Galettes (French Waffles)
Day 2: For the second day of the 12 days of Christmas cookies, I’m bringing you the very epitome of a tried and true family favorite recipe – Galettes! My grandmother has been making these cookies year after year for as long as I can remember (along with these Classic Italian Pizzelles!). It doesn’t feel like Christmas until we make these cookies!
These days, my mom and I do all the work, but we still use my grandma’s recipe, and it still produces the same soft waffle-shaped cookie that we all love. The only change we made is that sometimes, we dip the edges in white chocolate. (Mike loves this, my dad does not. In his mind, why mess with an already great cookie?)
As you can see below, you need a galette iron to make these. You make the cookies 2 at a time, which can be quite time consuming, but we always set up a table in the living room, put in a movie, and make an evening out of it.
If you are lucky enough to have a galette iron lying around your house, I would definitely recommend these cookies. And if you don’t have one but want one, they are available on Amazon!
These cookies are some of Mike’s favorites. They’re nice and soft, have just the right amount of sweetness, and they’re fun and unique. Is this a family tradition for anybody else? Has anybody else even had these wonderful cookies? Leave a comment and let me know 🙂
For a dessert that has reached legendary status in Mike’s family, check out this classic Blueberry Pudding Dessert from his grandma!
P.S. You can see all of my Christmas treat recipes from over the years at this Christmas Cookies tag. Enjoy! And, as always, let me know if you try any and how you liked them.
Galettes (French Waffles)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 6 eggs, separated
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
Directions:
- Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks and mix. Add vanilla and mix. Add dry ingredients.
- Beat egg whites in separate bowl until stiff. Fold gently into batter and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
- Drop by spoonfuls (2 at a time) onto galette maker. Close lid and let cook for approximately 1 minute.
- Remove cookies to wire rack and repeat.
Welcome! I'm Megan and it's my hope that here you'll find food that has been made with love and recipes that are shared with joy. Thanks for stopping by! 
These look so good. I have never had them before!
I grew up eating this as kids, my mothers French so she had the actual iron that you had to put on your stove and you would have to keep flipping it over to brown each side but now she has the actual iron that she went out and bought, but hers called for whiskey but they are very good
I also grew up with these fabulous cookies. My grandmother made them on the same kind of iron. It’s been passed down over the years and my daughter and I still use it today. We love doing it the “old fashioned” way. Gram’s recipe also called for whiskey!
Oh wow, I love these! Def a new cookie I have to try one day and how can anybody not like it dipped in chocolate? Yumm… waffles…
Those are so neat! I wish I had the iron to make them at home 🙂
The recipe in my family (originally from the Alsace-Lorrain region) is approximately 130+ years old – at least according to my late father. We use a Palmer iron on the stove to to cook them. My cousins experiment with all types of flavors but the original is my favorite. The key is to cook them quickly so they don’t get hard, just crispy on the outside. They freeze well also.
Thanks for your comment on my blog. These cookies look great! These are a kind of cookie I have never tried before, I am eager to give them a go. Have a great day!
These are definitely one of a kind cookies. My mother puts whiskey in hers, but you definitely have to have the special waffle iron to make them in because if you use just a regular waffle iron that you would make waffles for like breakfast, it will not work my mother’s friend tried to do it one time and it did not come out. They came out hard as a rock so you have to have a special iron to do them. That’s the bad part because if you don’t have the iron, you can’t make them.
I have my aunties recipe but she didn’t write how much whiskey.
Oh I had the them and they were delicious! Any topping in the world goes with these and they are perfect plain too.
My mother would make these cookies for us every Christmas because she was from France and she had the original iron that you would stick on top of the stove and you would have to keep flipping it so she eventually he recently bought one of the actual Electric irons, but her recipe called for whiskey But they’re very good
Gala – I'm so glad someone else has had these! I was starting to feel like I was the only one. 🙂
wow! I have never seen anyone else make these besides my former MIL. She called them "gullets" (maybe the WV accent had something to do with the different name?) She always made them on a regular waffle iron, making them about 2" rounds. I liked them as soon as they came off the iron, everyone else liked them the next day.
My mom also made every year on regular waffle iron. She was German, we’re from Pittsburgh and also call them gullets. They’re a great sturdy Christmas cookie!
My mothers originally from France, but we grew up on these cookies. She had the original iron that you were had to flip it over to brown it on each side, but she eventually got the electric iron once they came out with them, but her recipe called for whiskey, and we make them every Christmas. 00 yeah. But I would like to give you a recipe if you have the iron to make it because you have to have the iron ore it won’t work but hers calls for 5 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar three sticks of butter melted have to be the Land O Lakes eight eggs +3 teaspoons of whiskey and you drop it by the teaspoon so hopefully you enjoyed this recipe.
We never have those plain. We make little sandwiches with chocolate filling. I didn't know they're so popular worldwide.
I am the same way I’m very surprised to see that other people have enjoyed these cookies as well because my mothers from France and she made these cookies every Christmas her and my grandmother but they had the original iron were you could only make one at a time and then you have to adjust the temperature to get them just right but she recently bought the electric iron so now you can make two so we make these every Christmas but hers calls for whiskey
My mom bought a waffle iron not too long ago and has been trying to find an old family waffle recipe that seems to have fallen off the face of the planet.
So I showed her this one, she can't wait to try them and see if they are just like her aunt used to make. I can't wait either because those were apparently some pretty darn good waffles.
Thanks for the recipe can't wait to get home from university to make them!
My mother is from France and she would make these cookies every year for Christmas but her recipe called for whiskey. She would use 5 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar three sticks of butter melted had to be the Land O Lakes eight eggs +3 teaspoons of whiskey so she would just buy the little whiskey bottles and she would use those to make the cookies every year but they turned out really good.
Kim – I wondered if you could make them on a regular waffle iron! I'll have to try that – thanks for the tip 🙂
defythewind – adding a chocolate filling to these sounds amazing!
be_your_self4 – I hope you and your mom like these! Stop back and let me know how they turn out. 🙂
I can tell you you cannot make them on a regular iron because my mother’s friend wanted to make this recipe and she tried it on a regular iron for some reason it will not work
My family makes them every year at Christmas. We always look forward to gettig a big bag of grandma's Galettes! They are perfect tea or coffee time snacks as well.
Nice to see that somebody else has a tradition as well because that was the only time my mother really made them was for Christmas but her recipe was different than this one hurts called for 3 teaspoons of whiskey, and then of course she would have the Land O Lakes butter, the eggs and flour and sugar but if you’re interested in the recipe, I will gladly give it to you because it makes a really big batch and they’re really good
Oh yes. I would like your recipe. Please send to: eorrforever@gmail.com
J – It's always great to hear from someone else who has had these cookies! You're right – they're great with a cup of tea 🙂
This is something my grandma always made and loved them, she died when I was 10 and we could never find someone else that made them… awesome, thanks for the recipe
I have made these in years past when my children were little and made ice cream sandwhiches out of them. I also made Chocolate waffle cookies so we could have a variation on the ice-cream sandwhich. Love them. I had not made these in many years but you have inspired me to make them for my grandchildren. I love you blog
Katie – chocolate waffle cookie ice cream sandwiches sound incredible. thank you for that wonderful idea! 🙂
I actually have an iron that you use on the stove that makes them one at a time!!! Talk about time consuming!!! I'm looking forward to buying the electric waffle iron. My question for you is, how does this iron differ from a pizzelle iron? or does it?
LOVE these cookies!!! Make them every Christmas! (for HOURS!!!)
Thanks for the info!
Brenda LaRue
My great grand parents are from Belgium I have 2 different recipes from them with and without alchohol I have used their cast iron single iron and an electric but they are all good along with their sugar pie
May I have t your recipe?
I can understand the time consuming because my mother had the original iron as well. We would have to get the temperature just right and the first couple cookies that came out. We would eventually eat because they were too dark so then my mother would have to adjust the temperature just to get them to the right brownness but her recipe cost for whiskey and we made these cookies every year so this is the first year I won’t have those cookies because my mother moved so I have her iron but I have to get it out of storage to possibly make them
Brenda – Thanks so much for your comment! I love finding other people who know about these cookies 🙂 And I can't imagine making 1 at a time – 2 at a time is time consuming enough!
To answer your question, this iron is different than a pizzelle iron. The pizzelle iron makes thin, crispy cookies, and this iron must be deeper because it makes thicker soft cookies. I hope it works out well for you!
Hi, ladies! My mother’s family makes these, as well. This is NOT the same recipe. My grandfather worked as a baker and candy maker, and I have his galette and pizzelle irons (one homemade!)that create ONE cookie at a time. Fortunately, I also have a modern, electric iron.
This is not the recipe we’ve used as well a recipe called for 3 teaspoons of whiskey, and then you would use the Land O Lakes butter, the eggs, sugar, and flour, and then you would mix it all together and it would make a big batch, but we made these every Christmas
I’m glad I found where people are making these cookies because I’ve never known of anybody else to make these cookies because this is something my mother always made for us at Christmas time because she’s French and these are the French cookies that she made us but nobody ever had the iron where I live so we would always have to make the cookies for them, and she made the puzzles as well but we only made them at Christmas time so I looked forward to these cookies, but they are definitely time consuming when you make it on the original iron that you have to keep flipping it took us forever to make cookies
Hi Megan,
I love these cookies. My family makes them as well. Our recipe is slightly different – we use brown sugar along with the regular sugar. Here is our recipe: http://cucina.grandinetti.org/recipes/desserts/cookies/gallettes. Looking forward to trying your recipe.
Cheryl
I definitely want to get your recipe because our recipe is different as well. We put whiskey in our cookies and it cost for 5 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar three sticks of butter melted the Land O Lakes eight eggs +3 teaspoons of whiskey. They are really good. I didn’t know there was other versions.
Is there anyway that I can get your recipe that calls for brown sugar because my mother would be interested in learning how other people do the recipe versus the one she’s always used for the longest time with use this recipe if you would like to email me the recipe that would be OK. My email is rrae39ra@gmail.com thanks I tried pushing the button that showed me your recipe was and I couldn’t find it
Please May I have your recipe please. My email is foesr1@msn.com
I have my aunties recipe but she didn’t write how much whiskey. How much brown sugar?
Cheryl – thanks so much for your comment! I love hearing from other people who have had these cookies. Brown sugar would be an interesting variation I'm sure! 🙂
Cheryl – thanks so much for your comment! I love hearing from other people who have had these cookies. Brown sugar would be an interesting variation I'm sure! 🙂
Here’s another Cheryl ringing in about gullets (or gallettes – oh so many spellings! and the spelling got so Americanized after our grandmothers came to the US). I just made my first “batch” of the season – actually they are for a friend’s daughter’s wedding cookie table, not for the holidays. I wrote a little memoire about my family’s history of making these cookies and about what it means to have the memories of making them with my aunt and mom. If you are still interested in this post, I can send the story to you – you might enjoy reading it – it’s about passing the iron on down the generations.
Cheryl – I would love to read it! Thank you for offering! You can email me at whatmegansmaking[at]gmail[dot]com. 🙂
Thank you I had a Recipe from my sister she passed away but then I found this recipe and it’s the same that she made thank you so much.
can I see your gullet post please?
I have been looking for this recipe! I can’t wait to try yours. One of my very favorite cookies!
If you would like another version, this is my mothers recipe that we’ve used for the longest time over 47 years we’ve been using this recipe but it calls for 5 cup of flour, 3 cups of sugar three sticks of butter. She uses the Land O Lakes eight eggs +3 teaspoons of whiskey and you pretty much do the better the same way you do the wet ingredients in the dry ingredients and then you mix it all together but I hope you enjoy the recipe. It does make a lot.
I remember these cookies that my grandmother used to make and when I saw the picture of them it even brought back fonder memories….. how I miss them…. hopefully I can make some this Christmas… Thanks so very much for more information on them… although I have my mothers recipe (from my grandmother) I didn’t realize that you refrigerated them before cooking them… I do remember that I tried to use margarine instead of real butter and it just didn’t work at all…..
I’m so glad I could help you out with an old family recipe – these cookies just make me think of family Christmas memories 🙂
Diversion my mother does you don’t have to refrigerate them at all you just put in all the ingredients mix it up and then you put it into the iron but her version calls for 3 teaspoons of whiskey and it’s really good
The previous comment didn’t come out right but my mother’s version you don’t have to refrigerate them at all. Hers calls for 3 teaspoons of whiskey though and you use the Land O Lakes butter. She said you cannot use regular butter. It just doesn’t turn out right now if you would like the recipe, I’ll give it to y
My grandparents came from Belgium in the early 1900’s and my mother was born here in the USA. When my grandmother came here she also brought with her galette irons from her home country. There were about 4 cast iron ones that went to my 3 aunts and mother. Today my brother has 2 and I have 2. We also found one made of aluminum at a store in Uniontown, PA and my aunts bought me one of those and it works great. I also found some on line about 18 years ago and have not been able to locate any since. My family has made these for years at Christmas and of course family weddings and its something I look forward to every year. My mother is now gone and so are my aunts but my family carries on the tradition. Our receipe is someone different than this as it may be due to the different parts of Belgium where people came from.
What a sweet comment, thank you for sharing! This is one of those recipes that really makes you think of family 🙂
Hey Megan,
Growing up in the 50’s / 60’s in SW Pa, I remember helping make these in irons on a gas stove at Christmas and for family weddings. Recently cleaned out my 89 year old mothers home (she moved to a PC), found the irons and reminissed. I plan on making them soon to your recipe that seems similar or mom’s if I can find it.
What wonderful memories! I love that this recipe seems to strike a chord with people. Those old family recipes are the best 🙂
I’m so glad I ran across your blog post. I can’t find my grandmother’s recipe and I was looking for a similar one. Your’s seems to be almost identical to what I remember. I also make these on a regular waffle iron but my grandmother made them w/ the iron in the fireplace. They bring back such good memories.
Oh, I’m so glad! It just doesn’t seem like Christmas without these cookies 🙂
These are also a family tradition that my great grandmother made. She learned from her Belgian grandmother and mother. I only attempted them a year or two ago and only have my electric waffle iron to make them in but they still turned out a lot like I remember them. Our family recipe is very simple and has brown sugar instead of white, and whole eggs instead of separated. There is no leavening agent and they call for cinnamon to taste instead of vanilla. My uncle has my great grandmother’s iron that the family must have brought with them. Maybe someday I will get to try them on that! So glad to find others who know of these special cookies; before the internet, I never knew anyone else who made them. Anyway, I am leaving this comment since others who have Belgian heritage seem to be interested in the Galettes. My other passion is genealogy; if you are of Belgian heritage and have the name Lechien in your family or if your Belgian glass worker immigrant ancestors moved to Anderson, Indiana, please message me! I’d love to hear from you. ElizabethAnnette1969@gmail.com Joyeux Noel!
Thanks so much for this comment – I love hearing about everyone’s family traditions with this recipe!
Megan, I have searched for Waffle Cookies before and never found anything, so imagine my surprise when your site pops up picturing my cookies! The recipe is little different, and the waffle iron I use is cast iron and used on the stove top. It came from my Italian grandmother – at one time there was a ring that fit around the burner and you could flip the iron on that. Alas, it was lost many years ago, so I have to pick it up and turn it over cooking the cookie one side at a time. I get a workout as well as a treat! And here I thought I was the only one making them.
How fun that you found my post on these wonderful cookies! I just leave reading all the memories from other people who make them. Like you, I thought we were the only ones who ever still made them. 🙂 Now the question is, my Italian grandmother had a similar recipe, your Italian grandmother had this recipe – but it’s not Italian, is it??
Where can I find the iron you use to make these cookies. My family has made them for years and years but the iron we use is hand held and must be baked over a gas flame. The square holes on them are smaller then the tradional waffle iron. I would live to purchase an electric one. Please let me know! Thank you!!
I think if you look online they sell the waffle iron. I think it’s like $69. It’s not very cheap but you might be able to find it there. Just google Galette waffle iron and you should be able to find it. That’s what my mother found it.
I have these every year. This was also a Christmas tradition in my house as well. We would be up all late cooking them on the stove, since ours was the iron one. I hated these cookies as a kid by now have grown to love them and it is not the holidays if you do not have cookies.
I love hearing about other people’s traditions with these cookies! I agree, it doesn’t feel like Christmas without them. 🙂
Im Hungarian and my grandmother used to make these with an on the stove top cookie iron…..I wojld like to know where I can purchase one….
Amazon has an electric version here. I think it’s the closest to what I am used to using: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NRQ3DI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000NRQ3DI&linkCode=as2&tag=whamegsmak-20
My grandfather, Ferdinand Ducouer, was from Belgium and came to America in 1917 with this recipe in tow. As children, whenever we would visit my grandparents they would have these cookies waiting for us. They are the best! Thank you for sharing the recipe with the world.
I love comments like this – thanks so much for sharing!
My mother and my grandmother were French so we grew up eating these cookies every Christmas but we had the original iron. We had to do one at a time and they took forever to make so my mother would always get us kids to volunteer to help because it took so long to make but I’ll recipe card for whiskey, but I’ve eaten these cookies every year since I was a kid but this year I will not have them because my mother moved, and she was always the one to make the cookies
My Belgian Gma also made them with irons, that are mine now. my recipe was missing the overnight refrigeration. In PA she would let them dry out to make tethers for toddlers, dunkers for adults, and knawers for kids. Wish I could find a way to do this in FL. Thanks
It is interesting that so many of us who grew up with these wonderful treats are from SW PA or WV. We made them one at a time on the stove at Christmas in my grandmother’s kitchen. We used brown sugar and vanilla and also put them in the refrigerator before making them. We rolled them into “bullets” before making them.
I am so glad I stumbled upon your post when doing a search for “French waffle cookies.” My great-grandmother (Italian) made these (along with pizzelle…the Italian waffle cookie). My dad distinctly remembers these, though. And, reading from others’ comments, I am wondering if she learned to make these because they settled in southwest PA (upon arriving from Italy)?? I am excited to find your recipe, because I wasn’t sure about the one I had. Thanks for sharing! You never know how a simple post/sharing like this can affect others! I am going to make these as a big surprise for my dad! 🙂
I love comments like this! How fun that these cookies have so many memories for so many different people. My grandmother was Italian as well, and settled in Southwestern PA, near Pittsburgh. I grew up eating these, but have never seen anyone else make them. Thanks for commenting – I hope your dad loves them!
p.s. my grandma made pizzelle’s too, but I never liked them as well because she flavored them with anise. I need to try her recipe with vanilla instead, just to suit my taste buds. 🙂
We would call these thicker ones “wooflette” and thinner ones galettes. The thinner ones are a stiffer dough and you roll it before pressing. Both pekoe citric galette irons and wooflette iron are available now from a company based out of West Newton PA. I also have old stove top ones. My great grandmother came from Charleroi Belguim to Charleroi Pennsylvania. My sister, cousin and aunt make these each year. I just eat there’s. Haven’t made them in years since my sister took over!
How fun! I love reading everyone’s memories of these cookies. Thanks for commenting!
My family has always enjoyed galettes during the holiday season. My grandfather worked for many years in north-central West Virginia as a pastry chef and candy maker. There is a large Italian immigrant community in the area, though my family is of British and Welsh heritage. My grandfather adopted and adapted the best of the local culinary traditions. My sister and I made these cookies this year, using my Palmer iron. She has the heirloom iron plates that sit atop stove burners, but those are seriously labor-intensive!
Wow, that sounds much more difficult! Glad you are still able to enjoy this wonderful tradition though. 🙂
My family also looks forward to these every year for Christmas! Since they are difficult to stir and are so time consuming my grandmother only makes them for our large family once a year! My grandmother remembers her father (who was full Belgian) doing one at a time over the fire. I’m so excited and amazed at how many others enjoy this! Neat family history!!!
I love seeing these comments! And yes, they are a once a year cookie around here too. My mom just made them the day before Christmas because it doesn’t feel like Christmas without them. 🙂
My Precious Aunt made these every Christmas for as long as I can remember. She passed away last April and this was the first Christmas with her and her delicious cookies. I am so happy to have found the recipe and I plan to make them in her honor next year. Thank you for sharing! 🙂
How wonderful that you will be able to make them in her honor! These cookies always seem to have such wonderful memories associated with them. 🙂
My mother, my aunt, and my neighbor made these every year. They eached modified their receipe to make it their own and would try them out on us to see who made the best. The best was always the one I was currently eating. They all have passed but before they did, they “secretly” gave me their receipes and their irons. I now make them for my family. I like to think that they are here with us during the holidays. 69 year old tradition.
Made these for our work cookie exchange. Very fast and easy. Delicious cookies! Everyone enjoyed them 🙂
I found your blog because my Italian grandmother made them and I’ve always wondered why we called them French Cookies and if they are an Italian recipe. I found another recipe online from Southeast Kansas where my grandma grew up which is also known for its large Italian population. Our family made the first batch since my grandma’s death four years ago and they are already gone. We plan to make more around Christmas when we are back together again. We also make a cookie called turdellis which is a wine dough rolled on a washboard, fried, and dipped in honey, and sprinkled with sugar but I’ve never met anyone else who has ever had them.
I always wondered why my Italian grandmother made “French” waffle cookies too! 🙂 Thanks for your comment, I love reading everyone’s memories with these cookies.
We make the wine cookies too!!! I thought my grandmother made it up I’ve never been able to find a recipe for it.
Our recipe that my mother grew up using because she and my grandmother were from France, they used 3 teaspoons of whiskey and their recipe. It was similar to the one up top except they didn’t do the baking soda. They did the flour, Land O Lakes butter, the eggs and the sugar and then of course the 3 teaspoons of whiskey we made them every year for Christmas.
A dear, sweet friend, who came from France as a baby 100 years or so ago, would make these on a non-electric iron over her fire! Such patience! And then she shared them with our family and others! She is long gone now, but I could never forget opening that Christmas tin each year and smelling the aroma of butter inside! I make pizzelles regularly, and these are not the same at all. I am delighted to find this recipe and will try them on my regular waffle iron and share them in her memory. Thank you for this recipe!
Couldn’t find my recipe this morning, but this one is close — without the baking powder. Mine are therefore thinner and crisp after cooling. My recipe is probably over 100 years old, starts with 2 lb butter, 12 eggs, etc. Thanks for relieving my anxiety I can now celebrate Christmas.
I have another recipe as well. If you would like it my mother, we made this all the time we were growing up because she’s from France and hers called for 5 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar three sticks of butter melted the Land O Lakes 8X +3 teaspoons of whiskey and we made them every year for Christmas so hope you enjoy the recipe.
Sorry, that was supposed to say eight eggs that went in with that recipe
p.s. I too am from southwestern PA. Small town with large french-speaking Beligian population, even had their own church with french services when I was young (in 50’s)
My father is of Belgian descent and these are a family tradition. I am enjoying one as I type this. My great aunt made the “full recipe” (2 lbs butter, 12 eggs, etc.). Wonder how big the mixing bowl was… LOL! Some in family like these soft and doughy while other prefer the rock-hard, break-a-tooth type. We also make pizzelles… and protect them with our lives as they are very delicate and any slight movement of the storage container will result in pizzelle crumbs.
BTW, I am from northern WV near the southwestern PA border.
I am trying to figure out the tradition behind this cookie. My 97 year old grandmother handed down our family’s cast iron waffle cookie maker to me 6 years ago. This was given to her by her mother and her mother’s mother before that. So it’s been in the family for awhile. I know we have ties to Belgian so I think I am on the right trac here. Our recipe is
1lb flour, sugar and butter
6-7 eggs
2 tap of vanilla
We have made these cookies for Christmas my entire life, but I would like to know the tradition behind it… there was something floating around about neighbors went door to door with these cookies to dip in wine and toast to the new year. I have not been able to confirm this however. Any help in finding the origin and tradition surrounding this cookie would be greatly appreciated.
So my family spells it “gauflette”. No baking powder and slways done on a regular waffle iron. At least in my memory. The recipe I have is from my father’s french grandmother who immigrated to West Virginia. And here I thought it was a secret family recipe!
I’ve loved reading the comments and the original post. My grandfather’s family is also from the Charleroi area of Belgium and came to Western PA (California, PA). I inherited his long handled irons and recipe (like Anissa’s, it was a full recipe — I ended up having to use a spaghetti pot as my mixing bowl the only time I made a full batch!). If you are looking for electronic irons to make galettes, you can find them from C. Palmer in West Newton PA (http://www.cpalmermfg.com/) You’ll find them under Belgian Cookie Irons. I’ve had mine for several years and it comes out every Christmas to make these cookies. I’ve never refrigerated my dough before, but will try that this year.
I love these cookies. My great grandmother from Belgium use to make these for New Years. Then my nanny made them for New Years however, no one has the recipe. I remember my nanny use to put whisky in hers, does anyone do this?
BTW, love the story sharing and I’m from PA.
My family has always gotten our electric ones at a manufacturer in western Pennsylvania. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the company (sorry). My grandmother in Pennsylvania always made them and my mom and I have carried on the tradition. The photos of the cookies and the iron look just like ours! My mom has two irons and has them both going at the same time–makes for much faster cookie making! I thought we were the only ones who made these!! How fun to discover all you fellow galette makers with a history like mine!
My husband’s family makes these every year for the holidays. They only have one Galette iron and I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find another one (or more). TIA
I also live in W. PA. I remember eating these as a kid when I went to Italian affairs with my Aunt Lena. About 30 yrs. ago, my Italian landlady made these for her daughter’s graduation party and it brought back many memories of the fun parties with good food, music, and dancing with my aunt.
I have since gotten the recipe from my brother’s girlfriend, who is Italian.
I’ve been married for 56 years I had my mother pizzella iron that one side was a pipizzella two maker and you remove the double plate turn it over and it was a wFgle iron iim scilian ,I call them wafflets using my pizzella recipe but adding several tablespoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt whivh is not in my pizzella recipe.then I make chocolate, anise ,vanilla almond my recipe makes several dozen .I do put the soft dough in icebox overnight .
I’ve been married for 56 years I had my mother pizzella iron that one side was a pizella iron and you remove the double plate turn it over and it was a waffle iron. Iim scilian ,I call them waffeletts using my pizzella recipe but adding several tablespoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt which is not used in my pizzella recipe.then I make chocolate, anise ,vanilla almond we sometimes use powder sugar or dip one end in chocolate icing but I like them plain,light brown and soft .my recipe makes several dozen .I do put the soft dough in icebox overnight .
My family loves Galettes so much that I make them all year long. I have my great great Grandma’s recipe, she was from France. We grew up eating Galettes all the time. Our elderly neighbor made them one at a time on her Galette iron, holding it over the flame of her gas stove. We lived in North Central WV, Clarksburg. I just made dozens for my sister’s wedding. Can’t imagine life without them!
My Mom made these at Christmas time. Where could someone purchase a Gallete iron? Do Belgian Waffle Makers make these same cookies or do you need a Gallete iron?
I think you can get the iron online because my mother had the original iron that you had to do one at a time by flipping it and she recently bought the electric iron, but I think you buy it online somewhere but our recipe called for whiskey, but we made them every year for Christmas
Andrea my family always made turdellis and pita piatas at Christmas. We are in North Central WV and from Calabria Italy
So great to see other people have made these cookiess! I thought my family was the only one. I grew up eating them. My mother made them every Christmas one at a time using an iron over the stove. We called them French cookies. Our family looked forward to them. It wasn’t Christmas without them. My great-grandmother who came from Belgium made them, as well as my grandmother and mother. My aunt still makes them occasionally. We’re from NW Ohio. I miss seeing my mother at the stove making them and eating them warm. Such a special memory. Thanks for posting this recipe. I’m going to try it this year. I have my mother’s recipe card, but she left out some details, so your recipe will help. Merry Christmas!
Karen, I am the same way I thought my family was the only one that made these because the small town that I lived in nobody ever had mentioned that their family had made them because my families from France so we had their original iron well we had to make them one of the time and then my mother eventually got the electric iron. Well you can make two so it goes a lot faster and then her recipe called for whiskey, but we made them every year for Christmas and everybody always wanted us to make them some because they didn’t have the iron to make them
havemade these for about 40 years when I was living next to an elderly French woman with a French accent and she taught me and yes in our house not Christmas wihout our gallettes
My French grandmother made these and passed the recipe on to my mom. We have them every Christmas. Now that my mother has passed away I will carry on the tradition.
Only thing is our recipe is a little different that we add brown sugar and a shot of whiskey.
This is also a cherished family tradition on my mothers side of the family. We go crazy for gallettes in our family, they are so delicious! Our recipe is slightly different but same concept:
1lb butter
2 cups white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
8 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla
2 tsp brandy (or other liquer)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp honey
6.5 cups flour
Tip- use a cookie baller to get uniform sizes!
Thanks for the recipe. I’m definitely passing this on to my mother because she’s French and we grew up making these cookies every year for Christmas except ours called for whiskey, and we didn’t put the brown sugar in it.
These have been a family Christmas tradition in my family forever. However what we call gallettes are much thinner and generally slightly crispier. The cookies you have pictured here we have always called goflettes. I have Irons for each, made from a molds that my grandfather kept. Gallette and goflette making day is always a fun one in my house.
This site is so much fun; my family is from W.Va and we made the galettes too; I have mother’s iron which is a heavy aluminum that goes on a burner and you make one at a time. I have an iron also that is a newer model but is used the same way. A Belgian waffle iron might not work quite the same way but I have wondered about that or an electric maker as well. This year I will use what I have and am looking forward to the treat. We only make them at Christmas. Have a good holiday!!! Thanks for all the sharing.
Hi All! I’ve just turned 70! My great-grandmother was from Liege, Belgium. She made two types of cookies/pastries. The first that us kids loved we called Galettes. These are the the thin, crisp wafers cookies. The other, softer pastry we called a Gaufrette. These very closely resemble the Liege Waffle that is sold on the streets in Liege. The Gaufrette was what the Belgian ladies would eat with coffee as they sat around the table telling dirty stories in French. My great-grandmother and my great-aunt used slightly different recipies none of which have been passed down to me so I use the trial and error method of picking up recipies off the internet. So every year my galettes are a little different. I am fortunate to have both style cast iron waffle irons. Neither my grand-mother or great-aunt used the Pearl Sugar in the Liege recipe but this could possibly be because it was not available in the US. We traditionally make Galettes at Christmas time because they are so labor intensive. The Gaufrettes are made as a special treat when I can find Pearl Sugar and when the mood hits.
hi connie – i noticed the same thing! my family is from SW PA (butler, pa) & my italian Grandma called them “gullets” & made them along with her pizzelles every Christmas. it wasn’t Christmas without them! 🙂
Another WV gal here whose grandfather was born in Charleroi, Belgium but who settled in the South Charleston, WV area as glass makers. My mother still has one of my grandfather’s irons and we make these cookies every Christmas. I have always been told they are a New Year’s cookie. I just ordered an electric Croquade waffle iron from Belgium that has a special plate for gaulettes available – found it on Amazon. It’s supposed to come tomorrow – can’t wait to try it! Happy New Year’s everyone!
I’m in the process of making them now….My mom was from Belgium and always made them for the new year….Now it’s my tradition….I still use her old gaufrettes iron, so it feels like she’s helping me along.
These are my favorite Christmas Cookies, my mother and godmother made them every year. They used a Belgi cast-iron waffle maker to make these cookies. One would hold the iron over the open gas flame on the stove while the other dropped the batter. Brings back so many memories. My mother passed away back in 2011 and my godmother is not in good health.
My great grandmother is from France and she made these all the time, now they have been passed down in the family. Amazing cookie!
I have always made my galettes on a waffle iron, just put a spoonful of dough in each section of the waffle iron, so they will be small than a waffle, also our family recipe is a little different
The recipe, my mother has you cannot make it on a regular wallflower and you had to have the electric one or like the one we had which was the Galette iron. She had a friend that try to make it in the waffle iron and they came out really hard so it’s very interesting that yours turned out OK
We make them too!! Have cast iron waffle irons brought over from Belgium.
My husband likes the more dense firm cookie. What is the recipe for that type, what is the difference in the recipes for the soft and the dense firm cookies ?
I live in Florida now, but originally from Washington, PA.
I have both electric pizelle and galette irons. I have made pizzelles, but not the galettes yet because I wasn’t sure of the recipe.
Any help would be appreciated.
Years later I found your post…and am hoping you are still reading comments. I’ve been making these galettes for years, a family tradition. I have an original iron, very heavy used over an open flame. I tried some of the Palmers electric irons and they just didn’t do the trick as they were not deep enough. Now I see they have a non stick iron! I may try to sell the others and buy this one. Please let me know your family origins and history!
Hello, I’m so glad you found this post! I love hearing everyone’s memories of these cookies. I have only ever used my grandmother’s galette iron, so I’m not sure about the non-stick one. My grandmother’s family was Italian, but lived in Western PA. These seem to be common in that area!
When I got married 51 years ago, my husband’s grandmother, who was French, made these. My love for the “French Cookies” lasted much longer than my marriage. My ex’s mother and grandmother are both gone now. I want to get the iron and make some for my son for Christmas. I know it’s been a long time since he’s had any.
I love the memories these cookies seem to inspire! I hope these turn out as good as the ones you remember 🙂
We call them French Cakes. My mom started making these soon as she could cook. My grandparents had an older neighbor that gave Grandma the recipe when she first married back in the late ’30’s. We loved them as children, & my daughter loves making them with me now. We just use traditional (none Belgium) waffle maker. I only have one other person I know, outside of my family, who grew up with these cookies.
I too am from western pa. My mom made these every year. It was her mother’s recipe. We called them Belgian waffles. I’ve seen the electric irons in specialty Italian stores in Pittsburgh. I bought my from Palmer manufacturing years ago. They also made pizzelle irons.
Our recipe is 1 lb butter, 1 box light brown sugar, 1 c sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, pinch of salt, 1 oz vanilla, 1 oz whiskey, 6 eggs and 5.5 cups of flour. I just finished making them to take to work. They are always a hit.
Yes, I believe we have the Palmer irons for these and for pizzelles. Love these cookies!
Excited to find this. I too am from western Pa. – my Italian mother made these for years, some with maple syrup for a maple flavoring- her own variation-which were delicious. I found her recipe for “Belgen wolf” which made me laugh and cry at the same time. I used a friends recipe but they did not come out soft like my moms did. They are very good, but a little crisper. Does your recipe produce a softer cookie??
Yes, these cookies are definitely soft! Let me know if you try them – I hope they remind you of the ones you grew up with. 🙂
Cheryl, I was also handed down the Belgium waffle iron that my Mother always used. I can close my eyes and listen to the click & clack of her flipping over the iron on our gas stove. I have 5 granddaughters so not sure which one of them will carry on the tradition. I use almond extract exclusively , otherwise , my recipe is close to the one on this page.
I make them with an electric galette iron. You don’t really need to separate the eggs either.
Good to know, I’ve never tried it without separating the eggs.
We never separated, are eggs when we made them my mother was from France and she brought over the original iron that you had to keep flipping over, but her recipe called for whiskey, and we had them every Christmas and sadly this year I will not be having them not unless I get my mothers iron out of storage and I make them here where I’m at now
I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see so many people from southwestern PA (my family came from Point Marion) who still make these! I grew up with my grandmother making them for us one at a time over an open flame. Yes, as someone said above, it’s time consuming…but after trying an electric maker of my own, there really is a difference in how they turn out. The electric version seems to be much drier, and we like ours to be dense but moister (not wet of course).
Our recipe also calls for 4 Roses Whiskey, so for a few years after the distillery left Baltimore and the flavor changed, he refused to eat the galettes because the difference upset him so much. He claimed his aunt learned from the Belgian glass blowers how to make them (in our family they’re also knows as New Year’s Cakes) and that hers were the best. I’ve had the galettes from her daughters and the consistency is much more crispy, and more like a pizzelle!
Anyway, I made them again myself this year after a hiatus and they were much drier (despite the cast iron, one-at-a-time method). So I might be getting ready to update the family recipe!
Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I’ve truly loved reading these comments about “galettes.” Our family legend is that my great-grandmother, who was born in Belgium, emigrated to Point Marion, PA, in the late 1800’s. She brought her galette recipe with her and my family loved eating these treats at Christmas every year. My grandmother inherited her galette irons and the recipe, but when she passed away 20 years ago, nobody could find the irons. I’ve tried a couple of different irons, but the consistency was not the same as those soft, rather dense, delicious treats she made with her hand-held irons that she heated on a stove top. I’m going to order the suggested iron from Amazon and try again! My brother and I used to fight over the last few galettes that were in the package our grandmother brought us…such wonderful memories!
I love this story! Thanks so much for sharing, I hope your cookies turn out just like you remember 🙂
These are one of the Christmas cookies of my childhood. My neighbor would make them, then finally shared the recipe with my mom. My mom would make the batter then my dad would use the galette iron on the stove making one delicious cookie after another. My neighbor’s recipe, handed down from her French mother-in-law, used brown sugar rather than white. The galette iron was borrowed around the neighborhood as we all made these wonderful cookies.
Hello I’m from an Italian family too and every year we had “French WAFFELS” It is so cool to know this was a tradition for so many Italian families…. Bona Natale
Love hearing that this is a tradition in other families! 🙂
Started in 1955. Have made over 200 dozen a year.Got iron and receipe from an old Belguim who was a part of the window glass industry in Vincennes,Indiana..Don’t like the electric irons.Use an aluminum hand iron on top of stove.Does any one know where you can purchase the old irons made from aluminum?
Unfortunately I’m not sure, but I hope someone stops by who can help you out!
My mother’s family has made these for decades. I was beginning to think they were unique to our family though. Mom always called them gaufrettes. When I looked that up on Google, the cookies were all wafer thin. Your recipe is similar to my the one my family uses, but we add a half teaspoon of almond extract as well.
My aunt found a metalworker who was willing to cast several new irons from the original she had. They were given as gifts to her children and nieces to continue the tradition. Though the original iron was cast iron, the replicas were made with aluminum. They seem to do the job just fine though. I believe whoever made the replicas was in Muncie. I hope this helps.
We’ve been making these as long as I’ve been alive which is over 50 years. We have an old family recipe and seems to look similar in the end result but best if in the process you refrigerate overnight. 2 hours just dont cut it. I was taught to roll them into little logs about the circumference of a nickel and the length of 3 inches. They flatten out just right in the iron. Yes, you have to use a waffle iron not a waffle maker. There is a difference in the size of the waffle pattern and effects how they cook.
You also refer to them as a French cookie when I was taught they were a Belgian Waffle Cookie which in semantics the Gullet Cookie or Gulfret is really a French Belgian cookie.
Anyways, many in my family have tried to make them but my mother is the only one who gets them right every year.
Hi Megan, I stumbled across this site back in 1972 but forgot to bookmark it. I commented back then about my iron coming from my Italian grandmother, but didn’t mention the family was from Pennsylvania as well, east of Pittsburgh in the town of Jeanette. Our recipe is called a French Waffle Cookie. I’ve enjoyed reading all the family stories from the past few years and find it so interesting that a French Waffle cookie was made by so many Italian grandmas using a Belgium cookie iron!
Refrigerating the dough isn’t part of my recipe and was wondering how the cookie differs when the dough is refrigerated.
How long can store them ? And how to store them !
I don’t really know how long you can store them. I’m assuming you can’t leave them in too long because we would always store hours in a tin can with foil and we would do a couple on each layer maybe five or so but we would always have them gone within a couple days or so so I think maybe a couple weeks would probably be the max because the longer you store them they’re going to get really hard and they’re not gonna be good
My family also came from Charleroi. I have the cast galette iron they brought with them. I add frangelico to the recipe. yum!
My mother grew up in France but came over here to the United States when she was eight and she grew up in Charleroi so we’ve been making these French cookies for the longest time but we would put whiskey and hours
I’m looking forward to making these. My husband’s French-Italian grandmother made batches for these for all the grandkids at Christmas. She called them “goffs,” so I have never, ever been able to find any recipe for them. But seeing that some families here call them “gauflettes” means that she may have shortened the name. She made them on a regular waffle iron and I think had some almond extract in them as one other commenter mentioned. Now that I have a waffle iron for the first time in my life, I’ll try these over Christmas. Thanks for publishing this, and for all the lovely people who have commented about their family recipes and names. I feel sure these are the “goffs” I’ve been looking for.
Thanks so much for your comment, I love hearing stories like these! I hope this recipe is what you’ve been looking for. 🙂
I’ve always kept them in tupperware or a cookie tin. Storing them for any length of time has never been an issue, but probably a week.
I’m blissfully happy that I’ve stumbled onto your blog!! My paternal grandfather always made what we called “goflats”. Never could find an iron of my own since the spelling was so off. My uncle has the iron and sends all the family cookies at Christmas.
Our recipe is a bit different;
4 cups sugar
8 eggs
3T salt
8-10 cups flour
2 cups butter
2 T vanilla
3 T cinnamon
Never knew about refrigerating before cooking. Now I need to get my hands on the old cast stovetop iron!
Yum, the cinnamon sounds like a good addition!
I love how these cookies go by so many similar names! And the cinnamon sounds like a good addition!
Ours is different as well. Ours calls for the sugar. My mother uses the Land O Lakes butter, the eight eggs and then she puts 3 teaspoons of whiskey, and then you put 5 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar three sticks of melted Land O Lakes butter 8X +3 teaspoons of whiskey so it’s very interesting to see how everybody does there’s different because I only thought there was one version
Hi Megan. Thank you for this delicious recipe. Where can I find the iron maker? I used a waffle maker and they were awful. Thank you and have a blessed New Year.
I grew up eating these at Christmas. I love them. I made them at Christmas and took to work. No one there had ever had them or heard of them. But they loved them.
How many cookies does this recipe make?
I wouldn’t think this recipe would make that many but the recipe my mother uses we always got at least 2 to 3 dozen so I made a lot of cookies but we put whisk in our cookies. I didn’t know there was different versions so it’s very interesting to see how everybody else does theirs, so I’m definitely passing these recipes onto my French mother so she can make the different versions as well.
I’m very glad I came accross this post. My step-great-grandma (known as “Nanny” and quite adored by everybody) was from an Italian family and was a great cook. She made a version of these she called “gouflettes” (pronounced goof-lets). She made them throughout the year and we’d usually get a large ziplock bag-full when she made them. She has since passed and the recipe has been lost years ago. I’ve never known anybody else who made them, so I was worried I’d never be able to have them again, but from your post and all the responses, it looks like I’ve got something to try! One difference between your description and what I remember is that hers were bigger, like the size of a regular Eggo waffle. Also they were very hard and crunchy, not soft. Any idea why that might be? (I’m not much of a cook myself, but I’m excited to try and recreate her recipe if possible!)
My family had enjoyed these cookies since before my mother was born. We call them French Cakes. We had 2 waffle irons that have been handed down through many generations. We hunted for them in my mother’s things after the movef to addisted living and they were not in her house. Im currently looking for one to buy because my daughter eants to carry on this tradition. Like I’ve seen in many comments, Christmas morning didn’t get under way until everyone had their French Cakes.
Hello, My galettes (small waffles)Iron just die. I looked all over on the internet but could not find any with the same size. I had a croquade thet died after aa few uses, and used my old ( 15 years old) Toastmaster, but it just stop working. Toastmaster does not seem to make them anymore . Couls someone tell me where I can find a new one, Thank you
My mom made a double batch of gullettes every Christmas. I have her 2 irons and want to make them this year for the first time. But with an electric stove top, won’t the iron ruin my stovetop? Would using an electric pizzelle maker work? What about using the iron to shape them and then putting them on a cookie sheet and putting them in the oven? I want gullettes again without damaging my electric stove.
Well, they do make an electric Galette maker now because my mother had the one that you had to put on top of the stove and you had to flip it back-and-forth and you had to have the coral stove but most people now have these glass top stoves so you would not be able to use that but you can get the electric one and it does make two at a time instead of one and my mother’s recipe called for whiskey so it’s different to see how everybody else is making there’s
My sister makes these every year and we love them The only difference in the recipe is she uses almond extract instead of vanilla. Delish!
I started making my gullets today – can’t find the beaters to my electric mixer! Dragged out my big stand mixer to use instead – and discovered that my eggs had expired! Since making this is almost a sacred experience for me, and since I wanted to take them to my cousin’s Christmas party tonight – I am almost in tears. SO I came to my computer and thought I’d just reminisce a bit on my home town’s FB page about making gullets (gallettes) and I rediscovered this page. Since I no longer have family members to sit at the table with me to talk about the these cookies and other traditions, it was just great to spend a little time reading through these comments – and sharing memories with folks that I don’t even know, but who share a love for these cookies – but more importantly, for the tradition of making them. Someone referenced being able to hear the sound of the irons as they hit the stove – in a memoir I wrote about making these, I explained how my mom and I would borrow a 2nd iron (and then would lend our iron out to the neighbor or aunt who made theirs on a different day) and we got into a rhythm – like a coreographed ballet – of putting 2 balls of dough in one iron, putting it on the stove, then quickly taking the two in the other iron off the stove and dropping them onto butcher paper on the table – just in time to put 2 new balls in the iron.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group discussion of one single type of food before – it’s not just the cookie, it’s the tradition, the memories, and the location (mostly PA and WV) that we share.
My mother’s family was from Belgium so these were always being made on the gas stove in the basement at grandmas house during the Christmas season. My mom would call them gufflets (not sure why) but they were gullets. The recipe we used had brown sugar and a shot or two of whiskey. That same whiskey bottle must of lasted 20 years in our house. Every Christmas holiday my mom would take it out and use it for the cookies. A must have in our area is a Belgium Waffle Iron bought at the local hardware store.
Kim, you can buy electric galette irons directly from the C. Palmer Co in West Newton, PA. They are also available on ebay. You are looking at roughly $100.00 for a new one. They come in three waffle pattern sizes, 1, 2 and 3 with #3 being the largest and most popular size. These irons have built in thermostats, cook both sides of the cookie evenly and it only takes about 45 seconds per two cookies once you get going.
turdellis..I saw a\Andrea’s post ..My family made them every year!! Anhter one is grustali?? (speling) very Italian..southern and Pieta Mpiata!11
My mother and grandmother and possibly my great grandmother have been making these for as long as I can remember and I’m 72. Now since my mom has passed I make them every year for Christmas. My whole family loves these and they are a must at Christmas. My fathers family was from northern France near Belgium , so I believe that’s where our recipe came from. My mom was Italian so we also had pizzelles at Christmas too.
My family is from Charleroi Pa.
Our recipe varies, we add brown sugar and two shots of whiskey.
1 lb of butter & 2 sticks of margarine, softened
6 eggs, beaten, save the whites
3 cups of firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 shots of whiskey
6 cups of flour
Mix together, slowly adding flour
Beat egg white till stiff and fold in mixture
Refrigerate overnight
My recipe is similar to yours my mother and grandmother are from France. We didn’t put the brown sugar in ours but the recipe is similar to yours so it’s interesting to see how everybody else makes theirs because I never knew there were different recipes on how to make the lights because we’ve only made them one way.
But your recipe has a lot of ingredients so if you want a similar recipe with not that many ingredients, my mothers recipe is 5 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar three sticks of melted Land O Lakes butter, eight eggs, 3 teaspoons of whiskey, and then you just put it in the iron
I am thinking about making these. I want to use a cream cheese paste and then add fruit. Has anyone ever tried this?
My grandma passed away this summer and one of my fondest memories is if her making these cookies for Christmas every year. They are my dad’s favorite, I would love to take over the tradition, thanks for the inspiration!
We called them gufflets in my family too-my grandma made them every Christmas. She passed away this summer so I can’t ask her about the name- I was wondering if I misunderstood until I read your comment!!
Need to know more. Thanx!
This is a French cookie my mother and grandmother French and we grew up on these cookies ever since we were kids apparently this is something that the French only make at Christmas time because this is the only time we eat these cookies but you have to have a special iron to make these cookies. The one my mother had was the one you stuck on top of the stove and it only made one cookie at a time and then you had to do it back-and-forth to get it brown on each side well they recently came out with an electric iron that you plug-in and then you can make two at a time so it goes a lot quicker but they are very delicious cookies my mother’s recipe calls for whiskey, but I’ve noticed a lot of people on here using brown sugar and other ingredients so it’s interesting to see how they did their cookies compared to the way I grew up eating mine
My family has made what we call Zoflats others call them gofrets. My great grandmother took original cookie iron and had so many made to give to friends and family. Have ate them Thanksgiving thru Christmas . Any left we put up and eat during several months. Makes one cookie at a time. Thin but dense cookie also it’s made with alcohol.
Where can I buy an electric iron for the galettes? On the Oalmers Mfg. are they only show the pizzelle cookie iron.
If you go online and type in Galette waffle iron if you scroll to your right, you’ll eventually come across the iron I think it’s $79 and it comes from Pennsylvania
Where can I buy an electric iron for the galettes? The pPslmer Mfg. website only shows irons for the pizzelles.
These hold a special place in my heart. My grandma always made these and I have her old school iron. I still use it and just made a batch this morning. I have considered buying an electric one, I just haven’t gotten around to it.
The electric one is really nice. I think they have one online. I think I just saw one for $79 and you can make two at a time instead of one and then you don’t have to worry about getting your oven to the right temperature because we used to have the original one and it definitely took a long time to make the cookies so it’s nice to be able to make two at a time And a recipe called for whiskey
We called these French cookies. My mother, and now me were the keepers of the cast iron iron. We make them on the eye of the stove.
My Mom’s recipe if very similar to yours.
Always a family favorite.
MY family is from Charleroi PA and my grandparents came from Belgium-remember my grandfather making these since I can remember- then my mom and us kids, and now I am teaching nieces and nephews. We love them- people have never seen them before- I am with your dad – done embellish- just dunk with milk or coffee. the are so good.
I just want to say that it’s very interesting to come across the site because I never knew that this was a cookie that a lot of people made because my mother and grandmother came from France and we made this cookie every Christmas. It was something we always did we have the original iron that took forever and my mother recently got an electric iron that we used to this day But in our recipe we put 3 teaspoons of whiskey, and we didn’t use the brown sugar like everybody else is doing, but I’m very intrigued to hear all these other recipes because I’m definitely pass them along to my mother so maybe she can try your recipes in her iron, because we didn’t know that there was other recipes out there
My husband’s family is originally from Belgium. I am looking for an original Galette iron. Not an electric one, but an iron one with a long handle that you use over an open fire – or gas stove. Do you know where I can find one?
When I a kid, my mother’s boss would bring her the amazing homemade waffle cookies. I will never forget their taste, nor have I been able to find anything that tasted like them and I have tried. Anytime I find a waffle cookie I buy it to see if it was the same taste, it never is. Yours however looks soo much like his, I’m going to try to make those this Christmas.
Our family makes these every Christmas it was passed down from my great grandmother who came from Belgium. We live in Nova Scotia, Canada. Only difference to the recipe we use brown sugar and whole eggs.
i wrote a post a few ye iars ago but then misplaced the bookmark for this blog. SO glad I found it again. Several posts say that you cannot make these in a regular waffle iron and I hope that doesn’t discourage anyone. For many years, we made them in a waffle iron because my stove is electric and it’s harder to make them with the tradition iron. The long handled iron that I inherited had a rectangular grid and we’d make 2. To make only one, it’d have been enormous.
I broke down and spent the money on an electric one a few years ago, from Palmers since the store in the “Strip District” neighborhood of Pittsburgh stopped carrying them. There was just a big article in our paper about Palmers – I”ll find it and post the link. I could go on forever about the tradition of making gullets! Unlike many here who said that they thought their family was unique to making them, was surprised to find that not everyone everywhere did, since all the wifes in my hometown seemed to make them.
Something that I love about my history with these is that while my grandma was French and we had her iron, my mom, her best friend, and an aunt who had married into the family were each from eastern European countries – but all 3 married men of French ancestry, and they were dedicated to making there every year at Christmas. I have written over 150 short stories about my life – I belonged to and led life story writing groups for about 15 years, but they ended when the pandemic hit. One of my stories is specifically about gullet making and I’d love to post it here, but it’s long. Let me see if I can figure out a way to do that – my story starts in 1980 when my dad handed me the long handled blackened iron that my mom had used for many years – and let me know that he now considered it my responsibility to make the Christmas gullets since my mom had just died 6 months earlier. To be clear, I’d helped to make them from the time I was very little, but I’d never made them from beginning to end before.
here’s my family’s recipe:
Gulletts
2 lbs butter or margarine (I use 1 lb butter and 1 lb margarine)
2 lbs. brown sugar (I use 1 lb. light brown and 1 lb dark brown)
*12 egg YOLKS
1 cup canned milk (not Eagle Brand
1 t. vanilla
3 lbs (12 cups) flour
1 t. baking powder
blend margarine and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer. Beat in egg yolks and canned milk and vanilla.
Add flour and baking powder and mix into a dough with hands.
You know what to do after that!
* the yoke/whole egg issue plays quite a big part of the story I wrote (Use only the yolks is my advice – using the whites as well makes a “tougher” cookie.)
Megan, if this is too long or not appropriate as blog comment, feel free to remove it. I don’t have it anywhere else online so couldn’t send it as a link.
My “tongue in cheek” comparisons of galettes to pizelles is meant in fun, because almost no one recognizes galettes as being French.
They’re Not Pizelles, They’re GALETTES!
by Cheryl McLaughlin. 2007
These are words I utter – or mutter – at Christmas time, almost as often as I say the words “I love Christmas!” Everyone wants to call my cookies “pizelles” – but they are galettes, they are not pizelles!
I say these words because the buttery and delicious waffle like cookies that the women in my family have made for at least 4 generations are called galettes. Like pizelles, they are baked in a little iron with tiny hills and valleys, and yes, they are also delicious and delicate and calorie laden, but my cookies and my family are French, not Italian.
I’ve been known to delight in a huge plate of lasagna, to sip a glass of chiante, and even to cook an excellent pot of pasta fazoole – all masterpieces made and enjoyed by my Italian in-laws and friends. But pizelles? Maybe I’ll nibble at one from a cookie table at a June wedding, but at Christmas, there are no pizelles on MY plate, just galettes!
I savor them because they are soft, sweet and delicious — but more than that, I treasure the memory of time spent in the kitchen with my mom, my great-Aunt Jessie, and my mom’s best friend, Mae. Each from a Eastern European family, the 3 women married men whose parents came from France. I imagine that their wedding vows contained a clause that involved learning how to make galettes before their first married Christmas.
Making galettes is no small commitment – the recipe calls for a dozen eggs, 2 lbs of butter, 2 lbs of brown sugar, 12 cups of flour and vanilla – always REAL vanilla, never the imitation kind that might be good enough for a cake, or banana nut bread. The mound of dough produced by this recipe requires a HUGE bowl. One of the first things my mom did when preparing for her galette making day was to pull out one of the produce drawers in the fridge – usually tossing out a few withered carrots and a stalk of wilted celery, and scraping away any traces of dried-on parsley specks. She’d fill the metal bin with hot sudsy water , then carefully wash and dry it to transform it into a mixing bowl large enough for mixing the dough.
There were also logistics to be negotiated with her Aunt Jesse, or one of her several friends who also each owned one of the heavy cast iron rectangular grilles with a 2 foot long double handle – a galette iron. The irons only made 2 cookies at a time, so having a second iron cut the work in half. If she borrowed an iron this Tuesday, she’d then be able to loan hers out on Saturday or next week to another friend, if Aunt Jesse could wait until the week before Christmas to make her galettes.
Some Christmases our kitchen was filled not only with the fragrance created by the baking buttery dough but also with the chatter and hum of a couple friends who gathered to drink tea and gossip together while keeping my mom company as she performed the monotanous task of baking the cookies on the stove burners. The completed cookies were lined up in a single layer to cool, then piled, always 6 to a stack, ready to be packed into a cookie tin (a large Charles Chips can) for storage, later to be shared with family and friends (and packed in my dad’s and my lunches for the next few weeks).
I learned from my mom – watching the beautiful choreography of her cookie making dance – scoop out 2 spoonsful of dough, place them an inch apart on one side of the iron, close the iron and place it on a stove burner, then quickly flip the other iron over to insure that the cookies in THAT iron were evenly browned on both sides, then flip the second iron over and go back to the first to check for that perfect shade of golden tan, then carefully swing that long heavy implement toward the table, Open the iron and tap it, letting both cookies fall gently to the paper covered table, then quickly scoop two more balls of dough onto the now empty iron, and then start the steps all over again.
When I was 9 or 10, I was drafted to put in a shift of an hour or so to give my mom a break, and by the time I was a teen, I took over the baking part all together. But it was always my mom who hand mixed the dough.
After I got married, each T-giving day, before the dinner table was cleared, my mom and I had negotiated a date that would be good for both of us, when I could drive out with my husband and baby daughter Megan, and we could spend the day making our galettes. My dad and husband would roam into the kitchen occasionally to snatch a cookie while claiming that keeping a baby busy worked up a big hunger (at least for galettes!) By the Christmas when Megan was two and a half, we let her put her tiny hands into the dough, grab a chunk and roll it into a ball — to help her mommy and her gramma make galettes. We promised her that NEXT Christmas, she’d be big enough to help Gramma mix the dough.
.
But the next year at Christmas time, my mom was in the hospital with a shocking diagnosis of bone cancer and a plan for chemotherapy to begin immediately. Who would made the galettes that year? I imagine that we were given some by one of my mom’s friends, but I don’t remember – Who could even think of enjoying cookies at a time like that?
By the next Thanksgiving, the galette iron had been passed to me – my dad didn’t like seeing it in the kitchen broom closet – it reminded him of Christmases past – when his wife was still alive. He was mourning her deeply. But I believed that I’d done my mourning as I felt each small and not so small loss during my mom’s 6 months of chemo, surgeries, radiation, and horrific pain. I watched and mourned daily while she was losing her dignity and losing herself. I cried every day after I visited her and I truly believed that I had no more tears to shed. I didn’t cry when she breathed her last breath – I was SO happy to see her free of pain and I didn’t cry at her funeral. It hurt too much to cry because I couldn’t find any more tears.
My dad mentioned during Thanksgiving dinner that next year that he’d sure like to have some galettes at Christmas. I had the iron, but I didn’t know what to do to get ready to use it! I didn’t even have the RECIPE for galettes – my mom had it memorized and not written down. I called my mom’s best friend, Mae, for the recipe and she gave it to me from her memory.
I mixed the dough, but it seemed oddly sticky. When I opened the hot iron, the dough had just formed a gooey mess inside. I felt so frustrated, but I WAS determined. I scraped the sticky mess out of the iron and scrubbed it with a stiff brush. I angrily threw the dough into the garbage can and started the recipe all over again. But the dough was again rather sticky, so I added more flour – and more flour and more flour. This time, the cookies DID take shape in the iron and I was making progress. After making 3 or 4 dozen, I ate one. It was dry and tough and floury tasting.
That was it, I lost it! After all, I’d lost 4 lbs of butter, 4 lbs of sugar, I’d lost a lot of time, I’d lost my temper and I’d lost MY MOTHER. It had been a full 6 months since her funeral and I’d not cried. But that day, I cried. I ranted. I threw myself on the bed and wailed. I sobbed myself to sleep – and woke the next day to know that I’d entered a new phase of acceptance of my mom’s death. I called Mae and we went over the recipe again to see what I might have done wrong. Let’s see, a cup of canned milk, 12 cups of flour, a dozen egg yolks ….. Egg YOLKS????????? Does that mean just the YELLOW part of the egg? My God! I’d used the whole egg! Then I mixed up my THIRD recipe using only the yolks, and the dough looked perfect – it looked like my mom’s dough. And the cookies passed my dad’s and my husband’s inspections, and most importantly, they met my own expectations for what Christmas tastes like.
I now use an electric iron to create 5 galettes at a time. They brown evenly because the heat is uniform on both sides. I can sit at the table to use it rather than stand at the stove, and I have a 26 year history of drafting two daughters to help with the galette baking – and my husband is the first male in the family to help. But I am the only one who makes the dough – and I still use the same recipe, with the word “YOLKS” underlined on the recipe card. When we moved recently, I realized that the old blackend galette iron was just taking up space in a kitchen cabinet and I’d most likely never use it again – but it traveled with us to our new home, and I expect it will travel one day (along with the electric galette iron) to the homes of my daughters who know that galettes are THE Christmas cookie in OUR family.
They’re galettes, not pizelles.
I have had these for most of my 67 years. Mom’s recipe called for whiskey also. We kids helped make these as we got old enough to handle the cast iron waffle maker. My youngest sister still has it. She will hand it down to her daughter as has been done for a few generations. I now have my youngest son interested in making them.
This is the recipe that my aunt used except we made 300 cookies at a time. Christmas isn’t Christmas without these cookies. PS, sometimes we would put a splash of whiskey in the recipe.