The Last Chocolate Pizzelles I Want To Make

Today, we are asking Fante's to help us with our chocolate pizzelles.

Chocolate Pizzelles ½ cup butter ¼ cup cocoa powder 1¾ cups flour ½ tsp baking powder ⅛ tsp salt 3 eggs 1 tbsp vanilla Melt the butter, getting it really hot instead of merely warm enough to melt. Then stir in the cocoa powder, beating out all lumps. Set aside for three to five minutes to cool. If it has re-solidified after this time, re-melt it and allow it to cool until it is barely warm enough to stay liquid.* Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside. Beat together the eggs and vanilla. Once the cocoa and butter have cooled, add them and beat everything together. Then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Cook on a hot pizzelle iron according to manufacturer's directions. These may take up to fifteen seconds longer to cook than other pizzelle recipes. *This is called "blooming" the cocoa powder. It draws out a lot more chocolate flavor than simply stirring the powder in. Source: Fante's Kitchen

Our previous chocolate pizzelles were a frustrating failure. Granted, I was not in a good mental state when I made them. But today, I decided to look elsewhere for chocolate pizzelles that might actually let go of the iron.

After I got the ingredients onto the counter, I thought "Is it really this easy?"

When I beat the egg into the chocolate, the batter turned an unexpectedly light color. I wasn't even trying to whip it.

This recipe was suspiciously easy to mix together. Things got a little tricky when I had to switch from whisk to spoon upon adding the flour. But that was the only non-problem I had. When our batter was ready, it looked and tasted like it could have become really good brownies.

I put our first dollop of delicious chocolate batter onto the iron. A few minutes later, I opened the iron and saw that this would be a very long process. We would have no free-falling pizzelles tonight.

After dislodging the first pizzelle with a spatula and a lot of force, I had to clean out all those little grooves with a wooden skewer. This has happened so often that I can now do it in less than a minute. I can't decide if I'm glad for the many opportunities I've had to practice.

I was so glad I used the flat iron and not the ridged snowflake one. No amount of generously-brushed shortening could persuade these to free-fall out of it. I had to jam the spatula under them like I was ruining a batch of hamburgers that had fused with the grill. But to my surprise, the spatula didn't rip the pizzelles to shreds. They actually managed to come off the iron intact(ish).

I tasted one and almost thought this recipe was worth it. The pizzelles had a really nice chocolate flavor. They had the same crisp fragile texture as the cinnamon wafers. For those who don't remember, the cinnamon wafers were my very first recipe on a stovetop iron (unless you count instant waffle mix). It's interesting to sort of come back to where we started, but this time with chocolate.

If you don't mind your pizzelles looking a little roughed-up after divorcing them from the iron, these are pretty good. But I absolutely DO NOT recommend these for your first pizzelle recipe.

After every single pizzelle resolutely glued itself to the iron, I wondered if I had lost my way. Or was the iron gummed up with something I didn't know I should clean off? Was the cocoa powder making these inherently sticky? Are chocolate pizzelles only suitable for nonstick irons?

As a sanity test, I made a batch of chocolate-free pizzelles. I went with Fante's recipe because they always come out so nice. I hadn't planned on making them, but we had all the ingredients anyway. The first pizzelle cooked to golden perfection and fell right off of the iron. After such a frustrating evening, I really needed that.

After a few near-perfect pizzelles made me feel better about life, I decided to be a bit daring and get out the snowflake iron. To repeat, you're screwed if your pizzelles stick to this thing. Or at least, you can't dislodge them intact. So I only use it if I am feeling really confident. Things got a little scary when I saw how wispy our first pizzelle was in the center, and I feared that I had ruined it by squeezing the iron too hard.

But to my delight, the pizzelle fluttered out completely intact-- even the dangerously thin center part. After this, I will forever swear by melted shortening, and never use cooking spray on a pizzelle iron ever again.

I'm tempted to say that a good batch of pizzelles fix a crappy mood. But I should also warn that a failed batch of them can add a special sort of misery to your night. So, I don't necessarily recommend making pizzelles for stress relief. If the recipe comes out right, you'll go through the rest of the day humming happy little tunes to yourself. But if things go awry at the iron, you'll feel rotten for quite some time.

As for the chocolate pizzelles that brought us here, I don't know if I recommend making them or not. They tasted so good that I very nearly want to say that everyone should try them at home. But at the same time, they were very irksome to get off of the iron. I'm not sure if these would be better on a nonstick iron since I don't have one laying around. Sorry to end this on such a mixed review, but these were exactly as delicious as they were frustrating.