Italian Waffle Cookies

Photo: flickr user charlottedallot

Ingredients

1/2 cup Crisco

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour, sifted

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (or anise)

1 teaspoon orange flavoring (or lemon)

Rind of 2 lg. oranges grated (or lemon)

Pizzelle cookie baker (can be found in kitchen gourmet stores and resembles a

Preparation

Beat eggs; add sugar and cooled melted Crisco. Add flavorings and grated rinds. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and blend thoroughly.

To make cookies, about 1 1/2 teaspoon of cookie dough is needed for each cookie. Follow directions for baking according to those included in the cookie baker. It helps when handling the dough if it has been refrigerated for awhile to make the consistency more like pie dough.

The easy way to handle this is to put your mixed cookie dough in refrigerator (or freezer) until it has the consistency of pie dough (about 1/2 hour). Flour sheet of waxed paper (about 10-inches long), put cookie dough down center like a sausage and roll in waxed paper. Will probably need 2 or 3 sheets of floured waxed paper.

Put these rolls in freezer (about 1 hour) and when hard, unwrap the dough from the waxed paper and slice. Make slices equal to about 1 1/2 teaspoons and lay on floured waxed paper. Use these slices to make cookies in the baker according to baker directions.