Carol Comegno|The Courier-Post
One of the world’s ancient Christmas cookies is still popular today – the Italian pizzelle, a flatwaffle cookie with snowflake or other delicate, double-sided designs.
In the U.S. they are traditionally round but some carrya lacy, scalloped edge. They can be eaten several ways — plain or with powered sugar, rolled into shells for cannoli when freshly made and still warm or as a sweet sandwich with jelly,ricotta cream or ice cream or gelato between two of the delicate cookies.
Pizzelle originated centuries ago in the Abruzzo region of south-central Italy, according to 19th-century Italian historian Giuseppe Tassini, and are still common in the neighboring regions of Molise (formerly part of Abruzzo) and Lazio, home of Rome. Some say their heritage can be traced to a similar Roman sweet dating to the 8th century and called crustule or crustulum.
WATCH: How Italian pizzelle are made
The Del Buono’s Pizzelle Company in Bellmawr makes an average of 6,000 pizzelle a day.
Chris LaChall/Staff Photographer
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Also known by the names ferratelle or cancelle, pizzelle means little pizza and comes from the Italian word “pizze,” meaning round or flat.
So, where can I find pizzelle?
Some people pronounce the cookie name “pizzell,” using the old-school Abruzzo dialect and dropping the final vowel “e” (piz-zell-a). Regardless of what people call them, Italians and non-Italians alike have their preference for a particular flavorand how they like their cookie pressed – either very thin and light as a snowflake or thicker and more crispy.
That is why devoted pizzelle devotees usually prefer to make themat home instead of buying a national maufacturer'sbrand at a supermarket.
However, there are afew Italian businesses that make them locally.
Tucked away in a nondescript building with no name on Browning Road in Bellmawr is Del Buono’s Pizzelle Company, an unautomated, hands-on operation with 15 employees who make an average 6,000 pizzelle a day.
There these sweets, or "i dolci" in Italian, are being traditionally made from sifted flour, fresh eggs, sugar, baking powder, vegetable oil and natural flavorings, especially anise. They are pressed in waffle irons in keeping with what owner Tom Whitman says is the company motto of his other Del Buono's bakery businesses: “ 'Quality is How We Roll,' or in this case, how they press.''
“It’s very old-school like our bakery, but with high production and we only use high- quality ingredients —nothing artificial,” says owner Tom Whitman, who also owns Del Buono’s Bakery and factory in Haddon Heights and its retail outlets in Marlton and Stratford. Allsell the Heights factory breads and rolls and also the pizzelle, biscotti chocolate-covered pretzels and pound cake made at the Bellmawr plant.
“My employees do this work with care and put love into it.”
Subsequent to buying the bakery three years ago from Nino Del Buono, Whitman purchased the privately owned pizzelle company in Bellmawr, which traditionally had been supplying its products to the bakery in Haddon Heights and to its two other retail outlets.
“I wanted to expand our pizzelle sales, but they couldn’t supply me with enough, so I bought the company and added employees and pizzelleirons,” Whitman explained.
The licorice-like anise seed or anise oil is the traditional flavor although vanilla, lemon and other flavors later evolved. This fall the factory made seven flavors that include almond, lemon, chocolate, vanilla and the seasonal pumpkin.
“But by far, our best seller is the anise,” Whitman quickly added as he led a tour of the small factory.
An intense anise aroma from the oil flavoring used in the production permeates every nook and cranny of the Bellmawr factory, which has no conveyer belts or fancy pressing machinery.
Workers form their own assembly line around large tables and a wall of irons for handling the ingredient mixing, pouring, pressing, trimming of the warm cookies’ lacy edges, stacking and packaging.
Factory manager Cheryl Hauske works right alongside chief baker Victor Regino and the other employees as part of the team. “We take care in making a great product and we take pride in what we do,” she said.
After an employee drops batter into the two molds of each iron from a pastry bag, another worker follows him or her down the line to close each iron lid. A pizzelle cooks in just about a minute.
Usually only oneemployee wields the pizzelletrimmer, banging it down over three warm pizzelle at time after they are removed from the irons and tossed onto the production table with spatulas.
Del Buono’s uses its own pizzelle recipe, but also makes the cookies for other companies, such as Cento Fine Foods, a South Jersey-based company that supplies its own pizzellerecipe to Del Buono’s to make them for its Little Gina’s Pizzellesubsidiary.
Pressing it old school ...
Pizzelle were first made centuries ago and one at a time using a long-handled, double iron held over a stove or flame and turned over for even browning on both sides. By the 20th century the introduction of the two-waffle, electric pizzelle iron made the job easier.
Another South Jersey food business, Valente’s Italian Specialties, a new retail food and food-related products store at 7 Kings Court just off Kings Highway in downtown Haddonfield, makesanise, vanilla and chocolate-hazelnut (Nutella) pizzelle for the Christmas holiday. The store also carriesboth the electric and old-fashioned, hand-held irons.
“Nostalgia is big part of our store and we try to bring the old-world feel here. Pizzelle and many of the foods we sell we had growing up. They were made by my nonna (grandmother) and then by my mother,” said Marcello De Feo, whose momwas from a Valente family in Bisenti, Abruzzo.
“We always had pizzelle at the Easter and Christmasholidays. A lot of our customers have Italian roots and have been asking for them,” said the owner, who also brings his Italian fare to the Rittenhouse Farmers Market in Philadelphia on Saturdays.
To DeFeo, making pizzelle by hand is “certainly a labor of love for something that takes about three seconds to eat.”
He also remembers having pizzelle at Italian weddings, often sprinkled with confectioner’s powdered sugar and “confetti,” white candy-coated almonds.
“It’s a bit of heresy to stray from anise, but as kids we liked the vanilla flavor because we would make sandwiches with them using Nutella spread.”
A sweet gift to give
Del Buono’s pizzelle also are sold at food stores, such as McFarlan’s Market at 27 S. Centre St. in Merchantville and 741 Haddon Avenue in Collingswood, which bakes many of its pastries but not pizzelle or biscotti.
“They are nice to eat around the holiday, but we order them all year long because they are very popular with our customers as old-fashioned, local baked goods you can’t find enough of,” said Wendy Sheriff, MacFarlan’s grocery manager, who orders them from Del Buono’s.
Even her 86-year-old, non-Italian father started making pizzelleafter he worked as a painter with an Italian paper hanger who introduced him to them 45 years ago. Her dad fills tin cans with them and gives them as gifts to friends at Christmas.
McFarlan’s customer Gregory Campana frequently comes into the store looking for the Italian waffle wafers to arrive. He prefers the thicker Del Buono’s pizzelle and biscotti because he says they have a stronger flavor and aroma.
Alocal painter and wallpaper hanger who operates his own business, Campana also enjoys sharing his pizzelle with strangers. “When I buy them in the morning, I walk across the street to the café and hand them out to all the diners to have with their breakfast or coffee.”
Joseph Paglione, who was born in Capracotta, Molise,and owns Paglione Clothing men's store in Burlington City, always makes his own at home, preferring the treat as thinas a lace doily.
Paglione brings them to hisstore to hand out to customers and he always has espresso on handas well because, he says, pizzelle and coffee are "perfect together,"
Reach Carol Comegno: @carolcomegno; 856-486-2473; ccomegno@gannettnj,com
Where to buy pizzelle irons Valente's Italian Specialties: 7 Kings Court, Haddonfield. Visitwww.valentes.us/
Fante’s Kitchen: 1006 S. 9th St., Philadelphia. Visitwww.fantes.com/
Kitchen Kapers:1250 Marlkress Road, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Visithttps://www.kitchenkapers.com/
Pizzelle irons are also sold at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Walmart
For pizzelle recipes,visit Fante’s Kitchen website page at https://toquetips.fantes.com/pizzelle/
Also in South Jersey:
- This small Italian shop isn't ready to say ciao to struggling mall
- Carmen's Deli fills new roll at Del Buono's
- WATCH: See how Del Buono's rolls
