make things even better, the restaurant was playing music of Leonard Cohen. Being there felt like a wonderful dream. As we left the restaurant to check in to our room, we noticed that the restaurant was featuring puffin on that night’s dinner menu. This seemed interesting, but a bit too adventurous so soon in our tour. By the way, Skyr is a dairy product similar to yogurt or very soft cheese. If you would like to try Skyr, Whole Foods carries a brand called Siggi’s as well as another brand, Skyr.is.

We checked into our room and found it to be delightful. We had twin beds with down comforters, modern, streamlined furniture, a more than adequate bathroom, and a balcony from which we could view most of the city all the way down to the harbor.

Hallgrimskirkja from our room

The long window above our beds led to a view of Hallsgrimskirkja (Hallgrimer Lutheran Church), a landmark in the city.

Deciding to explore a bit, we headed out toward the big landmark church. Although the worship service was just about to begin, it was still possible to visit the observation tower in the peak of the church, so up we went! Much to my delight, the church bells were pealing. I was able to photograph views from the windows while capturing the sound of the bells on a short video. Having been a handbell ringer and handbell choir director, I was thrilled with the timing!

We had scheduled a jeep trip to look for the Northern Lights for our first night in Reykjavik. We had already had a long day, and were relieved to receive a call at our hotel letting us know that the weather wasn’t good for viewing and that the trip would be delayed. I was instructed to call the company the next day to reschedule. (This was the only tour we had scheduled in advance. Through our hotel, we booked the Golden Circle Tour and a trip to the Blue Lagoon.)

Hallsgrimskirkja

Now that our evening was free, we decided to take a taxi to a restaurant called Hamborgarafabrikkan, a casual, family-friendly restaurant, where we both enjoyed a tasty lamb burger. Although we could have walked to the restaurant from our hotel, it was becoming extremely gusty; in fact, the drivers insisted on opening the taxi doors for us to avoid having them be forced open too quickly by the wind. If only we had realized what was ahead!

October 17, 2011, Monday: Golden Circle Tour, Northern Lights, and Cafe Loki
Today is my birthday. We made plans to go on the abbreviated (six hour) Golden Circle Tour this afternoon.  I also call Super Jeep as requested to reschedule our canceled Northern Lights tour, and learned that we have been rescheduled for that evening. Yikes! It is going to be a busy day!!

Cafe Loki Menu

We started the day with breakfast at Café Loki, a cute place that caught our attention on our Sunday walk. I found someone’s blog page about this restaurant, and have linked to it here. The meal that is described in the blog, Icelandic Platter II, is what I had for breakfast. When our breakfast was served, we were informed of what was on our plates. When the server told me about the fermented shark meat, she said, “don’t smell it, just eat it down fast.” Yup, one piece was adequate, and I’m glad I had the experience. It was not nearly as objectionable as I was expecting. It was served with toothpicks so that the odor wouldn’t linger on the skin if picked up with the fingers. Linda had mashed fish on rye bread which was also on my sampler platter, and we both liked that best.

tectonic plates

Remember when I mentioned how windy it was on Sunday night? Well, we experienced that wind again on our Golden Circle tour. We didn’t notice the wind too much during the first part of the tour as it was spent traveling, and most of our viewing was done from inside the bus. Of great interest to me was seeing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in Þingvellir National Park, which marks the division of the European and North American Tectonic plates. We saw many waterfalls and rainbows as we drove. “Have you ever seen a waterfall flow backwards?” our tour guide asked. Well, one look out the window, and we could all answer affirmatively. The wind was blowing so hard that the water was flowing upstream. By the time we arrived at the site of the Guilfoss waterfall, it was so windy that it was difficult to walk.

Remember the Grateful Dead’s doo-dah man? We were all walking in his distinctive “keep on truckin’” style as we fought the wind.  We were warned not to get to close to the side of the cliff as not to lose our bearings and get blown away.

It was back to the bus to travel to the site of a number of geysers (spelled geysirs in Iceland, and pronounced like our word for an old man, geezer). By the time we reached this destination, the wind was so strong that it blew open all the snaps down the front of my coat. I held it closed for dear life, fearing that I could become airborne if I didn’t! The geysers blew, and we scurried back to the bus.

As we drove on, we saw one semi-trailer that had been blown off the road. The next day, on the Internet, we read about a woman who braved the storm to gather a supply of toilet paper, the commodity that the truck had spilled.

I should mention that both our tour guide and driver were excellent! The tour also included the site of the first Viking parliament, and a greenhouse village.

Tired and exhausted, we returned to our hotel to discover that our Northern Lights tour was indeed on! We had only about 30 minutes to freshen up for this next event.

Our tour group posed for Northern Lights photo. We did not see what is visible in this picture; the Lights were enhanced by the photographer's camera settings.

Tourism is a huge industry in Iceland, and there are many companies from which to choose. We decided to go with Super Jeep because of their guarantee—if the Northern Lights are not seen on your tour, you will be taken out again, free of charge. This Super Jeep tour was a bit more expensive than the others, but the guarantee clinched the deal for us.

Another couple from our hotel, a man and woman from England, had booked the tour, too. Our jeep arrived promptly, and then we drove off to gather a Canadian couple from the Radisson. Our drive, Stephan, was just great. There were four jeeps altogether, traveling in tandem, with one driver assuming the role of leader, explaining things about the trip, camera settings, etc. as we drove. One of the nice features of the jeep tour was that the vehicles could veer from the roads and explore some unpaved areas in search of the elusive Lights.

Finally, one of the drivers announced that he had seen the Lights, and all drivers entered “storm chaser” mode. Now this is where everything gets questionable. Do you remember the children’s story, The Emperor’s New Clothes? In this story, two scandalous tailors tell the king that they can weave the most exquisite fabric from the most valuable threads, when in reality they wove nothing at all, scamming the king out of two bags of gold with their trickery. The king then parades down the street to show off his new garb, while his loyal subjects proclaimed that their king was the best dressed of all royalty…until a little child spotted the king. “The king is in his underwear,” the child exclaimed to the horror of the villagers. But, alas, the young child was right, and he spoke the truth.

Linda and I pose for a Northern Lights picture. Linda is waving her arms to appear as an angel. This picture is more representative of what we saw on our tour.

Well, it felt like the tour leaders were the tailors, and we tourists were the subjects. Our driver took a picture with his digital camera. When he showed it to me, I innocently asked if that was from a previous night’s tour, which was not the response he was expecting. Someone else in our jeep then asked if they Photo Shopped their pictures, which was also met with scorn.

Our caravan pulled into a field, we all got out, and we all looked around. OK, there might have been what appeared to be a thimble-full of green behind one of the clouds, but none of us felt like we had actually seen the Northern Lights. “You have all seen the Northern Lights,” the leader declared, thus negating the guarantee of going out and looking again, and lined us up to take our photos with the Northern Lights supposedly shining in the background. I do think that their camera settings enhanced what was visible to them, as they have photos posted on their website to prove that the Northern Lights were indeed dancing in the sky that night, but we went home disappointed…and did I mention that we were cold? Maybe, in time, we will convince ourselves that we did see the Northern Lights, and believe that the pictures represented our experience. Maybe that is what this was all about.

I tell this story not to complain, because everything we did was a great experience, but I don’t want to paint a picture that does not represent our encounter. We continued to look for the Northern Lights during the evenings on the remaining days of our trip, but never did see them. (Ironically, three days after we returned, the Northern Lights were seen in the United States as far south as Georgia!)

We were hungry by the time we returned to our hotel, not having eaten since breakfast except for a small snack on the Golden Circle Tour. It was almost 1am, and we feasted on honor bar peanuts before going to bed, dreaming of the warmth we would experience the next day at the beautiful Blue Lagoon.

C is for Cookie was conveniently located across the street from our hotel.

October 18 201, Tuesday: The Blue Lagoon, C is for Cookie, and the Grill Market
Today we slept until 9:00 and took our time waking up and getting dressed. We crossed the street to a cute little restaurant called C is for Cookie, where we had a light breakfast before heading out for a walk.

We left in the early afternoon for a bus ride to the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa located between the cities of Reykjavik and Keflavik. The spa holds six million liters of sea water which is renewed every 40 hours; the water’s temperature is between 98 and 102 degrees by the earth’s natural forces. This geothermal sea water has a high mineral level. The high levels of silica are considered to be beneficial to the skin. Because of its close location to the airport, travelers often stop at the Blue Lagoon on their way to or from the airport.

The Blue Lagoon

We wondered if the exposed parts of our bodies would be too cold, but we realized that it would be no different than being outside with our heads exposed to the air temperature while our bodies were covered, and that was exactly what it was like. It really is impossible to describe the luxury of being wrapped in this silky warm water, slowly stepping around the entire area, lingering in each newly-discovered hot spot. We enjoyed a drink, visited with one of the couples there who we recognized from our Golden Circle tour, and soaked up as much of this beautiful experience as we could before our bladders dictated that it was time to leave. Discovering that we had a bit of time yet to wait for our bus, we sat in the little café and had a glass of wine.

While I doubt that I will return to Iceland, I would not rule out a layover stop to the Keflavik airport on the way to another European destination to languish in these healing waters before reaching my destination.

A wonderful birthday celebration!

And as wonderful as this experience was for both of us, our day was not yet over. This is the day that we decided to celebrate our birthdays, and a fine dinner awaited us. We chose the Grill Market (Grillmarkadurinn), a highly-rated restaurant in much of the travel literature, and one that caught our attention as we explored the city. This delightful find had just opened in June, and it appeared to be quite popular.

We enjoyed our rye bread and butter as we perused the menu, and decided that it would be a good idea to get the puffin appetizer, thus having the opportunity to taste puffin without making a commitment of selecting it as our dinner entrée. If you are concerned about the consumption of this adorable and colorfully-beaked sea bird, please know that there are millions of puffins in the world and that they are not endangered. The puffin had a distinctive but mild flavor, and texture similar to veal. For our entrée we chose the catch of the day—freshly caught salmon! I have had excellent salmon in my life, but nothing to compare to this. We concluded our dinner with crème Brule, but it was not the traditional dish we think of. I do wish I had taken a picture of everything we had eaten all along to refresh my memory.

The website for this restaurant is in Icelandic only, but you might enjoy looking at the pictures to get a sense of this place. If you want to learn more, consider copying the text to www.translate.google.com .  The restaurant’s website is http://www.grillmarkadurinn.is/.

For both of us, this was the most excellent, enjoyable, and memorable day of our vacation.

Laurie and Linda pose with a carved Viking

October 19, 2011, Wednesday: Reykjavik Art Museum, Shopping, Babalú, and Caruso
We had earmarked Wednesday and Thursday for shopping, walking, and exploring. We walked down Laugavegur, which is the main shopping street, and runs down to the harbor. Iceland is well known for its yarn, and there are a surprising number yarn shops and stores selling knit goods. I bought four skeins of unspun yarn for my daughter, Monica. We stopped at a jewelry store where Linda perused the merchandise and made a tentative selection of a pair of sparkly silver earring at a store called Aurum. We took turns taking pictures of each other with a carved, wooden Viking, and then a tourist from France offered to take a picture of both of us with the Viking if we would return the favor.

Linda posed in the door of Babalú.

We visited the Reykjavik Art Museum, which wasn’t to our taste, and ready for lunch, and stopped at a cute little place called Babalú, where we both had crepes and a drink. For the first time on our vacation, we felt the need to return to our room and rest!

Dinner that night was at Caruso, a delightful Italian restaurant named after the singer, Enrico Caruso. I had ravioli in a delicious cream sauce, and Linda had pasta and chicken in a tomato sauce. We wrapped up the evening with crème Brule as a special treat.

October 20, 2011, Thursday: Tourist Attractions, Shopping, and dining at the Laundromat, the Hotdog Stand, and the Geyser Bistro

National Cathedral

This was our last full day in Reykjavik. We walked to The Laundromat for breakfast of French toast, rye bread and cheese, scrambled eggs and a Bailey’s Irish Cream coffee and enjoyed watching the people pass by. Afterwards I picked up some chocolate-covered licorice for my office, we returned to the jewelry store where Linda selected her earrings, and I returned to an art gallery where I had admired an acrylic painting. (I didn’t buy the painting there, but decided, once I had returned home, that I wished I had. A few phone calls and e-mails with the owner of the gallery, and the painting was mine!)

This was the only rainy day of our vacation. Armed for the elements with hoods and umbrellas, we headed out to visit two churches and a cathedral. We found asylum from the weather in a Catholic church that we thought was the cathedral. It wasn’t until we were on our way home that we discovered that the unassuming church we casually passed earlier was, indeed, the cathedral. Lutheranism is the most common faith in Iceland, and the cathedral had a Lutheran affiliation.

People patiently wait in line for a hot dog at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur.

According to this article in The Atlantic, Icelanders love and take great pride in their hotdogs, so we sought out recommendations from some of the locals. All recommendations pointed to a tiny hut in the city center, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, a place where President Bill Clinton stopped for a hotdog on his visit to the city. Interestingly, the name of the hotdog hut translates into “The best hotdog in town.” We got in line and learned that Bill Clinton requested a hotdog with mustard. That being too pedestrian for us, we asked for our hotdogs the way the locals have them. Yum! I didn’t know a hotdog could be so heavenly!

We did a little more window shopping, picked up presents for our daughters, and returned to our hotel. We did some packing, and then headed out again for dinner at the Geysir Bistro, where we had fresh perch and lobster.

Flying home

October 21, 2011, Friday: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig!
Our bus to the airport was scheduled for 1:30, so we had the morning to walk, have breakfast, and take a few more pictures. The airport in Keflavik is easy to navigate, and the only airline to use this airport, to my observation, is Icelandic Air, although another airline Iceland Express, also travels to Keflavik, and may well use this airport as its hub, as well.

We were back to Minneapolis within six hours! Thankfully, Linda’s husband, Tony, was there to pick us up and delivered me to the other airport terminal, where I was to catch my Delta flight to Omaha. I had the smallest window of time to see if I could get on an earlier flight home, and I made it! After I cleared security, I discovered that there was an airport cart and driver stopped and waiting for riders. I hopped on and asked for a ride to my gate. Thanks to his speedy clip, I made my flight with about five minutes to spare, and was back in Omaha hours before I had expected to be.

Would I return to Iceland? Probably not. Not because we didn’t enjoy ourselves, but because there are so many other places to explore. Spending time with one of my dearest friends was indeed a pleasure, and Iceland definitely has much to offer. We found Reykjavik to be beautiful in a variety of ways—the scenery, the people, the quaintness of the city itself. The food was fabulous, the residents were bilingual, and the city was easy to navigate. I heartily recommend that you consider this unique location, if not for your vacation, then as a stopover on your way to another European country.

How happy I am to have had this wonderful experience with my friend, Linda Carideo. We have known each other since our freshman year at UWM, and still enjoy a beautiful and rewarding friendship after all these years.