Grandmom Piccone's Pizzelles

Italian Anise "waffle" cookies. Requires a pizzelle iron. This recipe was given to my Mom from the mother of her confirmation sponsor, Mary Piccone aka "Aunt Mary Tootsie Wootz". Mom said that Grandmom Piccone would make these cookies year round, and always had them available when people visited. She would make them with a handheld iron over the stove burner. She didn't have a recipe written down, so my Mother sat with her one day while she made them and took the ingredients and put them in measuring cups to record the recipe.

• Ready In: 1 hr 20 mins
• Yields: 48-60 cookies

Ingredients

• 8  eggs
• 7  ounces  melted  Crisco
• 1 1⁄4 cups sugar
• 1 (1 ounce) bottle  anise extract or 2  teaspoons  anise oil
• 2 1⁄2 cups flour

Directions

1. Beat eggs and sugar until light and foamy.
2. Add melted shortening a little at a time.(make sure shortening is slightly cool, if it is too hot, it will cook the eggs!).
3. Add anise oil.
4. Gradually add flour to make a very light dough.
5. Drop onto pizzelle iron with a teaspoon to cook.