Pizzelle experiment (and pulled pork)

[Wiley]

So the name of the tool I recently acquired is a pizzelle iron (even though it is made of aluminum) Many thanks to those who helped on figuring out what it is. I have kids and grandkids coming to visit this weekend (today) and was planning pulled pork sandwiches on home baked bread for today and that meant the pork shoulder had to go in the WFO last evening. So a great time to experiment.

The recipe came from: Learn how to Bake Pizzelle Cookies video from Answers.com Videos

And at the point I usually would rake out the coals and bake bread I tried the iron. The exterior of the iron is fairly rough but the unit is well designed. It is balanced so that it rests upon the hinge point and is wide enough to be quite stable sitting there. The photo is deceptive in that it looks like the coals are really close to the iron...they were actually piled up a distance away and I simply raked a layer directly beneath the iron. So it was maybe three inches from a single layer of coals.

Each arm is also balanced so that one can open it and it stays open by itself regardless of which side is up. I used a brick that I had placed in the WFO to rest the iron on. (When making pulled pork I place two bricks in the WFO during fireup so they can be hot. This is so I can create a wall between the pork and the coals when I smoke the pork for the first half hour.)

Here's some photos:

The recipe makes a easy to use dough/almost batter with a subtle flavor. The pizzelle are plastic as they come from the iron but quickly harden. One site I visited had shaped wooden mandrels for forming ice cream cones out of them.

The temperature of the iron was around 400F and the time was between 90 seconds and two minutes for each pizzelle.

Bests,
Wiley

[Tscarborough]

Re: Pizzelle experiment (and pulled pork)

That is freaking cool. Salute!

[RTflorida]

Re: Pizzelle experiment (and pulled pork)

Second that. Amazing you made them perfectly just days after not knowing what the "iron" was intended for. Great job.

RT

[Tman1]

Re: Pizzelle experiment (and pulled pork)

Looks really good. They look thin in the pictures, so I imagine they were cracker like? Eat them straight or with some dip or...?

[Tman1]

Re: Pizzelle experiment (and pulled pork)

I was just doing some searching.. and saw a picture of cannoli forms (which are actually nothing more than short dowel pieces).. but you could roll them after coming off the iron and turn them into a nice dessert.

[Wiley]

Re: Pizzelle experiment (and pulled pork)

Thanks for the kind words :-)

The pizzelle are thin and very thin in the web sections between the ribs. They are thinner and less strong than what I know of as a sugar cone for ice cream. Packing cones made with this iron without breaking them would be difficult if one had hard ice cream. They are delicate and crisp and today the few we had left over and which we stored in an airtight container had a stronger flavor than when they first came off the iron.

The idea of cannoli is perfect and I suspect that the base (pizzelle) are one and the same, just like the ice cream cone simply rolled around a dowel when they first come off the iron and are still quite plastic.

What my mind has been running to is waffles. I suspect early waffles must have been made in some device very similar to this pizzelle iron. I'm going to do some searching to see what I can find out. This pizzelle iron was very inexpensive (less than $5 at the Goodwill). To come across a "waffle iron" (funny that name is strangely similar to "pizzelle iron" isn't it?) at such a deal is not to be expected, but I have seen older electric waffle irons there. Some with steel plates as opposed to the newer ones with aluminum plates. I'm thinking I could weld up or braze some sort of similar tool without much hassle out of a set of steel waffle plates and something like a pair of old bolt cutters or hedge loppers.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Bests,
Wiley

[Dino69]

Re: Pizzelle experiment (and pulled pork)

Wiley,

Your Pizzelles look great. NIce and crisp. I like them best with only vanilla in the batter and no powdered sugar. I hope you enjoy them. They can also be frozen if you need to keep them for any amount of time. Pizzelles take me back to my childhood.

You should try to make Biscotti in your WFO. That would be great.
Here is my mother's recipe:

5 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
2 scoops sugar = about 1-1 and a half cups
3/4 cup oil
Anise & vanilla, about 1-1 and hald TB anise and 1 TB vanilla
5 ts baking powder
flour - enough to make a stiff dough

Make 4-5 long rolls from dough
Bake at 375 for 20 - 25 min

The thing with Biscotti is if you want to dunk them in coffee bake twice to make them hard.
As a kid I did not drink coffee, still don't, so I bake mine once. They stay soft this way. Then I slice them on the diagonal and butter 'em up when they are nice fresh and warm. Heaven for a lil' Italian boy. Enjoy!!

Thanks,

Dino