Wildguzzi.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Bulldog9 on December 21, 2025, 07:46:09 PM
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In addition to my love for Italian motorcycles, I am ethnically 25%, Italian and culturally, probably 90% Italian being raised by my Italian grandmother and Irish grandfather.
Being that I am married to an amazing cook who is a Japanese/ Mexican hybrid and doesn't bake, I've taken up the Christmas cookie duties, though I have been making Christmas dinner with homemade meatballs, sauce, manicotti (including fresh homemade crepe/ noodle), polenta and fresh homemade pasta for the last 40 years.
So far I've done the Italian Christmas cookies. Each year I do a different variety. I also made pizzelles tonight for the first time because my daughter failed me... Normally she makes four or five batches and I get a nice stack, but with three kids it was too hard for her this year so I decided to make them for our house.
Next up will be the ricotta cookies and strufoli for Christmas Day when they visit.
Because the Italian Christmas cookie recipe is so versatile, I always experiment. The red cookies are a bit larger than I had planned, but they have a cherry in the middle and are topped with a vanilla cherry icing.
The larger flat cookies with white icing are the traditional pinwheel where you roll out the dough thin and form it into a pinwheel spiral and bake, then top with icing. That has just vanilla icing with sprinkles. The smaller balls have anise flavored icing. (My favorite)
This is my first year making pizzelles on my own, and the combination of getting the right amount of dough into the iron and then timing. Timing it properly was quite a challenge for me, when I couldn't remember when I started the batch... 35-30 seconds go fast!
Joyous Noel, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale
(https://i.ibb.co/gZm82s3c/PXL-20251222-005800240.jpg) (https://ibb.co/gZm82s3c)
(https://i.ibb.co/QGv2gNJ/PXL-20251222-005526018.jpg) (https://ibb.co/QGv2gNJ)
(https://i.ibb.co/5hYNLPtn/PXL-20251221-002320740.jpg) (https://ibb.co/5hYNLPtn)
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Looks delicious.
Let's not forget a nice quality Panettone as well!
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There is an old family Italianbakery in Elkader Iowa that provides cookies for the Guzzi rally,check it out.
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You've convinced me. I'll take a half dozen each :evil: MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family! :food:
Paul B :boozing:
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Well done Steve. My wife made a big batch of pizzelles
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My grandmother was Austrian. She always made anise drops at Christmas time for the whole extended family that came for the big day. I looked forward to them every year. After she passed my mom picked up the tradition, she was a terrible cook but her baking was out of this world. Her Anise drops were to kill for as were her blueberry pies. Anyway my first wife tried to make them but they weren't so hot so she never tried again. My wife never tried again. Anyway I like to cook but have never tried baking other than making pizza. My wife works the rest of the week and since it is going to rain the rest of the week and since I could use a break from trying to resurrect that disaster of a T3 I think I will try my hand at making anise drops. Look up the recipe, it is fairly involved. Wish me luck. :popcorn:
kk