If you’re looking for a sign to drop $40 on a pizzelle maker, consider this your sign.

Pizzelles are simple, delicious, and gorgeous, and make a beautiful addition to a Christmas cookie platter. But in the time you spend admiring the lace-like pattern of the pizzelle, someone will swoop in and take them all.

I speak from experience.

Almond Pizzelles

• 4 eggs
• 1/3 c. + 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 c. butter
• 1 T. almond extract
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1 t. amaretto (optional)
• 1/8 t. salt
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1 3/4 c. flour

1. Beat the eggs and sugar for three minutes (at least!) and have it turn a light yellow color
2. Melt the butter in the microwave. Put a spoonful of the egg-sugar mixture in with the butter and stir. Then pour all of that in the mixing bowl.
3. Add extracts and amaretto. Mix until blended.
4. Add salt and baking powder. Mix for 30 seconds.
5. Add flour 1/2 c. at a time, blending for about 10-15 seconds between half cups. When all the flour is in, mix until just combined.
6. Plug in your pizzelle maker and once it’s heated, spray with pam or melt a little butter in it.
7. Scoop 1 T of batter on each bottom pizzelle plates, in the center. If you have a cookie scoop, this will come in handy.
8. Follow the directions of the pizzelle maker–it should be about 60-90 seconds from closing the maker to your two pizzelles being ready. Remove with a spatula. Cool on wire rack.
9. Dust with powdered sugar.

We love pizzelles around here. I buy them at the grocery store for the kids, and they disappear quickly! My fiancé is half Italian, and I asked if he thought my pizzelles could come close to his grandmother’s.

“There’s no way,” he said.

I believe him. I’m not Italian. I had no Italian Nonna making these cookies for me. I found them in a cookbook 10 years ago, and became an admirer. These weren’t my teething biscuits like they were for my fiancé. (Or so I assume they were.) And sadly, when his grandmother died years ago, he thinks her recipe went with her.

But he did say mine were pretty good, and as an Italian-adjacent, I’ll take whatever compliment I can get in this department.