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!
Every year during Christmas time, my family makes our traditional Sicilian cookies. Last year, just my Nonna and I made them. I loved this experience so much my Nonna is my most favorite person in the world, I look up to her so much. She is my inspiration and my rock. While baking, she told me many stories about her past and her family. I absolutely loved this time with her and will cherish it for the rest of my life!
The first time I made chocolate cookies by myself as a child, I accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda. The cookies were quite terrible, but my mother still ate some anyway.
My favorite baking memory was during the year I first started dating my now husband. We cooked pies the day before Thanksgiving at my parents house where I forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie. The next day, my mistake was discovered and he kindly asked my mother for sugar, which he then poured over the slice and proceeded to eat. Fast forward to that Christmas where I received a gag gift of a five pound bag of sugar with a pumpkin pie recipe taped to it!
As a young child, my mom would serve a pie every Sunday with dinner. Usually, it was apple or rhubarb; sometimes lemon meringue in the summer. Always from scratch – all of them. Pecan was reserved for holidays and special occasions. It was my surprise that as a adolescent I learned that she didn’t make her pecan pies pecans – but she actually used walnuts. I’ll spare the full story (it truly is hilarious). :)
baking cookies with my daughters during Christmas season!
I love the Christmas season. Baking and decorating gingerbread houses was one of my favorite things to do. Now I make them with my three boys, their cousins, and our friends. It is such a creative activity, and so much fun to see what they will come up with (and also fun to eat!). :)
Making danish Christmas cookies with my mom every year!
My best baking memory is when I make doggy bone shaped treats for my dog from scratch! She loves them warm, fresh out of the oven.
My favorite baking memory is going over to my friend’s house and teaching her how to bake my famous chocolate chip cookies, and then after we made Oreo balls.
So many memories wrapped in dough! My Granny’s baking marathon at Christmas. My mom letting us roll our own sugar cookies without one complaint about the mess. Seeing my own kids with flour on their fingers (and shirts, noses, etc) and so proud of their newest baking success!
Baking with my two girls……they love muffins and cupcakes y we really enjoy that time together. Hope its a good memory for them too.
First time I made potato chips cookies from my hubby family recipe. it brings back great memories for him and his brother.
My mom makes chocolate chip and sugar cookies every year for Christmas. As kids we’d help her make them every year and eat some of the dough, even though she told us not to because of the eggs. I love making cookies all year round now, and eating some of the dough as I go :)
I remember the first time I made cookies with my daughter-it was 30 years ago! She had a little apron on, but she was still covered in flour.
Latest & greatest memory would be watching my father-in-law bake. He’s the type who will pull out 3 boxes of cake mix (usually they are all different. yellow, white, whatever) and just mix in whatever he finds in the cabinet. In the end there will be anywhere from 4-6 cakes… all tasting different from each other. Some are good. Some… not so good.
Now I am the grandmother baking with my grand daughter. My mother ran a cafe so I was raised cooking and baking with a multitude of chefs and cooks.. I still make those recipes with my grandchildren. If fact I am making them all a recipe book with these recipes. I am including memories with each recipe. I hope they pass them along for many generations to come.
I forgot to add my favorite baking memory to my comment! One of my favorite memories is making Dirt Cake, or Dirt pudding, with my mom. When I was little, she would let me take the bag of Oreos out on the back porch and crunch the Oreos up with the sharpening steel thing from her knife set. My mom always made the pudding part and I would sprinkle the Oreos on top. It was something I always enjoyed!
Grew up watching my Mom make the best ever fudge. I got to stir it and butter the fudge plate. Now I enjoy baking holiday cookies with family.
A few years ago my sweet 7-year-old niece came to visit for Thanksgiving and we spent the night before making cinnamon rolls from scratch. It was fun to share that experience with her
My favorite baking memory is from when I was little with my mother. Making comish bread. It’s a Jewish cookie that almost looks like a biscotti with a chocolate center. She’d give each of us kids our own little ball of dough to pat out, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and fill with chocolate chips. I know make the same cookies with my boys and it makes my heart smile every time.
My favorite backing memory is also centered around the holidays. My sisters and I, under the guidance of mom, would make sugar cookies. We used a cookie press which was always fun because sometimes the dough would oooze out the back or the press disk would pop out for a hot mess!
My favorite memory was actually my birthday this year. My mother and I were baking an orange-flavored cake (from a mix, because we’re not bakers in the least!), but I was stressed and only half-paying attention to the recipe. I added too much water. The cake was delicious, but only about an inch thick.
I have great memories of making homemade caramel roll candy with my dad. The caramel recipe has been passed down through the family for several generations. My great grandmother used to make it every year at Christmas but she didn’t use a recipe, it was all in her head. My mom and dad watched her make it one year (before I was born!) and wrote it all down so we would have it. I remember having to stir that pot for hours, but it was so worth it!
I remember making the most basic and easy cake box cookies with my mom. My brother and I always got to roll the dough balls through the powedered sugar before loading the cookie sheets. :-)
My Mom and I would make Rosettes every Christmas Eve. I remember the first time, she brought out the rosette iron, filled the cast iron fryer with oil. It was so foreign to me back then. Now I do the same with my son.
When I was a kid, I would go to my Aunt Cheryl’s house sometime in early December each year to bake sugar cookies. We would spend the whole day rolling, cutting, baking and frosting the cookies. I thought it was so much fun and really inspired me to continue a life of crafting!
One of my favorite baking memories is making Christmas cookies with my family – it is a tradition that we started when I was just a toddler & we still continue today. I love rolling out the dough, cutting out the shapes & then decorating them with all the great colors of icing & sprinkles. I’ll certainly do this with my own family one day!
My grandmother had ten kids so we had a large family and lots of grandkids…before Christmas there was always a weekend when all the aunts and whatever grandkids happened to be around would make tons of christmas candy and desserts for the holidays. Those days were always the best. So much fun being in the kitchen with my grandmother, mom, and my aunts and cousins.
My favorite baking memory is fairly recent. For years I was phobic of the kitchen and cooking in general. I couldn’t even set foot in one without having panic attacks. So when I was finally able to bake on my own, I made a pie.
The pie tasted like victory.
All the baking I’ve done so far with my mom are very special to me.
My daughter and I always bake together but my husband is the one always doing the dishes.
I think my favorite baking memory is when I was a little girl, I used to help my mom bake shortbread. She had all of these really neat ceramic molds that we could press the dough into and then bake. They had all sorts of detailed shapes like ghosts with faces, and gingerbread men with the details already “baked” in. I’ll have to ask her if she still has those when the holidays get a bit closer!
Baking and decorating Christmas cookies on the days leading up to Christmas. :)
Whenever my mom was feeling under the weather, she always got into a baking mood. So when i would rush through the door after school the smells from our house would overwhelm me with all the delisciousness she had baked!! I hope to do the same for my 2 small boys!!
My best cooking memories are my son’s birthday cakes. Those hours imagining, shopping, baking, icing challenging cakes for him (candy train? lightening mc queen? treasure chest? spiderman?) were worth his smile when he saw them. He is only four, so I’ve got a lot of those memories coming along!
Baking was always such a fun activity when we were young. It was back in the 50’s and my Mom was a stay at home Mom. We didn’t have much money and my Mom kept us entertained by letting us join her in her baking. She was a terrific cook and baker and I can remember all three of us sitting on the counter next to my Mom “helping” her bake. She make things almost every day, bread, cookies, cakes. You name it. Learning the steps of when to add things and how things should look and feel gave me confidence in my cooking and baking abilities as I grew to adulthood. I feel sorry for those who never had those inexpensive, fun things to share with family.
Baking Christmas cookies with my mom listening to Dolly & Kenny’s Christmas CD.
For my 8th birthday I fell in love with this cake I saw on a magazine cover that looked like a pile of presents. I insisted that I could have no other cake at my party. My mom and I (but mostly my mom) worked two days on it, and it was the best cake ever! Some of my friends still remember it (20 years later). My mom always made the best birthday cakes, but that Pile of Presents is my all time favorite!
I unfortunately don’t really like pecans, but pecan pies always smell and look so good. I really love family recipes, though. I love the stories behind them and how they’re passed down. Like this one of your grandmother and uncle. So cool! :)
One of my most favorite baking memories is with my mom. We didn’t cook or bake together while I was growing up and I found a love for baking more recently.
My fondest memory is recently when me and my mom baked my daughters birthday cake together. I wanted to get away from the traditional birthday cake, so we baked a yummy and somewhat healthy banana cake and incorporated vanilla pudding and home made whipped cream frosting.
As a child, and even adult, I always remember my Mamaw making bread and noodles. The flavors remain in my mind and on my tongue. I’ve tried so many times to recreate the bread recipe she told me, but translating “some” of this, a couple “handfuls” of that, or a “bit” of this, just wasn’t working. Making bread in the bread machine is easier, but simply does not compare, it tastes like store-bought. Even at the age of 51, receiving full on lessons from her and having her do the measuring, I’m still not able to capture the full flavor of that bread from long ago. Of course, the frail hands of my 96 year old Mamaw, are not the same as they were so many years ago. They just don’t measure the same amounts anymore, nor do they have the strength to push the dough around on a seemingly tall countertop. So I’ve determined that it’s not the amount of ingredients used, but my Mamaw’s “flavor” that gives the taste to the bread and noodles. The love from her hands kneading that dough certainly flavor the bread more than any spice or ingredient could. One day, I hope to have “flavor” like that, and I will truly miss it when it’s gone. I now bake with my granddaughter and I hope her memories will be just as wonderful!
I can remember making nut rolls with my grandmother. When it came time to kneed the dough, she would let me do some of the kneeding. She’d then roll the dough and I would get to help her spread the nut mixture over the dough. When the rolls came out of the oven and were cool enough, she would let me sprinkle the powdered sugar over the top of the rolls. She would laugh when more of the powdered sugar ended up on the floor….she never criticized. She was always positive and encouraging. I miss her very much!
I remember helping my mom make christmas cookies every year. She made thumbprints and I got to stick my thumb in the dough to make the hole.
Christmas baking with my mom and sisters. We would spend the whole day baking goodies from frosted sugar cookies to chocolate dipped pretzels to sausage balls. Such sweet memories!
My favorite memory of baking would be with my grandma at Christmas time. She had me come to her house and we made Anise or Springerle Cookies. She had an old antique springerle rolling pin and we would prepare the dough and then roll and cut the beautiful cookies. I still do it today with my mom and dad at my house. We have travelled to Germany and brought back rolling pins and single springerle blocks over the years. It’s a huge deal and we all get a kick out of preparing our own batches and then bragging whose turned out best. They are both beautiful and delicious!
About six or seven years ago, I started making several batches – 21 pans – give or take- of Moravian Sugar Cake to give as gifts. The kitchen turns into a sweet smelling assembly line on December 22 or 23 and then I deliver the pans to friends and neighbors.
Baking cutout sugar cookies (we called them Kris Kringles) around Christmas. Those are very special memories for me and we still make them every year!
Every year at Thanksgiving, my cousins & I would spend the whole weekend at my grandparents’ house (no parents allowed!). We would spend the long weekend decorating their house for Christmas, putting up the tree, and baking numerous batches of cookies.
I started my baking bug with one of my best friends, A – we used to have sleepovers in high school where we’d stay up making desserts. Chocolate cupcakes with strawberry designs on top, a brownie cake with a heart cut out in the middle, filled with more strawberries – we thought we were the coolest :)
My favorite baking memory is baking cookies for my dad. He loves his snickerdoodles. I bake them for him every chance I can, which isn’t often since I live in PA and he lives in CA. Last time I was in CA, I had both my son and daughter help me. They helped mix the dough and one rolled the balls with me while the other rolled the balls int he cinnamon sugar mix. They were excited to help make Grandpa’s special cookies. I love sharing my love of baking with my children.
My favorite baking memory would have to be making those slice n bake cookies with my sister around Christmas time. I know, I know – “real” cookies are so much better, but this started when I was like five and it saves my mom lots of clean up time, haha!
We always baked Christmas cookies as kids. And made a HUGE mess! We have pictures of my sister and I covered in flour. But I always go back to how we used to want a treat during the summer at home and broke open my mom’s cookie book. There was a recipe for a shortbread pan cookie that we had the ingredients for. We used to make it all the time just for ourselves!
My grandmother was always baking things growing up. Whenever there was a get together she made carrot cake, pies, brownies (with and without nuts). My favorite memory of baking is sitting up at the counter, watching her and wanting to be like her so badly. She’s not with us any more and when I bake, I often think of her and hope she thinks I’m doing a good job.
Each holiday season, I would make mints with my grandmother – peppermint flavored, extra-thick confectioner’s sugar icing, piped in dots and refrigerated until set. They’d soften at room temperature, so we’d often get tummy aches trying to eat them before they melted!
She was a huge influence on my kitchen life – often we’d make classic chocolate chip cookies, and even more often, her famous chicken wings. She bought me my first cake decorating kit and let me decorate every cake for every birthday.
I’ve recently come across recipes for holiday mints – cream cheese variations, butter mint pillows, and even peppermint patties. I know I’ll be trying all of them this season in honor of my grandmother, and passing them on as gifts to friends to try and spread a little of her joy!!
At Christmas time my mom would always roll out sugar cookie dough for us when we were kids. Now it’s something I do with my kids. Having free range over cookie decorating both before and after baking is such a fun thing for kids!
I remember baking my grandmothers oatmeal cookies one day when I was home by myself & being amazed at how many cookies I had. Seems like everytime I had baked them before, I had brothers & a sister around & they ate at least half the dough raw. Now I only make them when I’m home alone.
Growing up, my big brother and I rarely saw our dad in the kitchen. Except to eat the wonderful meals my mom cooked. At christmas time she would go all out and spend hours baking mixing sugar cookie dough, rolling out all of the shapes with the oven going all day. By the time she was done, we had a mountain of sugar cookies just waiting to be frosted. And boy, our mom was exhausted! Low and behold, in stepped dad! That man could frosting sugar cookies for hours! He wouldn’t just slop it on either. You should have seen some of the intricate piping he done with those cookies. And the sprinkles. They were little works of art. Of course, for every dozen, he had to “taste test” one. So by the 10th dozen, he was moving pretty slow. That was a tradition I will always cherish!
My favorite baking memory is waking up early every Thanksgiving morning to my mom simmering the beginnings of her world famous gravy. When I woke up I couldn’t wait to run into the kitchen to see what delicious dish she was working on for our afternoon feast. To this day, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday–the crisp Autumn air, savory smells wafting through the air, and the vision of my beautiful mother making everything extra special for us will always be etched in my mind as one of my favorite baking memories.
My favorite memory is making spritz sugar cookies with sprinkles with my Grandma in her bright yellow and orange kitchen.
My sweetest memories were the occasions wen it was my turn to lick the bowl and utensils mom used for making a simple sponge cake. We were three children so it was hard to wait but well worth it :)
Thank you for a joyful blogg.
My favorite memory is baking with my grandma. My mom didn’t bake but my grandma who was blind did. When she would come visit us she would let me help her bake bread and she could tell the done ness by smell and touch and then we’d share a slice while it was still warm and slather butter all over. Yummmmm!
My favorites baking memory is… every time I make cake pops. I’m a terrible cook but cake pops have become my specialty. I make them for every party, school event, and so on. And I love seeing the surprised and delighted looks of the guests when they see the pop cakes and bite into them. Double whammy.
I loved making Christmas candy with my grandma every year. It was always such a process to get the variety we wanted, but it makes the best presents!
I used to bake all the time, but now I’m gluten free and took up running, so I don’t do it as much. But I loved trying cookies, breads and I still love making cupcakes!
Successfully decorating a cupcake for the first time. I used to just slap on icing with a knife, but once I figured out how to use a piping back to make beautiful cupcakes, there was no turning back.
My favorite baking memory was about 3 years ago. My grandma, mom, niece and nephews and myself all got together to bake as much as possible in one day for Christmas. I loved it, four generations all together in one kitchen.
It’s not really a single specific memory, but my first impressions of baking come from my grandmother’s kitchen; she used to let me help her bake, and I remember rolling out dough on the kitchen table, learning the the hard way to make sure the hand mixer was off before lifting it out of the batter, and the all-important ritual of licking the mixing bowl.
I love baking Christmas cookies with my mom and sister and Italian twistees with my pop pop!
The first year my little boys were big enough to make the Christmas Cookies for Santa with me is a very special memory. We measured, and mixed, and rolled and cut, and then FROSTED. I think those were Santa’s favorite cookies ever! I miss those simpler times with my precious children.
My favorite baking memory is my Mother making shortbread from the recipe of an old Irish friend. The friend has long since gone to her reward and my mother is 95 now and no longer bakes. Those were the best short bread cookies I have ever eaten.
My mother doesn’t bake so my friends and I get together and have cookie making parties!
My Favorite Baking Memory is making decorated sugar cookies with my mom every year for Christmas. She was the best baker and cook ever!
when my daughter was 3 years old we were baking chocolate chip cookies together. i was teaching her how to scoop and measure flour. she put it in the bowl and then turned the mixer on high speed, the flour went flying! it was like an episode of I Love Lucy. i laughed so hard, and it still makes me chuckle to this day. :-)
My grandmother taught me how to bake. We spent weeks and weeks preparing fruit cake for Christmas. The other thing I remember that was special about cooking with her was the day we made 30 lemon ice box pies for a church dinner.
Watching Granny bake peach cobbler in the summer. The house smelled so good!
My grandma & us grandkids used to make sugar cookies and decorate them. We would do them for every holiday and always end up a mess from the icing! It was the old tube kind that you had to squeeze out so the cookies weren’t pretty but tasted soo good! My grandpa & I always made mashed potato candy after every holiday dinner. We would save a spoonful of taters and be on a sugar high the rest of the day! Oh, how I miss them…
as a child and young adult, we used to make sugar cookies every christmas with my aunt as gifts . we would have cookies EVERYWHERE. i would love sneaking a few out of the freezer when she wasn’t looking.
question – why use margerine instead of butter in the pies?
I come from a family of cooks, I’m the only baker, so I always bake a treat for my family members on their birthday. My favorite baking memory was when my boyfriend wanted to help me bake pumpkin cinnamon rolls for my sister’s birthday. He is not familiar with a kitchen, so it was similar to having a child help me. Lol! But the rolls came out great, facebook status worthy =) And the bf and I got to bond and have fun together.
Watching my nieces and nephews frost shape cookies with Grandma. I love to see her grooming the next generation!
My mom and I cooked and baked for 8 hours on a Sunday afternoon, we make french onion soup, a delicious savory tart and a lemon tart for dessert! It was a wonderful and tiring day :)
Watching my mom make homemade peanut brittle! I loved watching her pull the wooden spoon out of the boiling sugar and watch the sugar threads spiral up!
I have to say I have the best memories of baking with my Nona, I have learned to make her scones, and even some savory dishes that I hope to keep as tradition in our family. It makes my heart happy just thinking about this :)
I don’t know that I have a favorite…but I do remember my dad teaching me how to make pecan tarts. They’re kinda like mini pecan pies…just bitsize. MMMMMMM. :) You gotta do it just right.
Kelly
My best friend and I grew up baking together – sometimes with a recipe and sometimes just making it up as we went along. Every Christmas we would spend hours upon hours making huge messes of our parents’ kitchens to put together gift plates of fudge, toffees, and other goodies for all of the neighbors and we were so proud to deliver them to everyone. We’re now adults and live on opposite ends of the country, but we still love baking together when we can.
When my five kids were little, I had the recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies memorized because I made it so often. I felt that they ‘redeemed themselves’ by having so much healthy oatmeal in them. The kids (and neighbors) all loved them, and still do.
My favorite memory is one I try and recreate each year – by reserving a day (taking vacation if necessary) and getting together with my Mom to do a full-day of Christmas baking.
For many Easters my mom would bake a cake in a lamb shaped pan and decorate it; white frosting covered with coconut for the body, raisins for the eyes, pink frosting for the nose and ears and then she would tint the rest of the coconut green and sprinkle it around the lamb for the grass. It always tasted a little dried out by the time we got a chance to eat it, but it was so pretty to look at. She gave me that pan a few years before she died.
My favorite baking memory is making Apple Pie with my mom every thanksgiving. The recipe is from her best friends mother (who has since passed). every time we make it, we drink in her honor and make the pie exactly like her! :) always comes out great!
My favorite baking memory is making ice cream cone cupcakes with my mom every year to bring into my class for my birthday in elementary school. I loved picking out what kind of cake to fill the cones, and the color of the frosting every year!
My favorite baking memory is when I made gingerbread houses from scratch with my oldest two kids. In years since I’ve used kits, but there’s nothing like designing the house, rolling the dough, baking, praying it actually will stand, all of it. I miss that.
Hands down baking Christmas Sugar Cookies with my grandma. She would do most of the baking and I would do most of the eating and decorating! She is no longer around, but I still use her recipe (which is the best I’ve ever had) and every time I make sugar cookies I think of her.
It’s not Christmas without fudge. My mom always made the same fudge every year, and now all of her kids (even her sons!) continue with the tradition in our own homes, because it just isn’t Christmas without moms fudge!
My mom never baked or anything so my memories involve my MIL. I know it sounds weird but I love my MIL. Every year she bakes maybe 35 or more dozen cookies for family and friends. I started helping her a few years back and I look forward to it every year. Now that I have a 9 yr old and 4 1/2 yr old they are part of it too. I is a day filled with family and lots of fun:) I can’t wait to do it if I have this mixer to make it a little easier on the hands.
I was about 10 years old and my Grandma broke her shoulder. Her and I baked her homemade bread but with me doing all the work following her directions. The bread turned out delicious and I have a very sweet memory!
I have so many memories that center around baking. It’s been a family tradition for some time to elaborately decorate Christmas cookies, and I remember many years sitting around with my mom and sister, making the prettiest cookies we could. I also love that my son is now old enough to help me in the kitchen. He just turned 2 yesterday and wants to use the mixer every day! :)
WOW – I could so use this mixer. After 35 years of making wonderful recipes mine recently bit the dust. So many fun memories it’s hard to pick just one. At Christmas as a family we always made lots of Christmas treats to give as gifts. Everyone would be around the kitchen rolling little balls for different truffles and talking. The ones that didn’t get eaten got dipped in chocolate and decorated. The children were so excited to deliver the gifts they had helped to make. My daughter is now continuing this tradition. Each year family and friends start asking early if they are going to get homemade truffles and fudge for Christmas.
Every holiday season my Mom makes goodie bags of her “Poppycock” which is popcorn, nuts, pretzels, and other mix-ins covered with white chocolate. I’m allergic to nuts, but I always get the left over white chocolate to make peppermint bark! The most delicious time of the year! :)
my fav baking memory is baking neiman marcus cake with my grandmother. what a delicious cake and person…. i miss her so much!! <3
My best baking memories revolve around trying to recreate my Great Aunt Peg’s cookie trays. They were and still are unmatched!
Lots of baking memories being in the kitchen with my Mom and Grandma – so many wonderful and special things that they taught me to bake over the years that it’s hard to put just one down. I guess it’s just spending time together with your loved ones baking up great memories!
I have quite a few favorite baking memories, and I’m getting emotional just thinking about them. I’m just realizing that my love for baking is linked to time spent with my family.
When I was in high school, my mom would frequently babysit my little nephew who has some physical handicaps. Whenever it was the slightest bit cloudy or rainy, he would say, “It’s a great day for making tookies (cookies).” My mom and I would make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with him. We’d help him step up on the stool to reach the counter and brace his arms as he struggled to stir the cookies. It was a great exercise to help strengthen his arms. He always loved to use the spatula, with our help, to take the cookies off the cookie sheet when they were done. Years later, he’s a teen with somewhat stronger arm muscles. But when he’s home from school and it’s rainy outside, we still love to meet at my mom’s house and make “tookies.”
It was just a few years ago. My daughter was almost 3 years old. She wanted to help me bake chocolate chip cookies. She stood on her little chair and watched me gather the ingredients. When it was time to add the eggs, she watched me crack them open and add them in the dough one at a time. I let her do the last egg. She picked it up and dropped the whole thing in the mixer; shell and all!!! We had to start all over.
My husband loves to make chocolate chip cookies with our daughter and I love watching them. He makes so much cookie dough, bakes a few trays and freezes the rest into balls for fresh cookies whenever we want them. That is a great memory for our whole family!
Baking cookies with my Mom. And now I bake cookies with my son, who will be next week. He is just a mean sprinkling machine! LOL!
So many to choose from! But my favorite memories were from one summer I spent during college being intentional about visiting my grandma and cooking with her. I learned how to make all her & my grandpa’s favorite recipes: homemade bread, pie crusts, homemade noodles, sourdough waffles, etc. All things that I don’t always take time to make from scratch, but now I know I can! She died this past Christmas and I’m so glad that I took the time to spend time with her and allow her to pass her knowledge to me.
My son and I like to bake together. He is 4. He loves pouring all the ingredients into the mixer and watching it mix. He begs to crack the eggs and I know soon I will have to let him take a ‘crack’ at it. We baked Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins this week. so yummy!
My favorite baking memory is always with my Mom, when I was younger and she would make peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and florentine cookies every year. I never knew how precious those memories were, and now every year when I bake in my house, those smells remind me of all of the good times we have had together and how precious the mother daughter bond is. I will always Love baking for the memories it has attached to the wonderful scents in my kitchen.
Some of my favorite baking memories were with my roommate in college. We used to bake absurd sheetcakes and cupcakes for various friends, neighbors and boyfriends!
My mom was the cook and dad the baker. I have such fond memories of daddy teaching me how to make dinner rolls. As a young girl I would watch and think my dad made all the bread for the entire world…lol. As an adult I still had to be taught because I just could not seem to make it like daddy. Then I turned 47 and “wayla!!!!!! I finally had rolls like dads. Thank you dad for your patience and memories!!!!!
Making Baklava and other Greek tradional foods with my grandmother and mother.
My best friend and I decided to try and make pineapple upside down cake in college. Little did we know, the oven had stopped working on the top, so after the alotted amount of baking time, we took it out of the oven. It looked yummy! We let it cool and went to flip it over and under the top layer, it was still completely liquid. We ended up taking spoons to it and eating our first ever Pineapple Upside-Down soup!
My kids almost always bring a giant cookie cake to school to celebrate their birthday. I bake the cookie cake, but they are in charge of decorating it. This started in preschool, and I love seeing their creations and also witnessing their decorating skills improve over the years. They take such pride in sharing their treat with their classmates – it’s far more meaningful than bringing in cupcakes from the bakery!
My favorite holiday memory is baking our favorite snow cake using some of the first snow fall of the season. My 7 boys are all grown and married or on their own but I have two little girls that are just crazy about baking with their mommy!!
baking with my family every christmas is so special and now I get to do it with my wonderful nieces :)
My family and friends would all gather together and spend the day baking cookies, carmels, fudge and rosettes. It’s a great time for all of us to relax and catch up with each other.
my favorite memory of baking was watching my mom make cakes for birthday parties. She made so many of ours and cousins and friends cakes that I started baking and decorating cakes for my kids and friends and nieces and nephews!
My favorite baking moment would be my first time making peanut butter cookies with my mom and sister. I was four at the time and had such a great time measuring the flour and making the criss cross pattern on the cookie. It was my first baking memory and responsible for my passion for baking :)
I remember my mom, brother and I baking Halloween and Christmas cut-outs each year and staying up late making sure they all got frosted (and sprinkled!). Such a great family memory that I hope to share with my kids one day.
Making my first batch of whoopie pies off of the recipe on this very site! I had coworkers worshiping me for weeks! (:
My favorite baking memories are any time I’m with my mom since she is guaranteed to forget an ingredient. We just baked last night and she forgot the milk, our pumpkin cake still tasted delicious though!
Baking Christmas cookies with my mom and sister.
Baking with my kids, especially when I let them choose the recipe and the flour begins to fly all over the kitchen!
Every year for Christmas when I was young, my mom and I would make Christmas cookies. We would make eight different kinds and bake for a week since we made a tin or plastic bucket full for every family. I even decorated a special cut out cookie for each person as my christmas gift to them. We even had years when friends would join in our baking, and we’d make enough for their families too. One year we made over 1200 cookies! My mom and I haven’t done it in a few years, and she lives far away now. But I’m excited to bake some this year with my kids. Especially if I get a spiffy new mixer, since mine isn’t really working well :)
My favorite cooking memory with mom is making Christmas cutout sugar cookies. My brother and I got to decorate all of them! The Christmas tress are my favorites! This is something that I do with my daughters now! Way to much fun to see the edible pieces of art!
having bake sales on the weekends with my grandma, sister, and cousins when i was little <3 <3
Gathering at Grandma’s house and baking 20-30 different kinds of cookies for the retirement home.
I don’t bake much. But when I do…its only time of year that I do bake. Apple Pies!! Every year we would take a family trip to an apple orchard and pick apples. The kids just love to go. We usually pick more that we can eat … so to prevent them to all go bad I bake PIES!!. The simplest thing to bake (my opinion). And I just love the smell of cinnamon with apples in the fall.
Finally being able to conquer the pate a choux and pastry cream recipe i lived in fear of to make my husband his favorite eclairs, that was not only a win but a delicious one!
My fave baking memory would be baking an apple pie with my family in the fall after a day of apple picking.
I used to bake with my mom and my grandma. We would make Norwegian cookies, candy kiss cookies and Corn Flake Wreaths. They are so green, your teeth turn green too! I moved away and so whenever I come into town I try to spend an afternoon with my grandma baking.
I have two memories: Firstly, my mother and I every Christmas make a fudge that she swears is the original recipe used by Sees Candy (she housecleaned for the original business owner’s sister or something) but regardless it’s great times all around, wonderful fudge and fun bonding with my mother.
The second is making jam-pockets with my Nana, rest her soul. She would make the strawberry jam from fresh strawberries, I would make pastry dough for the pocket, and then we’d stuff the dough with jam and bake! Any extra jam was saved as preserves for scones the following morning! Yummm!
I started baking when i was 10 years old. My mother gave me free reign to do what i liked as long as i cleaned up. One summer she arranged for an older women (who was a reknown baker) in our community to give me and a couple of friends leason in how to make pie. We learned how to make the flakiest pie dough ever using oil of all things. Everyday for months when i would come home from school my friend Deborah would make pie. We never got sick of it. Those were the days!!!!
For every Christmas that I can remember, my mom sister and I have made, cut out, baked and decorated a ton of gingerbread and sugar cookies with powdered sugar frosting. We always try to make the best/prettiest cookie but usually end up with some hilarious messes of cookies. Even though we no longer live in the same place, we still manage to get together at Christmas and do it. I hope it never changes.
Every year, I spent a week during the summer with my grandpa and grandma. When I was 8, Grandma declared our week the week I would learn how to bake(!). She took out a blank spiral-bound notebook, gave it to me and, as we tried recipe after recipe all day, I would spend evenings jotting down the recipes that I loved and wanted to take home. I rolled and poked pie crusts, grated carrots for morning glory muffins, cooked glazes. I still remember a beautiful whole strawberry pie that delighted my 8-year-old heart. I think Grandpa gained 10 pounds that week!
Baking my mom’s famous and fabulous poppyseed cake in my aunt’s basement kitchen while visiting her on vacation. I wish I lived closer to my family…
Love baking cookies with my sisters when we were younger.. We used to bake dozens of cookies to share with our family and friends. Now that we are all scattered around the world, we will still bake something out of our mum’s kitchen whenever we are home !
My favorite baking memory is being in my grandparent’s kitchen with them and my aunt and mother. We made cookies, and rice krispie treats shaped like Mickey heads, and pies and rolled up the extra pie crust with cinnamon and sugar. These are still my favorite things to do in the kitchen.
My favorite baking memory is doing Christmas cookies each year with my family. We all tried to decorate the best cookie and it was so yummy and fun. Still a tradition we do now that I have 2 kids.
What a wonderful giveaway. :) My baking memory involves my Mom and my Aunt. We always get together a day or two to prepare for holidays gatherings. I get to learn all the yummy recipes from them. Super moist carrot cake, Jello Cheesecake, Egg custard tarts, Roast Beef, Honey Baked Ham, etc. (Just noticed I listed all the desserts first, LOL). I can’t wait to get the holiday baking started!
My favorite baking memory is being a little girl and helping my mom make sugar cookies at Christmas. Of course, years later she told me that I wasn’t a help at all, but rather a hindrance. What a great mom, to make me think I was helping.
My favorite baking memory is with my best cousin/best friend! We first learned how to bake together and baking cupcakes were our specialty. We always got together during the holidays (ANY holiday) to bakes lots and lots of cupcakes for our family and friends. We’d let my little cousin (her sister) help us decorate and they added such a cute/funny touch to our cupcakes, lol. She just recently moved several hours away for school. I can’t wait til she comes back home winter holidays to bake with again :)
My favorite baking memory is making my Grandma’s famous chocolate pie with her. She used no measuring spoons or cups. Just a big spoon and little spoon from her flatware. Always, always came out perfect. She gave me courage to try new things and experiment like crazy.
My favorite time to bake is when I am making Italian cookies. I make them for the holidays but also weddings of my children and even one year for all 300 of my husbands customers.I love to see the look on everyones faces when they try to decide which one to try first! Thanks for the chance to win this Kitchenaid mixer! Mary M
I’ve always enjoyed baking with my Grandma. One Thanksgiving when I was 9 I had helped bake a pie. The power went out after it was done,when we got the power back on we found the family dog had started eating the pie!
My favorite memory is making my grandmother’s apple pie recipe with my dad every Thanksgiving.
My mom and I would always bake brownies together when I was a kid. The best part was getting to lick the mixing spoon!
My favorite baking memory was my grandmother baking cookies for weeks before Christmas and bringing many tins full of different cookies to our home for the holidays. I still bake like that in memory of her.
The first time I baked with my son I couldn’t believe how cute his little hands looked, and I kept taking photos of just his hands – – stirring, scooping, icing, sprinkling. So cute!
NOW I can look back and call it my favorite baking memory (back then it was not so fond)…When I was younger I used to help my Grandma bake and loved to pour the ingredients into the mixer….until one day when I was leaning over to look into the bowl to watch them mix and my long hair got caught up in the beaters! Needless to say it was scary, and I walked away with a much shorter “do”. But I still remember it and it makes me think back to all the fun baking memories at Grandma’s house.
I love baking with my boys at Christmas and then taking plates of goodies to all our neighbors!!
mine wasn’t a happy memory at the time but over the years it makes me smile to look back on
the first time I ever made a pie I was about 12 and I went whole hog–peach made from scratch with fresh peaches! i did everything perfectly and even made a fun design n the top crust. It baked up fine, golden brown and delicious looking. I took it out of the oven….and dropped it onto the door! peaches, crust, stickiness everywhere. I started crying and my mother ran in (thinking I had burned myself) in a panic only to tut at the fuss i was making. Being the level-headed woman that she was, she simply grabbed a spatula and scooped the mess back into the pie pan and said “it’s cobbler now!”.
I wish I could keep that outlook in mind for all of my cooking disasters. It is very Julia Child esque. :)
another story that I love is when my Brother made his first cake all by himself, he mixed it up and put it in the oven. about an hour later (after checking on it several times) my mother asked if he needed any help and he insisted that it was fine just not done yet. another 45 minutes went by and he finally relented and asked her to check. She ran down a list of all the things that could be wrong. oven temp was fine, he insisted that he followed the directions but the cake was still very puddingy. Finally, she got the recipe and had him read it to her and tell her exactly what he did. he starts reading. “two eggs, eleven and a half cups of milk, four cups of flour” “wait, how much milk?” “he points to the 1 1/2 cups milk on the recipe and said “eleven and a half cups!” once they got over the shock, we all had a good laugh and had some cake-pudding for dessert :)
When we went to Mississippi to visit my grandmother she would always make us a yellow sheet cake with chocolate icing–from scratch, of course. Then on the day before we left she’d make two pecan pies–one to eat that night and one for us to take home the next day. I can’t wait to have kids of my own so my mother can continue the tradition. :)
I don’t really have a favorite baking memory growing up, as my mom didn’t like to cook or bake. I did manage to make my own baked goods with my kids though. I always liked Christmas time as we would make 10 different types of cookies and take them to the neighbors as a gift around St. Nicholas day (Dec 6th).
Great giveaway, thanks!!
My favorite baking memory is making soft pretzels with my best friend ALL. OF. THE. TIME. We had so much fun making different shaped pretzels and making a mess in the kitchen. My mom never seemed to mind us taking over the kitchen either. We’re in our 30’s now and I think it’s high time we make them again! Maybe with the addition of champagne. Cause we can. :)
I’m 38, my Mom is 60, and my grandma is 80. Every year my mom and I take a day off from work in early December and we spend a day at my grandma’s house, the 3 of us making hundreds of Christmas cookies! We usually make about 5 kinds, a few dozen of each kind!
Making fudge with my Grandmother! Which we still love to do together.
One of my sweetest’s memories as a child and teen was smelling the aroma of nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, bread and milk made into a comforting bread pudding by our mother for all nine of us children to enjoy after a long day at school.
My sister could never bake cookies and have them turn out right. I remember watching mine bake through the oven door and then telling her how to tell when to take them out of the oven. Now her cookies are pretty good. I also remember her husband coming in and asking if there were any “broken” cookies. Those were his favorites. Love you Bob and miss you so very much.
I loved baking with my grandmother, my favorite was making pumpkin pie. One Thansgiving my daughter wanted to bake one, so I got out Grandma’s recipe and we gave it a go. It looked perfect. She proudly set it down on the desert table and waited for everyone to dig in and tell her how wonderful it tasted. Those that took a piece never said a word, so she took a piece of her “masterpiece” and dug in. She soon realized why there was such a lack of praise..it was awful..we had forgotten to add the sugar. We still laugh about it every year. Now she adds the sugar FIRST.
One of my favorite memories was my grandmother making (guess it isn’t baking, but she was in the kitchen w/ an apron on :-) peanut patties…the pink kind made w/ corn syrup, sugar, raw peanuts…delicious! I make them these days to honor her!
My favorite baking memory is at Christmas time. My grandmother comes to our house every year to make gennets, which are a delicious Italian cookie. My great-grandmother also came when she was alive. Since she has passed away we always set aside an empty chair for her so that we can feel like she is with us!
Baking my daughter’s birthday cake. It was a tall, 5-layer cake and we were up late into the night baking.
My sweet baking memory….last Christmas me and my husband threw our first holiday party, our first party actually for the family. We spent a week cleaning, things you never notice until you’re having company. Everyone came over, appreciated something different, the yard, the decorations, the home, but for me, what made me the happiest, was hearing the “ohhh” and “ahhh” to my Chocolate Panna Cotta, and then the quiet of everyone just enjoying their dessert. It was a wonderful dinner, and everyone’s elected for us to do Thanksgiving this year! Yeah!
My family owned a small diner called The Tiny Diny. My Papa was the baker in the family. The whole family worked at the diner,but at the holidays we were really busy baking. I would work a shift, go home do homework and then go back and bake and decorate cakes, cookies, and pies. We would wrap the cakes and take to nursing homes. We would just slice and give all our friends and customers slices. And some always made it to homes who didn’t have much Christmas. Those were great Days!!
I remember the Christmas when I was maybe 5, watching my Mom stirring homemade fudge on the stove. I wanted to help so bad but couldn’t reach the pot. My Mom, seeing the look of disapointment on my face, pulled a chair over to the stove, stacked both the white pages AND yellow pages on top, gently placed me on top of the stack and together we stirred the fudge. That was the best fudge I’ve ever had.
My favorite baking memory is the first time I made fudge. I misread how long to let it boil and when I dumped it into the dish it literally froze ib mid air!
My favorite memory was when my kids as adults would come together and spend a whole day baking Christmas cookies. It was great fun. Now two of them live in other states and they don’t get here for the holidays. So, the tradition I tried to start has been put on hold till the day comes that they are all here and free for a day to spend baking!
My favorite baking memory is learning to make a family recipe of mocha cake that has been in my family for decades. My mom’s aunt had a bakery in the Philippines (it is still there and has long out-lived my great aunt) and my mom’s cousin Elsie taught me how to make it one summer. I was in 8th grade at the time and had just learned to bake. I think I made that cake everyday for a month just to get it right. Although my mom grew up in the bakery, she never baked, so I was really lucky to learn from Elsie, who actually worked in the bakery years before. Thanks for the chance to win and for your daily sweet inspirations, Angie!
When my husband (then boyfriend) was competing in the Ironman Race in Austin, I woke up at 3am to secretly bake his favorite cupcakes – cookies and cream stuffed with oreos!
Through a covert mission, they survived the 3 hour drive, and the entire day in the car, and I was able to surprise him after he finished with his favorite treat!!
My favorite baking memory is baking cookies with my children every year for Christmas. They love to help in the kitchen.
I’m always making my own muffins with apple and coco. Everyone loves it. I createed the recipe when I was 14. I am now nearly 20 and I hope to give the secret recipe to my childeren and they to my grand children and so further. So I hope my muffins will be a baking memory for them :)
My favorite holiday baking memory would be making cranberry nut bread for Thanksgiving with my mom. It is one of my favorite dishes and that is the one time of year that we get it. Yum..
I baked a lot with my mom while growing up, but my brothers and I loved making tons of cutout sugar cookies every Christmas. Now, all of us still bake, some for hire! I get my little boys to bake with me now, even if they just come in to stir the bowl once then wait for the goodies to finish baking.
It’s not a singular memory, but a series of them that can be classifed as “kitchen christening”. Every time my sister moved into a new place, we’d end up baking something together.
That something never turned out right. Cookies would turn into brownies, pie would turn into a trifle, brownies would be cake…If I had to name just one memory, though, it’d be the day we discovered that some recipes say “sift flour” for a reason, and we spent the second batch with a tea strainer and a spoon trying to sift the flour.
My favorite memory is making Christmas cookies when I was in middle school with my family and passing them out to all of our neighbors and friends. It’s still a tradition for me, baking holiday cookies and sharing with neighbors and friends.
We used to make fresh apple pies from the apple tree in our front yard.
My grandmothers both passed away when I was little but I was lucky enough to marry a man with a wonderful grandmother. She and I always baked up a storm together just before valentine’s day and then we would send one dozen cookies to each and every member of our 60 plus person family.
Now my son and I carry on that tradition while I miss Lillian dearly every year. Luckily I have all her original recipes in her handwriting.
Every year as a child at Christmas, we would make sugar cookies and decorate them as a family. I loved rolling out the dough and decorating the cookies. Now with my own children, I continue this tradition.
I would have to say that most of my good baking memories have been since I have been married. One memory that came to mind is when I baked a cake for my husband for his birthday. It was just a normal cake but I did the basket weave on it and he was so impressed with it.
If I won this mixer I would be so happy. I have wanted one of these mixers for as long as I can remember. I use my little hand mixer when I bake…LOL
If I did win it would be an amazing birthday gift (10/17) or anniversary gift (10/16)…thanks for the chance to win this amazing prize. :)
My gram taught me how to make from scratch Caramel Popcorn balls for Halloween trick or treaters…. although I ate most of them before it was dark out; the fun part was making them together!
My favorite baking memory goes back when I was a little girl and bake a gingerbread house just before christmas ;) we used to get all the candy we could and make it the most beautiful and sweet. We ate our masterpiece the morning before Christmas. Thanks I love your work and your blog!!!
I remember making chocolate chip cookies with my mother. How she would hold the bowl in the crook of her arm at an angle, the sound of the spoon beating on the sides of the bowl. The smell of the brown sugar and the eggs, which she always scraped out with her finger to get every last bit of egg from the shell. When she poured in the chips she would let my sister and I have a chip to taste, to be sure they were good. The smell of them baking and then the agony of waiting until they were cool enough to eat. They are my father’s favorite.
I remember baking with my mom–lots of sweet treats (fudge, divinity, pralines, etc.) at the holidays. But throughout the year, she’d always have my sisters and I help her make “chess cake” which is now a great tradition with my own daughter!
Cooking/baking on the weekends was my favorite way to unwind, and I liked being in the kitchen alone (for the most part). Then my daughter became old enough to spend time in the kitchen with me, which I enjoyed more that I can say. Cookies were a favorite baking task. She has a real love of cooking and baking, and we still enjoy making Christmas Cookies together.
My favorite holiday baking memory is the first time both of my kids were old enough to help decorate the sugar cookies for Christmas, it was almost like deja vu, since it reminded me of when me and my brother used to help my mom with the Christmas sugar cookies. Two great memories rolled into one.
My favorite baking memory is making candies with my mom about three week before the Christmas holiday and then wrapping everything up and giving it away to our neighbors.
Every year we get together with my mom and bake treats to take to the neighbors for Christmas. Also, every Halloween we make spudnuts.
{LOVE to Bake with my mom} Sweets were her favorite!
As a child, my mother allowed myself and a friend to do some baking on our own. Our recipe was for chocolate cupcakes baked inside of those cylinder ice cream cones. My mom didn’t help at all (except perhaps with the oven?), even though we probably needed some help with ingredients.
Couldn’t find the cocoa powder? Hot chocolate mix is probably fine.
Baking powder vs baking soda? The name is almost the same, how different can they be?
Also, I assumed margarine was just a type of butter, and wasn’t quite clear on the difference between the abbreviations for Tbsp and tsp.
I remember being so excited the whole time we were working with the batter, and the two of us were glued to the oven the whole time they baked – and it led to the biggest let-down of our little lives.
My favorite baking memories happened every year with my mom and sister around the holidays. My mom was a “giver,” and made homemade goodie plates for our neighbors, friends, dentists, doctors, teachers – you name it! She would do her much-requested Sour Cream Cookies with frosting, maybe a quick bread, and cookies. My sister and I LOVED helping her do all of this! We helped with the mixing, baking, decorating and packaging.
Now I find myself trying to do this every year – but I usually don’t have enough time. It makes me realize how amazing my mom really is…because she still tries to do this, maybe on a smaller scale. :)
Making sugar free pecan pies in the kitchen with my diabetic neighbor.
Having an annual baking weekend with my sister… baking from dawn til dusk! It’s so fun!
How do you narrow a lifetime of baking into one favorite memory? I can’t. I remember making noodles for pot pie, and crackers from the leftover dough when I was in kindergarten. I remember all the years off christmas cookie baking and trading first with my mom and her friends and then with my own friends when I was about 13. I remember baking bread and making pizzas, and learning to make pies the best part of any of the baking experiances though was sharing either the baking or the results with friends and family… even when the results were failures… like the green choclolate cake I tried to make for St. Patty’s day with my friend Amy when we were 13. It looked like cow flop.
Baking traditional butter cookies with my Mom when I was in elementary school, and her always giving me the burnt pieces because those were my favorite. :)
The first thing i ever baked alone was a recipe for blonde brownies, and I always doubled the recipe so that it would fit in a 9×13 pan. I was so young that the math to double the fractions was still a challenge. My mom got a copy of that cookbook for me as a wedding gift, sweet memories!
My favorite baking memories are from the winter holiday season. I was raised by my grandparents and they lived in what used to be a very family friendly neighborhood. Every year my grandmother would make loaves upon loaves of Banana bread for all of the neighbors, and there children who visited during that time of year. As well as all of our family. I try to carry on the tradition within he family at least and enjoy it very much.
My favorite memory is making a chocolate chip cherry cheesecake with my grandpa for Thanksgiving. It was the first time I baked with him. What made it even more special was that this was his first time at making a cheesecake! So now I can say out of my whole family (which is a big Italian family) I am the only one who has had the honor of making a cheesecake with him. :)
I remember making Nutella cupcakes and it called for instant coffee. I didn’t have any instant so I figured it would be ok just to substitute with regular ground coffee beans. I didn’t think anything of this mistake until I tasted a cupcake……I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I definitely learned my lesson! The icing was fabulous though!
My favorite baking memory is around all the pies and desserts my mother, aunt and I used to make for Easter. We’d get up on Good Friday and just bake all day. I think that is where my baking bug came from…
One of my favorite baking experiences was the year I baked cookies with my oldest daughter. They were shaped like giant pears (huge cookie cutter) and we painted them with egg wash and sugar – first with a light green and then just a hint of pink blush and topped with crystal sugar.. Too pretty to eat!
Thanks again for all of the creative incentive you send out into the blogging world!