Adventures with a 1950s Appliance

On Christmas Eve during a "vacation" at my parent's house in Cleveland, I riffled around the basement utility room.  This is the place small appliances go to die.  Dozens of housewares including ice cream makers, foot baths, and toasters rest here, begging to be used.  I imagine this room comes alive, Toy Story-style, when no one is home.  They discuss how the wish to return to their former glory, before they were replaced with newer models.  They yearn to toast bread and churn cream again.  On December 24, 2010, however, the Pizzelle Chef got lucky when I decided to make glorious Italian cookies.

This vintage "Pizzelle Chef Automatic 300" is a beautiful appliance.  Manufactured by the Vitantonio Manufacturing Company in Willoughby, Ohio (just 5 miles from my parent's house) it was made to last and continues to be a true gem of industrial design.

Featured below is my how-to, a-la The Pioneer Woman.

The cover of the instruction manual, in all of its vintage glory.

The recipe is simple...and delicious.

The hardware.  When the light goes off, it's go-time!

First off, make the batter.  Butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla (or anise if you're into that sort of thing), flour, baking powder.  That's it.

The batter should be dense enough to hold its shape when placed on the pizzlle iron.

The first cookies are always a disaster.  I'm not entirely sure why this is, but it may have something to do with the iron being really hot.  The first dose of batter cools the hot plates down enough so the cookies don't burn.

Make sure you have three dachshunds to eat the crumbs.  They love burnt pizzelles.

​When the pizzelles come off the iron, they will need to cool for a few seconds before you can start stacking them up into a beautiful pile of cookies.

After making 100 vanilla cookies, I switched to chocolate.  Add cocoa powder, a bit more baking powder, and a bit of this morning's coffee.

And you're done!  This recipe makes about 150 cookies, possibly more or less depending on how many trials it takes you to get the dosing correct.  They are a wonderful holiday treat.