Gingerbread Waffles: They worked too well for a recipe that went wrong

This is the story of a bad Pennsylvanian purchase briefly visited the house and a recipe that almost worked.

Gingerbread Waffle Cookies 3 eggs 1¾ to 2 cups flour* ¼ cup brown sugar ½ cup sugar ½ cup butter, melted 2 tsp baking powder ⅛ cup (2 tbsp) molasses ½ teaspoon ginger ½ teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground cloves Mix eggs and sugar (both the white and brown) together, add the spices and molasses and mix well. Add the melted butter, mix, then add the baking powder. Add the flour to the desired consistency, mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased waffle iron (brush it with melted shortening-- it works so much better than cooking spray). Use a knife to push the batter off the spoon.  Take care not to overcook. (Molasses scorches when other things just get "extra golden.") The flavor is much better if they are baked and allowed to sit overnight in an airtight container. Note: This was originally meant for cooking on a pizzelle iron. In my kitchen, they got hopelessly stuck. But they are really good on a normal waffle iron. *Amount of flour added depends on the desired batter consistency. Guy Caley; Fort Leonard, Missouri; via Fante's Kitchen

As much as I like our first pizzelle iron from the Keystone State, its design looks better in the metal than on any pizzelles it makes. People keep thinking they're plain waffles unless I tell them to look for the stars.

So, I got a new one with a design that you can't possibly miss! One of my friends said it looks like crop circles.

Isn't it beautiful and shiny on its new stove? It was as bright as I felt for using it.

The iron smelled like popcorn as it heated up, suggesting that it has many happy uses in its past. I took this as a favorable sign for our future together.

And now came the momentous choice: what would be the this iron's first recipe? What will set the tone for our entire relationship? I went to Fante's website and decided to go for gingerbread. I know that new recipes are always a gamble, but gingerbread sounded delicious and Fante's pizzelle page is a (very!) trusted source.

The batter was seriously divine. The recipe had promised gingerbread in the title, and it tasted like a promise fulfilled.

And now, with everything going so well, it was time for the batter to hit the iron!

When I opened it, I loved seeing that pretty design represented in batter. But do you see that smear of stuck-on pizzelle in the center of the bare metal above it? Well, that foreshadowed what happened when I tried to detach our first gingerbread.

I optimistically told myself that the first one is always for the fairies. Maybe the iron needed to warm up after several years in a box. 

So, I tried again, hoping that the next one would freely fall out of the iron and pull out the half-burnt crumbs as it went. Two Hail Marys later (I'm told you're supposed to cook these while saying one Hail Mary per side), we opened the iron to an identical mess.

I hated how good our fragments of failure tasted. They were like crisp gingersnaps with pretty designs on them. I could tell they would be fantastic if they would only come off the iron in one piece.

At this point, I thought that maybe cooking spray would succeed where shortening had failed. After all, if the right way doesn't work, sometimes you try doing it wrong. The cooking spray did not help and also made the stuck-on mess weirdly foamy.

 

It occurred to me that perhaps this recipe (and the chocolate pizzelles) didn't really come about until teflon-coated irons were a thing. I'm not going to buy one, but I might borrow one sometime. For now, however, I gave up on gingerbread pizzelles.

As a brief aside which I have made before, I don't claim stovetop waffles are better. But I have to admit they have one advantage: you can put the iron right under the kitchen faucet when things get stuck. I know you're not supposed to, the instructions always say not to, but it's nice to have the option. 

Now, I already intended to try this batter in a normal waffle iron just so I could share whether that works. (I like making good recipes accessible without going to a specialty shop.) I had imagined I would be doing that with the last dollop of batter or so. But instead, I got out a normal waffle iron with most of the batter still in the bowl and...

The waffles fell right out as soon as I flipped the iron upside-down. Sure, I burned the first ones a little. But the point is they didn't even try to stick. I think this batter just doesn't like being squeezed and pressed flat.  

I didn't even have to wipe any batter residue off the iron before putting it away-- they fell out so cleanly. As we have learned, you can't put any waffle recipe onto a pizzelle iron. Some of them turn into horrible stuck-on messes, even if they would have been just fine in a normal waffle maker.

These were better gingerbread waffles than Mrs. Mary Martensen's-- and hers were actually supposed to go on a normal waffle iron. So if you want to add some novelty to your holiday desserts, this could be a really good choice.

Because I really wanted to get pizzelles out of a pizzelle recipe, I thought that perhaps they need a shallower iron. Maybe all those deep notches and grooves are too much for them-- kind of like how some cutout cookies are fine for those octopus cookie cutters with complex flailing tentacles, but others need an easy, plain circle. And as it happens, I had a few spoonfuls of gingerbread left and a shallow-grooved iron at hand!

Well that was pointless.

 

We only got three intact(ish) waffles out of this thing and a lot garbage can fodder. Then I thought "This is not worth the cleanup." I didn't even want to put the rest of the batter into a normal iron. With the calm detachment that comes from throwing out an endeavor, I calmly turned off the burner, slowly closed the iron, and cleared the counters.

I  tried one, and... well, they were like krumkakes that didn't quite make it. They were hard without being crisp, and bland in a way that suggested they tried and failed to do better. So if you like the idea of gingerbread pizzelles, I have two suggestions. You can make krumkakes (recipe here) and add lots of extra spices. Or, you can let the pizzelle iron rest and make gingersnaps instead. This recipe just does not work.

 But the batter wasn't a complete waste. For one thing, we got some tasty gingerbread waffles out of it. Also, you know how I said that every recipe teaches you something new? Well, this one taught me a new way to coax stubbornly hardened batter out of a wafer iron: put a wet paper towel in there after it has cooled, then wait about 20 minutes before brushing it out. Unlike putting the iron directly under the faucet, I don't have to worry about water getting into the hinges and rusting them from within, and I can safely clean the electric iron this way.

Before I could consider this matter finished, I had to know if the gingerbread or the iron was failing me. So, I made honey-nutmeg pizzelles. The recipe has worked every time, and the directions are simply "stir everything together and cook."

I opened the iron on our first attempt and it was just as stuck as the molasses ones. I decided it was time to coax myself into accepting that I had bought a dud. 

Nothing is as joyful as gouging a burnt-in mess with a wooden skewer while your hands get seared.

Then it occurred to me-- why not splat the batter onto the other side of it? Maybe the waffle-y side needs to lay flat so the shortening can really get into all those grooves and stars. I notice the flower-y side of this is cut a lot shallower, which might mean the grease can drip into it more easily.

I think I was right because the next one fell right out. Maybe this iron originally came with an instruction sheet that would have said so. At this point, the new iron and I seemed to reach a temporary truce. The rest of the pizzelles fluttered out of it as soon as I held it upside down.

And every single one of them slipped right out. And as a happy bonus, I found that the waffle grids on this hold a lot of filling if I ever want to make sandwich pizzelles.

My orange curd recipe is to buy it on sale.

Nothing oozed out, not even when you bit into it. I thought about making stroopwaffels on this thing.

But I couldn't help noticing that the pizzelles from this iron seemed heftier-- and not in a good way. Just to see if I was imagining things, I made another batch non-gingerbread batter and cooked half on the Ohio iron (the one that's just like my ex's grandmother's) and half on our exciting new Pennsylvania one (the one that looks like we have moved on).

Breaking one of each in half confirmed what I suspected.

Obviously, I am too ignorant to dissertate about how other people should make their pizzelles. I didn't grow up with Italian aunts making them every holiday; I just found recipes online. But I've made enough to know how I like them, and I have to reluctantly admit that Ohio makes a better pizzelle iron.* Look at how translucent these are:

And so, because our Pennsylvanian visitor was not returnable, I let it take flight from the house and find someone new. But we did get a new gingerbread waffle recipe, even if it wasn't meant to be. 

 

 

 

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*If you wonder why I would have problems with Ohio and the cookware made in that state, it's for (admittedly shallow) personal reasons. For those who missed it, I got into making pizzelles after a bad breakup with someone whose family is from Ohio, which has left me salty about the entire state. ↪