I love this time of year. When fall rolls around I get even more excited about baking than I do any other time of the year. Summer ends and the real baking begins. The last months of the year are full of special reasons to spend time with family, share smiles, and bake sweet memories.
One of my favorite baking memories is making pecan pies with my uncle. We make them every year around Christmas but I thought I’d share the recipe with you again a little early this year. It’s too good to wait until December.
My grandmother used to make these pecan pies. Her recipe made three perfect pies at a time. She made them every year for family and friends. She loved it. And when she became less able to keep up with the same quantity of pies she liked to make, my uncle Ronnie became the official pie maker. He doesn’t bake and he’s not really a dessert guy but he makes a mean pecan pie. He’s been making them now for well over a decade since my grandmother passed away. He’s continued making them every year for friends and family to carry on his Mama’s tradition. And now I bake with him every year I can and if not I make sure to bake them in my own kitchen. It’s our family’s way of keeping her with us during the holidays.
And the pies are delicious too, so that’s awesome.
Of course, I had to put my touch on them and make them mini. Major cute. But I still wrap them just like she did. Simple and sweet. I love these refrigerated and I eat them like a giant pecan pie cookie.
Here’s the recipe how my grandmother made it and here’s a link to the original post with step-by-step photos demonstrated by my uncle and a little more about my grandmother.
And keep scrolling for a fun giveaway below…
Mama's Pecan Pies
Ingredients
Instructions
In a separate bowl, crack open six eggs. Remove the “roosters” and loosely beat the eggs with your spoon.
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And now, I’d love for you to share your favorite baking memory.
Holiday or any day.
You could be the lucky baker to win a KitchenAid Stand Mixer and a Williams-Sonoma Gift Card.
- Prize includes a KitchenAid Stand Mixer (valued at approximately $650) and a $200 Williams-Sonoma gift card. Approximate Retail Value: $850. Tasty!
- Giveaway runs from September 24, 2012 at 12:00 am ET through October 8, 2012 at 11:59 pm ET. Sorry, Time’s Up! Winner will be announced this week.
- One entry per person. You must live in the U.S. for this one (I’m sorry my international friends) and be 18 or over, too to be eligible to win.
- To enter for a chance to win the mixer and gift card, just leave a comment on the website and share your favorite baking memory. And if you don’t have one yet, the giveaway lasts long enough for you to bake one. : )
- One winner will be chosen at random and announced during the week of October 8th in a follow up post here on the site.
- Note that it may take a few minutes for your comment to display.
Good luck guys and I can’t wait to read your baking memories.
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This post is sponsored by Nestlé® Toll House® Morsels, the perfect special ingredient for all of your family’s favorite treats!
Baking my very first apple pie from scratch with my cousin. Took us an eternity to make and it was devoured in minutes by the whole family, we enjoyed every minute :)
Making my grandmother’s pineapple-filled cookies!
My favorite baking memory is baking tons of cookies with my sister while in High School and baking cinnamon buns for her then fiancee during the summer while I came home from college. We had so much laughter and flour. I wish I could spend time like that with my sister now.
By far last Thanksgiving was the best party I ever did. I cooked the entire meal for all six of us, turkey and all. The best part was that I was able to use my grandmother and great grandmother’s recipes for cider, cranberry orange sauce, and sweet potato pecan casserole. It was SO awesome to be able to cook and decorate it for them! But to kind of have a little bit of my grandmothers there, too! :)
Making strawberry pies with my mom. It was one of the few things that we did together, and we did it in perfect harmony.
Some of my favorite baking memories are during the Holidays. My dad would make all of the pies and my mom was the cake maker. My favorite pie of my dad’s was his pecan Pie. He also made all of his pie crusts from scratch. He passed away in 1996 and I have yet to make one as perfect and tasty as his were. I miss and think about him every day, but the holidays are always harder. And just the mention of pecan pie always brings back those memories. RIP Daddy. I love you!
When I was a kid we would also go to Mama 2’s and Papa’s house for the holidays. The food was out of this world. Mama 2 made pecan pies…so good and alway’s save me a turkey leg!
Love baking treats during Christmas time
My wonderful Mom would start her holiday baking early, so our home was filled with sweet aromas from early November to just after Christmas Day. When I was younger, it seemed to be colder, as my Mom was able to keep all her baking on our porch. What a treat to walk home from school into our homemade bakery! Of course, I had to sample before I went into our toasty warm home!
Baking sugar cookies, or sugar thins as she liked to call with my grandma at christmas time. I loved decorating sugar cookies and her sugar cookie recipe always seemed better than anyone elses. She used to roll them out super thin so there were always about 10 dozen in one batch of dough!
I love pecan pie! I’m definitely holding on to this recipe so I can make it for Thanksgiving.
My favorite baking memory is what we call cookie and margarita day. A few weeks before Christmas, all the kids and grandkids meet at our parents house and we spend the weekend doing all of our holiday baking and, of course, drinking margaritas.
I loved making popcorn cake every Christmas with my family! All that hot butter and marshmallow was such a fun challenge to mold into loaves without burning yourself or making a mess, and the results are the best!
The year before my baby sister died unexpectantly (at age 43) she came home for Thanksgiving to help me recover from back surgery. She helped me with my Christmas Cookies. We made double batches of all the cookie doughs, (8 different kinds!) rolled them in walnut size balls and froze them on large trays. After they were frozen solid we put them in large zip-lock bags, labeled the bags with the kind of cookie, the bake time and temperature and put them back in the freezer. As long as they stayed frozen the cookie balls did not stick together. When I needed to bake them I just took the bags out of the freezer, baked a dozen or two of each kind and quickly put the bags back in the freezer. With out the help of my little sister I would not have been able to make my usual cookie basket gifts. Little did I know my wonderful sister would be gone in March of the next year. I’ve been baking for many, many years, some in different bakeries, mostly at home. This is by far my greatest baking experience of all times!
My mom always let my brother and I help decorating sugar cookies at Christmas time. I’ve really enjoyed continuing the tradition with my daughter and her friends – they get to cut out and decorate.
I used to make raisin-filled cookies every Christmas with my grandma. I was a picky kid that didn’t like raisins, so grandma used to laugh at me for helping. When she passed away, I received her metal rolling pin. Every time I hear the sound of that rolling pin, I think back to raisin-filled cookies.
Favorite baking memory: Baking, baking, baking for days on end for a dessert party to celebrate my graduation from college. I made a chocolate and peanut butter pie, sour cream coffee cake, chocolate and strawberry stuffed rolled crepes and other sweets I can’t even remember anymore. One thing I do remember… It was so much fun!
When my sister and I were kids, my mom used to take us to her friend’s house every year the weekend before Christmas and we’d bake tons of cookies–shortbread candy canes, peanut butter kiss cookies, chocolate bars, Mexican wedding cookies, and a few random ones we’d chosen because they looked good. We’d bake and eat and exchange presents. She’s since lost touch with that friend, but I’ll always remember that time in the kitchen.
My favourite baking memories was of my elementary volunteer. I had recently moved to Canada and this older woman would help me learn english by teaching me how to bake!!
My favorite baking memory is of making fruit pizza with my mom. A giant sugar cookie covered in cream cheese and topped with sliced kiwi and strawberries. Yum!
No specific memory, but I cherish that I’ve passed my love of baking on to both of my daughters!
I’m making my favorite baking memories in real time…my sweet daughter and I bake all the time.
My favorite baking memory is making fudge every Christmas with my dad! It’s the only thing he’ll make, haha.
Mom and Grandma and I would makes millions of cookies and candy to be delivered to friends and neighbors at Christmas time- then we would fill the kitchen table on Christmas afternoon with treats for the whole family….all 75 of us!
My favorite baking memory is the first time I made something for my grandmother. I was 11 and had learned how to make vanilla cream pie in my home ec class the day before so I decided to make one for her. I was so proud when she was impressed with what I had made!
probably one of the more prevalent favorite memories would be mine too, licking the utensils and bowl when mama was done!
One Thanksgiving my friends and I decided to cook the whole meal together at a friends house. We botched the meal, everything was undercooked, or burnt. Everything except the pumpkin pie. That came out awesome :)
One of my favorite memories is baking molasses cookies with my mom when I was growing up (we often made them for teacher gifts).
One of my favorite baking memories just happened:
I baked a carrot cake over the weekend, and felt my 2-year-old nephew a little of the cake after it’d cooled some post-baking. After gobbling down what I gave him, he then said, “More Ka-kare* carrot cake, please!” I nearly died.
*That’s what he calls me, and I kind of hope it sticks permanently. :)
One of my favorite memories was when my grandma showed me how she made her famous energy bars. She loved to bake and made the best cookies. A few of my cousins and I use her recipes to keep the tradition going.
It would have to be decorating the sugar cookies every year with all the little bowls of different colored frosting. What a mess, but a lot of fun. I don’t do cookies any more, I like to make candy.
My favorite baking memory would have to be watching my Mom make English Toffee every year for Christmas. I would help do things like stir and chop nuts, but I was always amazed at the process and thought it was magic that the candy got crunchy.
I have always loved to bake so I am now passing it on to my grand kids. Our first baking experience is my favorite. It was me my mother my daughter and my granddaughter all in the kitchen with a house that smells so good and we are all laughing and sharing smiles. What a wonderful memory. 4 generations all working together to make holiday goodies. My mother passed away that following spring but the picture of us remains in my kitchen and it is now the cover to my cookbook that now reads.. Stay sweet and always remember to smile. Her favorite saying. Miss you mom.
My favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies. My friends and I would get together and make 12 different kinds of cookies and make cookie baskets for all our friends and family. We would bake for several days and every surface would be covered in cookies!!
My favorite baking memory is learning how to make a homemade apple pie from scratch for the first time with my mom :)
My mom didn’t bake much but every thanksgiving through christmas it is cookies, cookie bars, pies and bread. I still love the taste of pumpkin bread fresh from the oven.
My daughter and I were having an EPIC holiday baking extravaganza. We had left 8 sticks of butter out to soften. I was in another room and heard her scream and came running into the kitchen. She was holding one partially eaten stick of butter, dripping with dog slime. She had pulled the last of the 8 sticks of butter out of our dog Normand’s mouth! He had managed to eat the first 7!!! We spent the rest of the day baking feverishly and laughing at our little butterball!!
I love making Christmas Cookies with my two little girls. They have fun decorating the sugar cookies and eating the dough.
My favorite baking moment has to be when I was really young, in fourth grade. I tried to make cookies by myself with no recipe and no clue what I was doing. I mixed together some flour, water, and sugar, shaped the dough into disks, and tried to bake it in the toaster oven, since I wasn’t allowed to use the oven by myself. Needless to say, the cookies tasted terrible. However, they made great sparkly coasters. My mom painted them with glue to keep them waterproof.
Baking butter cakes with my mom. I can still smell them. We werent allowed to make or eat frosting but the cake was buttery enough to keep us very happy. The cake never turns out the same unless I’m baking it with mum in her kitchen =)
My fav baking memory as a child was the delicious sugar cut-out cookies with decorations my whole family was involved in making & eating:) We would take painstaking time in creating the most amazing & incredible-looking designs almost too cute to eat! We would only eat the “ugly” ones or goof-ups and save the pretty ones for friends as they visited at Christmas!! LOL
Making green and red pancakes for breakfast Christmas morning with my dad. :)
My favorite memory is baking cookies with my now 4 year old daughter. She loves to help in the kitchen and loves to be the “sprinkle lady”. This mixer would add so much delight to our home!
When my best friend and I were reunited after the summer apart and we baked a giant cupcake! It was so yummy, the dessert and the company :)
My favorite baking memory is making oreo filled brownie cookie bars with my mom. We went through the directions as we read them and made a GIANT portion of cookie dough that took forever and almost overfilled the machine and was just really difficult… only to get to the bottom of the recipe where it said we only needed half the cookie dough for the recipe and we could “put the other half aside.” We were on the floor laughing after the mess we had made for nothing!
My favorite memory is baking with my grandma, when she taught me some family recipes that go back generations all the way back to Italy. That’s the best :)
On Christmas Eve, my daughter and I bake cookies, pies, make gingerbread houses etc. We still try to do this now even as she is about to turn 28 and lives in another city! I hope to continue on with grandchildren one day :)
We didn’t bake around the house that much, so some of my favorite baking memories come from quality kitchen time with friends. One of my favorite memories is baking chocolate chip cookies that were almost as big as our heads with my middle school friend Jessi. Transferring the cookies, golden brown, from hot pans to wire racks and inhaling the smell of chocolate and butter was heavenly.
My momma always began getting ready for the upcoming holidays by making her famous fruit cake–yes, fruit cake. I don’t care for them myself, but her cake almost made me a believer. The major thing was getting to be in the kitchen with her as she made fruit cake after fruit cake for friends and family every year and also her scrumptious pound cakes in all flavors – lemon, vanilla, chocolate, sour cream, etc. Yummy! I miss those days, but at least I got to do it with my kids.
My mom didn’t really bake much but she always made fudge at Christmastime. My brother and I would help my mom make fudge every year. We would make it a few times every Christmas for gifts for family and friends. The best part was that when we were done my brother and I got to lick the bowl! Mom would draw a line down the center of the bowl so we wouldn’t fight and we would happily clean the bowl. My kids and I now continue the tradition .
I’m making new memories with my 7-year-old granddaughter – baking cookies and cupcakes with her is my favorite thing in the world!
I grew up making bread every week with my mother. Sandwich bread, cinnamon spiral bread, pastries. Now, I’m loving doing the same with my son.
I would probably say may favorite baking memory thus far is making sourdough bread. It was my first time attempting real bread and it took forever and though dough was all lumpy and weird but I still got it in the oven. At 1 in my morning there was my family pulling apart this warm loaf of odd bread, trying to find things to compliment about it. Even though the bread wasn’t a success the memories with it are some of my favorite.
I love to bake. My earliest memory is watching my grandmother bake bread. She did that every morning! The smell was heavenly and the taste exquisite. To this day, the smell of warm fresh bread transports me back to that time.
I grew up learning to bake from my father. Homemade croissants were always the best!
I love to bake so I would have to say that baking with friends and my children is my favorite thing to do each year and it always bring back memories of previous years! One favorite would be when I had a cake laying out on a towel with powdered sugar ready to be rolled up when I had to step away for a moment. Came back to find my little girl with a face covered in powdered sugar and very red lips that had just been licked clean!!
Mom and I are known for our baking skills, and every Christmas is our best work. I make some, she makes some. Some are old must-have’s, some are new recipes we’ve been waiting to try. We might bake a batch together (especially gingerbread cookies), and then we trade with each other and share with anyone who wants a taste. It ain’t Christmas without our cookies!
The one memory I have is that my grandmother would sneak and pick the pecans off of the pecan pies one by one, and by the time someone went to cut it, it would be bare and she would always say that it was one of the grandchildren. We have had fun with that story for years.
I loved watching my mom bake while I was growing up. She would make beautiful wedding cakes and birthday cakes for friends and family.
One year for mother’s day, I (age 13) decided to attempt a cake on my own for the first time so I could give it to her. It was just your standard box mix sheet cake with a store bought icing, but at the time it was like climbing Mt. Everest. I followed the instructions meticulously and everything seemed to be going fine until I took the cake pan off of the inverted cake. There was a giant crater right in the middle. Devastated, but not ready to give up, I iced the cake and then made an aluminum foil bowl to put in the crater and filled it with fresh flowers.
My mom loved it. :)
My dad is a man of little words, but every Christmas he would make sure that we made our krumkakes and rosettes. It is some of my best memories and one that I have started with my boys!
My grandmother Carrot Cake Bars. Everytime I make them, I ended up crying from all the happy memories that extend back from my childhood of my grandmother. She passed away 7 years ago next month when I was 6 months pregnant with my last child. My mom tells me that the ones I make are exactly like her mom’s and she cannot duplicate it herself. I make them several times throughout the year.
My favorite baking memories was as a child. Every Christmas my mother would bake sugar and ginger bread cookies for all of us kids to decorate with frosting. Was the best holiday baking memory because we all got together in the kitchen and had fun frosting the cookies.
one of my oldest favorite memories was making stained glass pie with my grandmother. it consisted of 3 different colors of jello cut into cubes and mixed with a whipped topping poured into a graham cracker crust. i loved getting to pick out the jello flavors! its a memory i still have after 40+ years!!!
Baking dounats, with my mother and my sisters.
My favorite memory is of my mom and siblings baking and decorating Christmas cookies.
amandarwest atgmaildotcom
baking birthday cakes with family
My favorite baking memory is making sugar cookies with my husband and kids. We use my husband’s great-grandmother’s recipe. Everyone gets involved…..rolling out the dough, sprinkling the cinnamon sugar, watching the oven…..fun, warm, special family memories!!
My family is all about cooking whether its real food or sweets. I have so many memories of both my grandmother’s showing me how to do their famous recipes it would be impossible to narrow it down to just one. :)
Baking with my grandma. She made almond cakes and almond cookies and peanut butter cookies. She always kept the cookies in old coffee tins.
Every Christmas I love baking and making cookies and now my kids are getting older and are really enjoying helping me. I know they’re going to remember these times and I love making memories with them.
My fondest memory was making gorditas de nata with my grandmother. We made this all of the time and never needed a special occasion to make them.
One of my favorite and earliest memories of baking is from when I was in the 5th grade and baked cookies on my own at home with my best friend and a little help and coaching from my Mom. She helped me and my best friend on the road to feeling confident in the kitchen.
My favourite baking memory has nothing to do with me baking and everything to do with one of my oldest and dearest friends Michelle! Michelle and I grew up together in Toronto but I have lived in New York for over 11 years now. My favouirte baking memory is of coming home to Canada at Christmas and sitting in Michelle’s kitchen, drinking a glass of wine while enjoying GREAT conversation as Michelle baked some new concoction she was working out. Truly, a wonderful memory!
I loved making regular ‘ol Spritz cookies with my mom every year. She would make just dozens and dozens. And I would sprinkle the sugar everywhere.
Making fudge, cookies and other treats at the Christmas Holidays with my mom.
I remember baking with my grandmother during school holidays. It was always special to learn her recipes. And now, I bake her desserts with my cousins.
My favorite backing memory is baking little anise cookies with my grandmother every year for Christmas. My mom and I still continue that tradition today with my daughter. :o)
Every year my Mom and I would bake 6-8 different cookie recipes and make cookie platters for family and friends for the holidays. We continue to do this every year and save new recipes that we find throughout the year for the platters.
It’s hard to pick just one favorite baking memory, but I think my absolute favorite is from two years ago when one of my best friends and I decided to take on a HUGE list of homemade holiday baked goods to give to family and friends. From picking out the recipes to going to the store to get necessary ingredients (plus a couple more times cuz we forgot a few things…) it was so much fun. We spent the entire day in the kitcken – and you could certainly tell from the mess we made – but I have never had so much fun baking. We sang along to music, did a little dancing, ate lots of raw cookie dough and made a ton of really delicious creations! I hope this year we can recreate the fun again!
Making and decorating sugar cookies with out neighbors when we were little :) now we do it with our kids!
I always remember baking birthday cakes with my mom… Even my own! And she always helped me make Pineapple Upside Down Cake… It’s one of my favorites! I love baking with my mama :)
My favorite baking memory is making biscuits from scratch with my grandmother in her little kitchen. The whole house would smell divine!
Making banana bread with my mom growing up – we split up the steps of the recipe the same every single time. I got to cream the butter and sugar in a red bowl with a fork while my mom measured out other dry ingredients, and I also could add the bananas and vanilla. The best part was undoubtedly adding the chocolate chips at the end – more than she would like…and then, after baking, eating slices warmed in the microwave with little bits of melted chocolate throughout.
My most prominent memory of baking is sitting in the kitchen while my mom baked cookies for gift baskets. I’d help roll the cookies and taste the dough :)
i have always loved baking all year round with my 2 boys. They’re getting older now and don’t love it as much as watching football with dad, but i’m so lucky to have 3 beautiful nieces who really enjoy baking with me!!
My favorite memories are baking with my 8 year old daughter. She loves to bake and I try to teach her something new all the time. Her favorite thing is decorating cut out cookies.
My favorite baking memory is trying to bake a cake when my first born daughter was about 6 months old. She wouldn’t stop crying so I put her in her baby carrier and strapped her to me while I was baking. I remember her little legs and arms wiggling contentedly as I mixed the batter and poured it in the pans.
When I was 5, my grandma and aunt decided to make homemade donuts. I was more than thrilled to help! We set up an assembly line and made a huge mess in the dining room and kitchen. I remember getting to use large drinking glasses to create the donut shapes. The donuts didn’t come out or taste as well as store-bought ones, but we enjoyed the fried snacks and the process was fun nonetheless!
My dad was always the baker in our house growing up. He always made our pizza crust extra thick with pancake mix and just a little bit of toppings, (still laughing), and our cookies were always “crispy”. The best childhood memories were either “burnt or burnt up”. :)
My favorite memory is pretty recent – making monchichi cookies for my sister’s birthday this year.
Hi, well I just remember always watching my grandmother, my mom, and aunt making baklava, during the holidays, all three of them together in the small kitchen, laughing, gossiping (lol), and enjoying themselves. Good and old family times……
My favorite memories are the ones involving my grandmother. She was an excellent cook & baker. She use to make each of us our favorite cake for our birthday. My favorite was her carrot cake. I have access to her recipes and have tried making several but somehow something’s missing…guess it’s grandma’s LOVE.
My grandmother was not a great cook (I know – aren’t all grandma’s supposed to be good cooks?) However, one time when I was in my early teens we made a peach pie with a lattice crust. It was the only time I can remember baking something with my grandmother, and I can’t see a pie with a lattice crust and not think about making that pie with her.
In my very early childhood (early 1960’s) my mom baked bread,cinnamon rolls, and pies almost every Saturday morning. We had fresh bread for our evening meals and cinnamon rolls after church on Sunday. Presciuos memories of my mother.
Baking deep dish apple pie with my sister when were really young and living abroad. The ingredients were so expensive, but we wanted a taste of home.
The first time my brand-new husband and I made sugar cookies from scratch. It was quite a mess, but lovely all the same!
Baking Christmas cookie with my mom, packaging them up and delivering them to the neighbors!
When I was a little girl. I loved cooking with my mom. Especially baking. One time I really wanted to lick he spoon when she was done. She had me hold the spoon (for about 5 minutes mind you), without telling me I could lick the spoon. Finally she told me I could do it, and that she was surprised I lasted that long! It started my love affair with baking!
My favorite baking memories are the ones where I helped my two granddaughters make cookies, pizza dough, breadsticks, french bread, etc. They love to see the finished goodies and I’m making memories for me and for them!
Baking and decorating Christmas cookies with my 3 year old great nephew. Also making Aunt Bill’s Brown candy with my Mom year after year. I still make it!
My favorite baking memory would be my grandmother teaching my sister and I how to make peanut butter buckeye balls. I’ll always remember being so incredulous about paraffin as an ingredient, but I got over it quick because they were just so good!
Baking Christmas cookies w my mom.
In college, I made mini sticky buns and passed them out to my entire floor. Made a lot of new friends that day.
My favorite baking memories are making buttermilk biscuits with my grandma on her ranch in Northern California. We would take scraps of dough and make faces on the biscuits.
I also loved making sugar cookies with my mom. We had a huge tin of cookie cutters in every shape and size imaginable. I would always choose the smallest cutters. Sometimes the cookies got a little too brown but to me those ones were the tastiest.
Now I make cupcakes and cookies with my eldest daughter. To me baking is love.
My mother went into baking overdrive during the holidays. She would make stollen (fruit filled bread) and give them away to friends and family, and she made tons of cookies – lots of different varieties.
My Aunt Mert made the best coconut cake…moist and melt in your mouth. She never had a recipe so one day I watched her and wrote down exactly what she did. That day is one of my favorite memories of her. I still have the handwritten card and make her cake for my mom’s birthday. It may not be just as good but it’s close!
My parents had a bakery when I was 5 years old. I loved being with them and watching them bake some of our family favorites. I am sure this instilled in me my love of cooking and baking. :D
baking with my mom was my all time favorite thing to do and I carried on the tradition with my own kids… and now with my grand daughter. Every Christmas we would do a birthday cake for Jesus and my kids alternated the years as to who would decorate the cake. It was a sprinkle massacre but the memories are so sweet. This will be my first year letting my grand daughter decorate the cake and she is a sprinkle fiend like me… but I can’t wait!
My favorite baking memory is with my Grandma and we decided to make some Easter bunny shaped bread for Easter when I was about 7 years old. Oh what a mess we had…lol! The dough was super sticky and just a mess. We laughed all day and when I got married she gave me a cookbook and on the inside cover she had taped that Easter Bunny Bread recipe with a sweet note!
My favorite baking moment is baking cookies with my two daughters. They love to bake with me.
My favorite memory of baking would have to be baking with my Granny. I learned a lot about baking from my Granny. Especially what not to do. I love and miss her, but she had a bad habit of baking things waaaay to long because they didn’t look like they were done completely. (Cookies that were supposed to be in for 10-15 minutes tended to be in the oven for 20-30 minutes unless I got them out before she noticed <3 ) We used to make these awesome chocolate chip cookies. They had pudding mix in it. Usually we would mix it up, using pistachio pudding, or sometimes chocolate. I think the strangest batch we made was banana cookies with butterscotch chips. They were pretty good, but a bit weird. I love my memories of baking with my Granny.
holiday baking for my grandma, she moved very far away from me, so every year around the holidays i send her a box of baked goods, like peppermint bark, or decorated cookies. its fun to do and she really loves getting the box
Christmas baking. Any year. I become obsessed and my kids love it. Every year for 16 years I have fed some little person cookies, cupcakes, etc…. sent home care packages with friends. My kids expect it, look forward to it, love it.
My favorite baking memory was from when I was really little. My mom was baking cookies for me to bring to class and I remember trying her cookies and telling her “mommy please don’t bake cookies any more, just buy them.” hahaha. It is still funny until this day. My mom has NEVER been a good baker. Needless to say, my words of wisdom don’t stop her from trying! I definitely was the one who got the baking genes in the family.
I baked raisin molasses cookies with my grandfather at Christmas. I loved seeing a man in the kitchen and learning how to make those delicious cookies I still make every year for my family now.
Making Sugar Cookies every Christmas with my Mom and then decorating them, My brother and I had so much fun. Since I have children of my own, we do this at our own home and my mom’s still, so my children get the fun of baking with Nana the way I did!
Baking cookies with my Mom and my Aunt! Every christmas, we would start after Thanksgiving. When my Uncle was very ill he even kicked my Aunt out of the hopital and told my Aunt go bake cookies with Niece1. We did over 80 tins.
my best memories are when i was a kid and the whole familiy used to go to my grandmas house in christmas, she used to make the best pumpkin empanadas i have ever had, and i would help her dust the empanadas in sugar and cinnamon after baked, and also helped to eat them all, of course :)
Baking 10 dozen cupcakes for my niece’s bridal shower and then again a few years later for her baby shower.
I am the 4th oldest of 14 children, and every Christmas season I would gather all of my little sisters and we would make gingerbread cookies together. They loved sitting on the counter and helping me roll out the dough and then cutting the little shapes out. They especially loved helping me drizzle glaze over those little guys and then devouring them with milk.
making pizelles with my dad
Every Christmas my mom and sisters (and even my dad!) bake gift baskets for all of our family and friends. Every year the baskets get bigger and more elaborate. Some of my favorite memories come from the kitchen…and the smells! Yum.
I grew up baking with my grandmother. The favorite family recipe was a layer cake. Basic cake, basic cream filling, and this amazing mocha frosting. We had it every birthday for as long as I can remember. My grandmother passed when I was in junior high and the baking torch passed to me. Except that I couldn’t find the recipe for the frosting! I searched through every handwritten recipe, every magazine clipping in the box to no avail. We thought the recipe was lost. Years later I found it, much to everyone’s surprise, in one of her cookbooks. Every time I make it I think of my grandmother.
My favorite baking memory was watching my mom bake brownies for every special occasion.
I remember my mom teaching me to bake these simple cinnamon sugar cookies. This was before there were so many different kinds of cookie cutters. So my mom would have us spread our hands and use a knife to cut out the shape of our hands from the dough. After it was baked, we would decorate it in a way that made it uniquely ours. I can still remember the warm aroma from the oven hit my nose as my mom opened the oven door. Sweet memories.
we make pecan every year and your recipe looks scrumptious! Thanks for posting.
My fav baking memory would be baking my first cake with my boyfriend (now husband). We made the cake in the Dominican Republic with out any measuring utensils. So we found a cup that had ounces on it and had to go online to do all of the conversions to get the right amounts. He had never baked a chocolate cake from scratch, and he just loved it!
My best friend found out she had breast cancer 6 years ago…& she was down in the dumps & had just got done with Chemo so to cheer her up, I spent 2 days with her baking Christmas cookie for gifts…It was hard on her but made her happy.
Well it’s now 6 years later, she is cancer free & we still spend 2 days doing our New Tradition of making cookie trays for everybody.
This wil always be my favorite baking tradition
hands down, making cut-out sugar cookies at christmastime with my family. i did it with my mother and sister when i was little (& still do when we’re living near enough) and now i do it with my kiddos. the cookies may not look professional, but they’re made with a lot of love!
My favorite memory is baking Christmas cookies with my mom as a child. Her famous cookies (that she only makes once a year) have the thickest, densest dough I have ever seen (full of nuts and fruits, you get the idea). With fear that she would burn out the motor of her beloved KitchenAid Stand Mixer (and upon recommendation in the recipe), she always used wooden spoons to mix the dough. I remember one Christmas when she broke 3 wooden spoons in that dough! We just laughed and laughed.
She’s still making those cookies 25 years later and has sacrificed many wooden spoons in the process.
I have always loved pecan pies. I make them every year for my grandfather, it’s his favorite. Last year I became vegan and I have yet to try a yummy vegan pecan pie. So I decided to develop my own version. Hopefully by thanksgiving it will be ready and I’ll be sure to share it with the bakerella family. :)
I grew up baking Christmas cookies with my mom. She believes in baking the sprinkles into the cookies so we’d always make a mess of our cookie sheets, table and floor. Now my mom, niece & I continue the tradition watching her press sprinkles into the cookies and eating more sprinkles than go on the cookies.
I was 5 years old making chocolate mousse with my grandmother in her kitchen… I remember standing on the stool so I could be more at her level, as we put all of the ingredients in the mixer bowl. As soon as we turned on the mixer – chocolate mousse went EVERYWHERE! All over us, all over the walls, the ceiling, the floors… In the moment of shock as we stood there staring at each other – my mom walks into the kitchen and starts laughing at us and our mess… Miss you grandma
My favorite baking memory is not from the holidays, but just a random Saturday when I was a kid. Our young neighbor (maybe 4 at the time) saw a picture of a tiered wedding cake on a box of cake mix and wanted to make one, so we did! My mom had a bunch of pans and decorations and things from a previous real wedding cake. And then we had to have a “wedding” to go with it, so I (age 12) wore my mom’s dress and “married” the neighbor boy (age 4). It was so cute and funny!
Food has always meant love to me. I have spent years trying to to recreate recipes of my mothers youth. Unfortunately, none were ever written down with measurements. So with the help of some older family members, my mother’s recollection, and A LOT of trial and error… I’ve managed to recreate a few. That said, with every success, it fuels my passion to want to learn more, do more, and put away my fears of failing. My mother has been my biggest inspiration and supporter through my self taught food journey and for me… my the best memories are the ones in which I have been able to recreate through food a cherished memory of her past. :)
Teaching my dad how to make a perfect pie crust for his sister’s/my aunt’s birthday at his mom’s/my grandma’s house last year. He’s an engineer, but had a surprising apptitude for making pie dough. He said it was just like mixing up a batch of concrete. :)
My grandma was the baker in my family. Every time we’d visit she’d always have breads, pies, cookies, some sort of treat for us. She died before I was old enough to learn all of her secrets but I keep playing with her recipes trying to figure out how she did them. But my favorite memory is growing up each year for our birthdays she would bake us a giant chocolate chip cookie (9″ cake pan) and wrap it up and send it to us in a cookie tin. It was the best traditional ever and I’m very much excited to start that with my own children. I never had the chance to bake this with her, it’s one of the memories I wish I had. But I know I’ll be able to pass it along in my family and keep her alive through that.
I have always loved pecan pies. I make them every year for my grandfather, it’s his favorite. Last year I became vegan and I have yet to try a yummy vegan pecan pie. So I decided to develop my own version. Hopefully by thanksgiving it will be ready and I’ll be sure to share it with the bakerella family. :)
My favorite baking memory is sitting with my mom while she would make Thanksgiving pies. I would just sit and talk to her while she made the crust and now I do the pie baking now. I sure miss those days!
So many to choose from! But I think my favorite baking memory is making and decorating cut-out cookies with my mom, sisters, my own kids, and a bunch of nieces and nephews. It was just the perfect mix – family, sweets, laughs, and mass production!
As a youngster the only baking I did was a stir-n-frost mix. Just add water(yech)! Now that I have a daughter of my own, it’s so important to share baking days with her. It’s messy and slower than when it’s just me but she loves it so much and I want to make sure that she has good memories of baking while giving me lots of sweet moments as well……
My mom and I always baked…we never went to any party empty handed! Every holiday was spent with pounds of flour and sugar, frosting and sprinkles everywhere! I am happy to be doing the same with my kids too! Even my 2 year old son has an apron and loves to help in the kitchen..its great and I always will remember the warmth and love that home-made goodies bring!
Every year at Christmas my mother would go into a baking frenzy but we really liked making Christmas cookies. She had the old kind of cutters metal ones with little handles on top. After she passed away I got them and now make cookies with my grandchildren. She would have loved doing this. they are not pretty or fancy but they sure do taste good.
my favorite baking memories are during the holiday season. I love getting together with my family and baking tons of goodies to deliver to our neighbors and friends. Definitely a tradition and every year is an awesome baking memory.
My favorite time is baking cookies, cakes and candies with my mom during Christmas… We try to do that every year but sometime it is so hard with the hustle bustle!
My favorite baking memory is helping my mother make her special cream puffs every Christmas for our family reunions. I’ve gotten so good at it over the years that she lets me take over while she makes the other treats!
I think my favorite baking memory, was when I made a nutella cake earlier this year, and my entire family loved it, even though none of them like nutella. Let’s just say, the cake didn’t last as long as I thought it would ;)
I loved every year that my mom’s pumpkin pies were always what she brought even if she wasn’t hosting. Very yummy family recipe!
One of my favorite baking memories is making sugar cookies using my moms Kitchen aid stand mixer and my grandmas orange zest sugar cookie recipe. The entire family (all 6 of us) were always involved in the process whether it was mixing the dough, rolling/cutting out the cookies, making/coloring the frosting, or the best part eating more of the sprinkles than what actually got put on the cookies! It was always a blast and when my sisters visit from out of town they have my mom make cookies so we can all relive that experience (and usually there is not a holiday involved) … now we share the experience with my two girls! Gotta love moms!
My mom doesn’t like baking either, but she does like cookie exchanges, so every year, she buys the ingrediants and has me bake all of her cookie exchange cookies for her. She gets the cookies and I get the fun of baking them.
One of my baking memories is watching my grandmother roll out molasses cookie dough (also called Moravian cookies in our area). She would chill that dough and then roll it extremely thin. I never thought she would be able to pick the cookies up after she cut them with a variety of cookie cutters but she did! Crisp freshly baked cookies…ummm.
Making Christmas cookies growing up; and now making them with my lil’ ones! <3
I always loved baking Christmas cookies with my kids. Now I have fun doing them with my grandkids.
We make and decorate Gingerbread houses for Christmas. Since there were 5 kids plus mom, we always made a village. Including trees, candy pond with goldfish. It was really fun to see the different styles we each have. :) It is one of our few Christmas traditions.
This past Christmas I hosted a cookie exchange at my little apartment for me and 5 of my best girl friends. Things were a bit busy after work that Friday whipping up 5 dozen cookies, hot chocolate, and making sure the place was clean and welcoming, but boy did we have a blast! It was so much fun sitting around, chatting, laughing, and eating everyone’s wonderful cookies! It definitely made Christmastime all the more special last year. :)
My dad is not a cook by any means, but he makes the most delicious fudge every Christmas. It takes the whole family to help him.
Favorite Baking Memory: Baking Christmas Cookies with my daughter’s girl scout troop for the last five years. Sugar everwhere – with every step you’d hear “crunch”. Of course, no matter how many times you told the girls that less was more, in terms of sprinkles and sanding sugar, they thought the opposite. That explains a lot of the “what is that cookie supposed to be?’ comments. Nevertheless, along with the caroling, the scouts brought lots smiles to everyone’s faces, especially since they were all wearing those santa hats with the bouncy pom poms on top. Yeah, that’s my favorite baking memory.
Every Christmas my late husband and I would spend an entire day baking all the “goodies” we were going to put into gift trays. After we were done, we would cover our kitchen table and set out all the trimmings. Then we would get our daughters together and each would create their Christmas house. It was a long day but we enjoyed it so much we started inviting friends to join us too. What a mess but what great memories!
My favorite baking memory is when my brother used to make homemade caramel corn for us when I was young. I was too little to bake so I would watch him pour the gooey caramel goodness over the homemade popcorn and I of course was old enough to help him eat it! I joke that it must be my favorite memory because we stopped bickering long enough for him to do something nice for me:)
Baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with my friends in high school!
My mom never baked and I only started about two years ago…kind of on a whim, to procrastinate grad school work…so I don’t really have a favorite memory of childhood or anything. My favorite thing about baking so far is how excited people get…I hope I stick with it and maybe make favorite baking memories for my future little ones :)
My special baking memory is going to NH with my grandmother each spring to help her open up the fishing cottage that her husband built for her as a first anniversary gift. After he died, she didn’t want to go alone and I treasured our one on one time. For our first night, as a reward for cleaning up the house on the lake, we would buy blueberries, clams and 2 lobsters, a real treat for a young girl from a family of 6 kids! I rolled the dough for blueberry cobler, help drop the lobsters and clams in the steaming pot, find the big rock to crack the lobster. We feasted while sharing stories, secrets and dreams in the candlelight. I will never forget her love of life and how special and grownup she made me feel.
My mom makes the best cinnamon rolls and she makes them every year on Christmas morning. I have so many memories of watching her and eventually helping her… learning to make them from her was the best!
GodsAngelsGoneEarly.blogspot.com
One Christmas my Mom and I were short on money, so we decided to sell cookie platters to companies to give as appreciation gifts. This turned into a huge project. We made thousands of cookies for days! On one of the last days, I was so sick of cookies and did not taste any of them. We had delivered all of our plates when my husband came home and picked up a cookie. He makes a face and asks if I had tasted these before I delivered them! My stomach instantly dropped! He was just joking, they tasted great! But I had the opportunity to bake for days with my mom all day! We talked, laughed, joked, probably got irritated but had a great time!
having the oven on warming up the kitchen while baking with friends or family!
I believe my first time baking was while spending the night with my aunt. She baked some amazing butter cookies she called Mrs. Jenkins’ Cookies. She allowed my cousin and I to decorate them and just plain eat the frosting. I still make these cookies and have actually become my families favorite cookie.
My mom wasn’t very big into baking, but I remember one year we made a decorated cut out Christmas cookies together, definitely one of my favorite baking memories.
My favorite baking memory is the Christmas cookie marathon!
My favorite baking memory is making/ baking chocolate crinkles EVERy year with my mom and now doing it with my two little once. I also host a cookie partty every year now (now going on 5 years) and it turn out to be a big HuRAH!
I have wonderful memories of baking cinnamon rolls with my grandmother. We would get them all rolled and cut, then put them in the closet next to the heating vent to rise. I nearly always ate the tiny, very end one before it was baked – yes, I loved raw dough, especially coated in the butter, sugar and cinnamon.
In the early fall Mom would get a bushel of MacIntosh apples and the whole family would help make apple pies for the freezer. Grandma would help Mom with the pie crusts and Dad would peel apples all day along with us kids. Definately a great memory especially this time of year!
What a great gift offer!
I’d have to say that my favourite baking memory is making Swedish Pepparkakor (like gingerbread cookies) with my mom. Making the dough, rolling it out, using cookie cutters ….. and yes, eating the leftover scraps of raw cookie dough, LOL! To this day, I still love the smell of those. And I make them with my kids now!
My favorite baking memory is making molasses cutout cookies with my mom and siblings each Christmas. We’d all gather around the table to roll the dough and cut them out, and then we’d decorate them with colored royal icing and gobs of sprinkles and red hots. It’s a tradition that my sister still continues with my two nephews!
Baking bread with my mom growing up was one of my favorite things to do. We’d mix everything together and punch down the dough and then braid it and it would come out of the oven just in time for dinner. Baking bread will always remind me of Miss Bonnie. <3
Every year around Christmas, we get together and make candy all day long. It is so much fun, we look forward to it all year long.
My mom taught me how to make roll-out sugar cookies when I was around 8 years old. I set the pan of cut cookies on a chair and the dog ate them all. We can have a good laugh about it now.
My favorite baking memory would be me and my sisters and my grandmother baking pies for Thanksgiving. Before my grandmother had her stroke and was unable to speak she used to talk every chance she had. We usually ended up making two pies of each flavor because she would start to talk and not tell us the right ingredients and we would ruin in the pie. I really miss baking with her and hearing her tell us stories but I will always have the memories of us baking together. :)
I bake a lot with my daughter (who is just about to turn 4). She loves helping and some of my favorite baking memories are just the look on her face when I ask if she wants to bake some cookies or cupcakes. :)
I was a nanny for two little girls that lost their Father in a car accident. Their Mother could not even get out of bed for months. So every Friday after school, they would have to come up with a special cookie to bake. These girls were unbelievably creative. I did not question their ideas. I wanted them to learn about trying new things. Most of our cookies turned out fantastic. Others (ketchup & white chocolate) ended up in the trash. But we had so much fun baking together.
This is my favorite time of the year also, but sadly I also like to joke that I’m like a bear and put on at least 10 pounds in preparation for the winter. Every year for all my coworkers, mailman, and people who aren’t close friends but are more than acquaintances I make a “goodie bag” of treats and even though I spend a two day marathon in the kitchen from dusk till dawn I love the feeling of handing out the bags of treats. All year long people joke with me and make references to my baking and every year I look forward to doing it.
Baking Zucchini bread at Christmas for all the teachers, I had my girls shredding zucchini, prepping foil pans and then wrapping them up to give away! I still bake it for friends and family, thank goodness it’s not as many loaves as years ago! And my helpers make it themselves now for their friends too!
Just this past week I made yellow cupcakes with a delightful chocolate buttercream frosting. Watching my 18 month old daughter devour it and come up with a frosting hobo beard made my month!
My favorite baking memory is learning to make cookies with my mom!
My favorite baking memory is with my mom! She would always go all out and make the most wonderful desserts and I remember being shocked when she finally taught me how to make them how easy they were! It’s hard to beat a cobbler recipe with 5 ingredients!
My favorite baking memory is making lefse with my mom & grandma every year before Christmas. Now my grandma’s hands don’t allow for rolling out the dough, and so my mom, me & my daughter are making lefse this year.
My favorite memory was actually an epic baking fail. My friend and I made cookies when we were in junior high but forgot the flour. We plopped the goo on to the baking sheet which then burned into black char within 10 minutes in the oven. My parents laughed and laughed and didn’t get mad about the smell or the smoke detectors going off.
Making Apricot Fried Pies with my Mammaw. She taught me how to make them and now I get my Mom and Sister’s together and we make them! They are the best ever!
Thanks for a great give-a-way!
Lori
Favorite baking memory is making molasses cookies with my sweet granddaughter.
My favorite baking memory takes me back to my elementary years. I remember sitting on a stool in my mom’s kitchen watching her mix up banana bread. She would give me the bowl and spatula when the loaves were in the oven, and she’d turn on the oven light. Then I would eat, wait, watch and smell as the most perfect banana bread baked. When it was done she’d cut me a couple pieces and I’d scarf them down while they were still steaming. Soooo good!
My favorite baking memory always takes place around Christmas. My mom’s family always made Peppernuts. They’re German, and they take forever to make! The recipe makes about 2 gallons of dough, and it gets rolled out into 1/4 inch thick logs. Then each log gets cut into 1/4 inch size bits. Once these bake they look like dog food, but they taste amazing! Many hours have been spent rolling and cutting peppernuts together. I look forward to it every year! :)
I do a lot of baking, on and off anyways, so I can’t really remember my favorite baking memory. However, I’ve had some pretty crazy ones that are definitely memorable… Like the other day when I made an ice-cream cake and it completely slumped over when I stuck it in the freezer, and then froze that way… But that was okay, because it was delicious. :) It was a peanut-butter cake chocolate ice-cream chocolate cake cake.
My favorite baking memory was when my great grandmother first taught me how to bake an apple pie. She lived with my family for the last few years of her life, and my sister and I benefited from her baking lessons :) I remember my grandmother accidentally spilled flour on the head of my little dog who was hanging around, eyeing the food hopefully. He loved it! My great grandmother has passed, but I have been able to carry on baking apple pies in her method, and everyone agrees that they are the best! I wouldn’t change her recipe for anything.
My best baking memory would be with mum. I started baking when i was 13 yrs old. I remember i would always forget the ingredients for this sponge cake we always made. Now ten yrs later i have memorized it like the back of my hand and always make it.
I love baking just about anything with my mom. She is an amazing baker and I am so happy that she has taught me everything she knows. We have been baking together since I was young for 4H projects and for fun. To this day, her scotcheroos always taste better than mine!
My mom didn’t love cooking or baking but she always made the best sugar cookies at christmas time. I still use the same recipe! Everytime I make them it brings back many holiday memories and I love it!
My favorite baking memory is baking cookies for Santa each Christmas Eve with my kiddos.
Baking was a big deal for my mom, especially this time of year. She use to start after Halloween and finish on Christmas day. My favorite memory was helping her with making decorated sugar cookies. She had two 8 ft banquet tables covered with plastic wrap and we would pile the cookies once cooled onto the tables to be decorated. When I say piled, they were sorted by shape and stacked neatly about 10 + high. Then we would spend time each night decorating them. Finally, we would box them up and take them to a local shelter or battered women’s shelter for the children and families to have a sweet memory of their own.
In the last year, I have been making baking memories with my 6-year old son. He is a big fan of Master Chef. He creates a challenge for the two of us to complete in one hour before we watch the show. This has consisted of a grain-free reduced sugar fruit tart, chocolate almond flour cake with buttercream icing, and no egg sugar cookies. These are fun times and it makes me happy to know I’m building lasting memories for him to share with his children one day.
I love baking with my son! Our baking memories are just beginning as he is only 5. Little does he know I’ve got a lot planned for us! :0)
My favorite baking memory is a new one…baking pumpkin muffins with my 2 year old son (his absolute favorite food). I loved having him help me and seeing the joy on his face (and then watching him pretend to bake more muffins in his play kitchen while we waited for them to bake).
Making the kids birthday cakes every year, now the oldest helps with piping her cake
My favorite baking memory is making homemade biscuits with my grandmother. We would clean her entire kitchen island really well and turn it into a work station. Flour coated the entire counter for rolling out our dough & I was always the one who cut the biscuit circles & got to sneak bites. :)
Great times!