Aniseed Pizzelles: or, Anticlimactic authenticity

Today, we're going really Italian with our pizzelles! (I think.)

Fante's Special Pizzelle Recipe 3 eggs 6 oz (¾ cups) sugar 5 oz (1 cup plus 2 tbsp) melted shortening 1½ tsp anise seeds* 1½ tsp vanilla Juice and grated rind of ¼ orange or lemon 11 oz (2 cups) flour Beat eggs and sugar until they become light and foamy. Add the melted shortening, a little at a time. Add the anise seeds, vanilla, grated rinds and juices. Gradually add the flour until a light dough is formed; light enough to drop onto the iron with a spoon. You may have a little bit of flour left over. Drop spoonfuls onto the center of a hot pizzelle iron. Use a knife to push the dough off of the spoon. Cook until golden, following to the manufacturer's directions. *Use ground anise seeds, anise extract, or anise oil if desired. Note: This may be totally inauthentic, but our favorite way to flavor these is to add a near-excessive amount of cinnamon. Source: Fante's Kitchen

We make Fante's pizzelle recipe a lot, but today we are adding these!

You're looking at whole anise seeds, which have been soaking all night in the egg to draw out their flavor. They look like tiny bugs, don't they?

Fante's original recipe calls a generous spill of them, which has made me want to try this for a while. They write on their website: "Not everyone can deal with the anise seed getting between their teeth. For you, we recommend pulverizing the seeds in your food processor, electric mincer or mortar and pestle. Or you can use the oil or extract for the traditional licorice flavoring of this cookie."

I would have made these far earlier, but I didn't want a barely-used shaker of anise seeds slowly mummifying for years after a single batch of pizzelles. I've said this often, but I don't like investing in canisters of spices that will slowly turn to dust. So, when I was in the store with the self-service spice section, I got a tiny bag of them for 82 cents.

The seeds and the bits of orange rind made our batter look unexpectedly like it should become a pound cake.

You can see the little toasted seeds in the pizzelles. I thought they looked really cute. 

I tried one and was glad I only spent 82 cents on anise seeds. This wasn't bad but pointless. All of the anise flavor got toasted out. I may as well have used poppyseeds instead (which, come to think of it...). At first I thought the anise flavor might come back after letting the pizzelles wait overnight, like gingerbread. But a day in an airtight plastic bag did nothing. So unless you like little crunchy bits in your pizzelles, I wouldn't bother buying anise seeds.

They were still really good pizzelles, though.