And you thought tacos couldn’t get any better…
I recently saw a breakfast/dessert taco recipe on Pinterest and thought “I could totally do that with pizzelle, berries, ricotta and marscapone!” So, here we are.
Pizzelle are the Southern Italian version of a waffle and they date back to Ancient Rome when they were called crustulum. They are thin, crispy cookie flavored with lemon, vanilla, or anise, and are stamped with a rosetta pattern that looks similar to a stained glass window. They can serve as a crunchy addition to a bowl of gelato, as a vehicle for Nutella (what isn’t a vehicle for Nutella?), or they can be eaten plain with coffee.
Or you could make them into a breakfast taco.
I used my grandmother’s pizzelle press from the 70’s. It is electric and has one setting - hot. You can buy pizzelle presses from Amazon that are much more advanced now. If you don’t have a pizzelle press and aren’t planning on getting one, you can use a waffle press. The shells of your tacos will just not be as thin and may be harder to shape.
Finally, give yourself grazia (grace) when you first give this a try. It’s not easy. My first attempt resulted in the smoke detector going off four times, several burnt cookies, one cookie flying onto the floor, and a couple cuss words from me (in dialect, so hopefully no one noticed). Once you get it, you’ve got it. Until then, grazia.
Pizzelle Breakfast Tacos
For the pizzelle
- 1 stick butter at room temperature
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 tbs. milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 6 drops Young Living Orange Vitality Essential Oil
- 1 drop Young Living Cinnamon Bark Vitality Essential Oil
- 2 cups all purpose, unbleached flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
For the filling
- 1 8oz package whole milk marscapone (cold)
- 1 16oz package whole milk ricotta (cold)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 7 drops Young Living Lemon Vitality Essential Oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Optional toppings: fresh berries, grilled stone fruit, honey, and mint.
Start your pizzelle press up. You’ll want that sucker to be hot.
In a bowl, beat your butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk and essential oils until smooth and fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift your flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until incorporated.
Using either cooking spray or butter, grease the hot pizzelle press (watch your fingers). You are going to want to make one pizzella at a time. Trust me, trying to make and shape more than one results in burnt fingers and bad words. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot press and close the lid. Wait about 30 seconds and check on it.
They will crisp up quickly. Once the cookie is crisp and golden, use a fork to gently lift it off the press.
Now we shape them! This is a good time to either use a glove, or you can just use your hand if you don’t mind the heat. It will be HOT when it comes off the press so please be careful and absolutely use a glove if you prefer. Gently bend the warm pizzella into a taco shape and hold it. It will immediately start to cool off and harden into the shape of a taco. Once it is cooled off a bit (after about a minute) prop it up against something to hold its shape as it cools. I used a plastic container with sides, and propped the pizzella against the side using a glass to hold it in place. As it cools, it will hold its shape without help and can be moved to a plate.
While these guys cool off, start the filling. Take your cold marscapone and ricotta (they must be cold) and beat with the sugar until fluffy. As the poet says “whip it….whip it good.”
Add in the vanilla, vitality oils, and whip until completely fluffy and combined.
Once the pizzelle are cool, you can fill them with the marscapone and top with fruit and honey.
Mangia <3
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