brown butter cinnamon pizzelles.

I'm back! Please do excuse my rather long absence. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Things are slowly calming down and retuning to normal, but even so, I've yet to begin the recovery process yet. Just trying to let reality sink back in, after losing my mentor in life and in the kitchen. For today's post, I bring you something sweet, as requested by a darling friend.

Anyway, it's been quite hot as of late. The weather's been erratic, with one day being as hot as a midsummer's day and the next carrying the sharp sting of winter's breath. Yet, for now it's been really hot~ so that gives me a reason to indulge in ice cream (aside from nursing my poor soul and heart).

I went to my local grocer's, returning with a container of ube (taro) and red bean ice cream, deciding to deviate from the norms of vanilla and chocolate flavors. The ube has a nice mellow, almost coconut-like flavor to it while the red beans add a bit of contrast to the smooth texture of the ice cream. Though, truthfully, I bought it because it was purple. >_>; I'm a sucker for colorful things. After indulging for a bit whilst staring at the container of that purple-ly goodness, I thought, if only there was some crunchy counter-part to this. And the first thing that came to mind was...

 

Pizzelles! And not just your ordinary ones, but brown butter pizzelles with a dash of cinnamon. The brown butter adds an extra layer of depth to the cookies so it can stand up to the intensity of the ice cream, while the cinnamon cuts through its richness. These are also lovely dipped into a steaming cup of tea or coffee. Or just by themselves whilst browsing cute dresses online. =]

 To brown butter, simply melt it as you would ordinarily in a saucepan, but allowing it to remain on the heat until the milk solids begin to turn a light shade of brown (or a bit darker for a nuttier flavor).

 brown butter cinnamon pizzelles 

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

we'll need:

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup browned butter (cooled)

1/2tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cup flour

2tsp baking powder

Optional: ice cream of your choice to serve

utensils:

pizzelle press

mixing bowl

measuring spoons/cups

whisk

sieve

small pairing knife

cooling rack

~In the mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Then add the cooled browned butter, cinnamon and vanilla extract to the sugar mixture. Next, sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and incorporate until it comes together as a loose dough-y mixture. Spoon the mixture by tablespoonfuls into the pizzelle press and cook according to the instructions.

~Remove the cookies with the tip of the knife and carefully set it on a cooling rack to let harden. (Note: While it's still hot, you can roll the cookies into cones or place it over a bowl to shape them)

For a chocolate version: add 3tbls of cocoa powder + 3tbls sugar, omit the cinnamon if desired. 

To serve, you can spread a thick layer of ice cream on one cookie, topping it with fruits, nuts, whipped cream.. etc. Or you can make ice cream sandwiches with them!