Mickey Mouse Cookie Baker -- Pizzelle Party Week

Time for a special "Maker Monday" where I share about an unnecessary but fun small kitchen appliance :) I thought this would be the perfect week to do some posts about pizzelles, thin Italian cookies. Pizzelles are usually baked on a special waffle iron type maker, or sometimes on pizzelle irons that you can cook over the stove. They are very popular around Christmastime and long ago in Italy many families had special pizzelle irons with their family crest on them and they could make batches of these cookies to pass on to friends for the holidays. Pizzelle cookies can be flavored many different ways, but I think that anise is the most traditional and popular. I will try out a new pizzelle recipe every day this week, so preheat your pizzelle irons and get ready to have some fun in the kitchen!

The first pizzelle iron I have to share is the Villaware Mickey Cookie Baker. This one is a favorite of my 2 year old, who was Mickey Mouse for Halloween and loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We made "Original Mickey Cookies" which is just a traditional pizzelle recipe that makes a small batch (30 cookies) and is a great base recipe to play with.

Original Mickey Cookies

3 eggs
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon pure anise extract
1/2 cup butter, margarine - melted - or oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Beat eggs and sugar. Add cool melted butter or margarine, and vanilla and anise. Sift flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture. Batter will be stuff enough to be dropped by soon. Batter can be refrigerated to be used at a later time.

Recipe courtesy of Villaware Mickey Cookie Baker Recipe & Instruction Booklet.

Check back tomorrow for Tuesdays with Dorie and another fun pizzelle maker and recipe!

My Kitchen My World -- Ethiopia

This week My Kitchen My World got to try some Ethiopian cuisine, thank you Elra and Lauren. I had heard quite a bit about Ethiopian food but never had any. I made an amazing bread that we all loved, Ethiopian Honey Bread Aka Yemarina Yewotet Dabo. The directions are very vague so I just went with the ingredient list and found my own way with the baking and rising, I ended up baking it for 30 minutes at 350 and it was perfect! The spices were lovely and the honey made it just a touch sweet. I was debating the coriander amount, one tablespoon of any spice seems like way too much, but I had it on hand and thought, well, what if it really makes this recipe, so I went with the whole tablespoon and was not disappointed or overwhelmed with the coriander in the finished loaf. The kids, my mom, my husband, and myself all loved this bread -- a very rare occurrence around here, since we are a house of picky eaters. I can tell that this will be a new family favorite bread.

I also made an Ethiopian lentil dish, Berbere Stew, which was delicious. I loved that it had the spice mixture for berbere since pre-blended is not something I can find around here. The only spice I was missing was fenugreek, and I hadn't heard about that since I was taking it as a supplement a year and a half ago. While I was taking it as a supplement I had no idea it was also a spice.

I really enjoy the spices and flavors of both of these recipes and can't wait to try some more Ethiopian foods! I am really close to ordering some teff flour so I can make injera which sounds like something I'd really enjoy. What a fun MKMW pick :)