I just want to preface this by saying that normally I'd just post this in the monthly thread, but I put a ton of time into this and it's my first proper release to the community, so I'd love some feedback. Thanks all, everyone has been so supportive!
So, growing up in an Italian household with all Italian family members, I've always adored the Christmas time for the unique pastries and other confections that my relatives make. I thought I'd turn my attention to one of my very favorities: Anise pizzelles with powdered sugar.
I knew this was going to be a complicated recipe, but I'm not sure I knew what I was getting myself into. Balancing anise as a flavoring is really hard. Too little and it's barely a faint whisper behind the cookie and vanilla notes. Too much and it's like you are eating a licorice candy instead.
After working out those bugs, the hard part for me was to make the powdered sugar work. It was only today that I figured out how to make the recipe work and have the powdered sugar note actually come together properly. I have to give a shout out to Wayne, as I totally stole/modified your powdered sugar notes you use in Rhodonite since it was the only combo of notes I could get that was even close.
As for the cookie itself, I new I wanted to use CAP Sugar Cookie since it's a great note, and combined with FA Cookie it really gets the crispy, sweet cookie note down perfectly. I don't want to drown this recipe in text and explanations for everything I did, but do know that pizzelles are a very eggy cookie, and after many attempts with various vanillas I just couldn't get the right balance of egg to work out without a custard note. So, I combined both FLV Vanilla Custard and good ol' CAP Vanilla Custard V1 together, which I feel is key. The FLV is much eggier than the CAP, so without it, it doesn't really taste like a pizzelle.
Recipe:
Italian Pizzelle
Ingredient| % ---|--- CAP Sugar Cookie| 2 CAP Vanilla Custard V1| 2 FLV Vanilla Custard| 1 FA Marshmallow| 1 FA Cookie| 2 FW Yellow Cake| 1 FA Anise| 0.5 FA Meringue| 1 FA Torrone| 0.5
It's okay straight away after mixing, but after a few days that slightly odd note from the Vanilla Custard V1 goes away and things get better.
Ah a fellow Italian, I love the fact that you are keeping it classy and whipped up a pizzelle! Especially since its a rather modest cookie save for the traditional anise flavor, translating it into a vape requires a lot of creativity to make it extra interesting which I think you showed up quite well on.
Quick read through of it, looks very well put together. Meringue will enhance the egginess of the custard, as well as the inclusion of FLV's Vanilla Custard (which I'm a huge fan of for its versatility particularly around low percentages). FA Custard would of also worked if you wanted to try a lemon zest pizzelle variation.
FA Cookie, CAP Sugar Cookie, Meringue, Anise, Custards - all are around good percentages that let the cookie shine while supporting it in the way you described.
Torrone is a nice touch, having a little nuttiness to fill in the space between custard and cookie flavors you are using. I usually like it just a little lower when I'm using other flavors high in pyrazines like fa cookie, around 0.2-0.3%. but 0.5% is still within reason if you want a little extra almond. Also a clever way to naturally sweeten the blend in a way that only adds rather than distracts from the overall profile.
All this being said, I don't think you need FW's Yellow Cake. With the inclusion of CAP's Sugar Cookie, you are already getting the extra butter/flour you need for the cookie. Dropping this will let the cookie shine through more and leave more room for the nuances of anise and torrone to be seen.
Marshmallow between 0.25-1% is at your discretion. I would personally drop this to 0.50% to allow the cookie to remain a little "crunchy" and give it extra room in your mix to pop out.
Solid recipe!
-Joe
Thanks for the notes, Joe! I tried it without the Yellow Cake a few times, trying to figure out what it was about it that made me feel like it was needed, and I think it's the slightly bready/cakey texture. A good pizzelle is both crunchy and just so slightly chewy on the inside (which is really, really hard to do both in baking and vaping). I thought by adding the yellow cake it would help with the latter. It's not a major difference though, that's to be sure.
As for the marshmallow, that was more of a mouth feel thing. I kept getting this almost scratchy, dryness with my earlier iterations, so I added some marshmallow to smooth it out and sweeten it a little further. I'd say you can either drop it altogether or lower it to whatever works best for you. That was more of a personal preference call after messing around.
EDIT: Oh, also on the Torrone, I made it initially for many batches with a ratio more like how you suggested, 0.25%. However, I found that the powdered sugar really benefits from Torrone (which is what Wayne mentioned in his DIYorDIE recipe notes on his site for Rhodonite). So, I thought I'd boost it just a hair to see if I could get just a hint of almond out of it alongside the powdered sugar, and it worked! It's very light, but as you said, it helps blend the custard and cookie together nicely.
Ah I would of thought with the custard it would not of been too scratchy. I use CAP Butter Cream in a similar way to smooth out one of my bakery/cookie type recipes, for not only mouth feel but also a hint of butter type flavor.
Regardless I'm always as critical as possible. Lovely job adapting wayne's recipe and putting your own spin on it to create a pizzelle. I'll whip this up later when I get the time, any time anise is involved my interest is peaked, haha.
Thanks! Yeah, I used his as sort of a baseline to work from since I knew I liked the way his cookie turned out, but I still wanted plenty of room to make something I could really call my own. I tried messing around with percentages of the stuff he suggested, but honestly I liked it where it was. I could have messed with it and left it at a percent or so different, but eh, I like it as is! It was really mostly for the powdered sugar notes though, as I had already figured the 2% cookie myself just through trial and error :P. I hadn't even thought of Rhodonite until today when I was vaping it.
Bravo.
Up next, cannoli. Please. :]
Fog Mafia Vendetta is a chocolate chip cannoli. One of the few I've been trying to "clone".
Vanilla Custard, Sweet Cream, Sugar Cookie. I've got that part down. The chocolate chips however...
Is it just me or do pizzelles look like pastry doilies?
Great job on the recipe though! I can imagine how well the anise goes with the almond flavor in torrone.
Just mixed. 15 ml 70 vg 3mg. Velocity RDA dual coil .2 @ 50w Initial thoughts- Pretty tasty off rip.The anise is perfect for me. Big billowy eggy notes on exhale. Once it calms down, It tastes like the powdered sugar will be clearer/sharpen up on the finish. Gettings the sweet cookies and the anise strongest upfront on the draw. Buttery on both ends. Pretty interested to see how it bakes together on a cure.
Tweaks/Variations - The marshmallow may be crowding the other flavors a tad? It tastes a little "loud" right now, but the mix is still fresh so IDK. A variation with a light citrus note.. a bright natural lemon more than likely would be a good counterpoint or based on the torrone note and the reference pastry...pull a zesty orange, FA mandarin for sure here! I think that would be pretty fun/different. As a topping cherry maybe? Might be able to amp up the almond note and do a cherry/almond topping thing. Found a recipe for Orange Cardamom Pizelles..that is light years beyond what I can mix..sounds stellar, though.
I am learning to mix still so YMMV, but these are my notes. Thanks for the recipe and more so for doing something unique.
Wow, thanks for the notes! I was trying in the original recipe to keep things a little simple in terms of flavor profile. I was going for realistic, homemade pizzelle, which hopefully I did right. I was eating a lot of fresh pizzelles to try and get it right (which was the fun part)!
I definitely want to try adding some lemon style notes, since that's another classic pizzelle (though one I've never had). I bet upping FA Meringue would do nicely, maybe instead of the marshmallow. Then I could add either some FLV Lemonade or FA Lemon Sicily to compliment it in a very low % since both of those are pretty strong. The issue would be that you want a very authentic lemon flavor, and I'm not sure either of them really deliver that.
Yup, I feel like you did. Those were just my notes man. It tastes good so far. I am in no position skill wise to authoritatively "improve" or tweak someone's recipe. Those notes are my perception of the taste (since I am working on my palate..if I am missing something let me know) and ideas for making variations and remixing thoughts for making another batch;)
As far as lemon... I am not the best person here to ask. I feel like whatever lemon it is should be a light zesty lemon. I don't have flavor notes done yet for shisha lemon and lemon mix yet or I might have better input. Right now... it would be lemon Sicily and maybe add fa custard? I am not to the point I know what I am doing without a lot of trial and error here. I really think the FA Mandarin might be bang up unless you hate orange.
I figure if someone with through revs and cures and got to the point that they are comfortable sharing with other people, the recipe is done for them, no suggestions on making it "better" needed unless they are specifically asking.
can Fa Custard be subbed for FLV vanilla custard in this or will the lemon throw off the recipe ?
I'd say give it a shot. The FLV vanilla custard made a pretty big difference in my testing, but even if it does throw it off, lemon zest is common in pizzelles so if you find it tastes a bit off try omitting the anise and boosting the lemon notes with a lemon of your choice.
I know this post is a month old, but, I've been enjoying this one for days and had to stop in to thank you for it. It's so complex and satisfying, and works at so many wattages. Great with coffee in the morning, and great after dinner. Beautiful recipe, /u/OctaVariuM8!
Is this made with v2 sugar cookie or v1? I assume v1 since no mention, and v2 probably wasn't out yet when you made this recipe. Thanks! :)