Pizzelle (Italian Waffle Cookies)

Beat eggs and sugar. Beat the eggs and caster sugar together for 3 minutes, until thick and pale. This builds air into the mixture, giving the finished biscuits a lighter, more delicate texture.

Add butter and flavour. Beat in the melted butter, vanilla and lemon zest until smooth. Adding the butter once melted and cooled stops it curdling the eggs.

Fold in the dry ingredients. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt to make a thick, smooth batter that holds its shape briefly on a spoon; add 1-2 tbsp more flour if it looks runny. A batter that's too thin will spread past the edges of the iron's pattern.

Heat the iron. Heat the pizzelle iron according to its instructions, which usually takes 5-10 minutes, and brush it lightly with oil before the very first batch only. After that, the butter already in the batter is enough to stop the cookies sticking.

Cook each batch. Drop a heaped tablespoon of batter just behind the centre of each pattern, close the iron and cook for 30-60 seconds, though timing varies between irons. Look for an even pale golden colour and for the steam from the iron to stop, which signals the cookies are cooked through.

Shape while warm. Lift the pizzelle onto a wire rack; they stay soft and pliable for a few seconds before crisping as they cool, so this is your window to roll them round a handle into tubes if you'd like that shape. Once crisp, they hold their shape permanently.

Trim and finish. Trim any ragged edges with scissors once the pizzelle are cool, then dust with icing sugar. Trimming after cooling avoids cracking the brittle biscuits.