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!
Last week, I made homemade crackers with my son, practicing cutting out all the shapes he had learned about in school that week.
I don’t have a favorite baking memory yet, but I’m starting to bake more with my 7-year-old son, so I’m sure I’ll have many stories to tell in the years to come!
My grandma was the first person to teach me how to bake. By the time I was little, she had already begun to go blind, but she still knew her way around the kitchen. One day, we decided to make a key lime pie. She let me take the reigns of her kitchen at the ripe old age of five, and I just remember having the best time with her. She handed over the mixer, and away I went. The green mess we made was extraordinary; it was everywhere! To this day, I am a messy baker, but she showed me that making a mess is just part of the fun!
Growing up we always decorated sugar cookie cutouts and as we raised our family we stayed with that tradition. We will welcome our first grandchild in January and I hope they keep the fun going.
Baking my memaw’s cream cheese bread on Christmas Eve with my mom will always hold a special place in my heart.
Cookies!!! I love baking Sugar Cookies or any kind! Swaping them with family and friends is the best!
My favorite baking memory was with my mom in our younger years. She and I would make pounds of fudge in chocolate and peanut butter flavors, caramel popcorn and popcorn balls for our family and friends during the Christmas holiday. We had so much fun and the kitchen was a mess when we were done. This is why I love to bake.
I remember when I was really young baking sugar cookies with my mother. I can still recall the wonderful aroma that would fill the kitchen while we baked (and the taste of the raw cookie dough I would sneak a pinch of to eat).
Okay, this one was easy for me. My favorite baking memory was making Easter bread with my grandmother. It was an all day process and I loved the time as much as I loved the sweet raisin bread. I miss her.
It has to be making dozens of different Christmas cookies every year with my mom, then eating dozens!
Baking bourbon-laden fruit cookies with my Mom!
Talking and baking with my grandmother. I learn so much information about my family while baking with her.
My favourite baking memories are baking chocolate chip cookies with my mum as a kid. I don’t have a Kitchen Aid so that would be amazing!
Love making home made toffee! It makes the kitchen smell like ‘home’!!!!
Baking with my mom at Christmas time.
My favorite baking memory would have to be when I was 15. I was really into cakes at the time, and a friend and I tried to make an extravagant layer cake. Of course, it was a complete mess, but it tasted great, and I had a blast!
Love making homemade toffee at Christmas time!!! It makes the kitchen smell like ‘ home’!!
One of my favorite baking memories was doing T’giving with my stepdad a few years ago. He is so fun to work with in the kitchen, and is gentle & knowledgeable without being overbearing. We had a great time. My mom helped too and at the end we had a fabulous meal.
my mom was not much of a baker, so every christmas, i would make the christmas cookies. i would cut each one out and the kitchen would be a disaster. but i remember i used to look so forward to this every year. thus my love for sugar cookies to this day still exists!!! thanks for hosting an amazing giveaway!!!
My favorite memory is my grandmother showing me how to make her delicious bow-tie cookies dipped in a sugar glaze that would dry to a non-sticky finish that no one else seems to be able to copy. I wish I had learned her secret when I had the chance.
I loved teaching my kids to bake–letting them taste all the ingredients before we added them. And the look on their face when they tasted the vanilla extract!
Growing up, my mom and I used to make pumpkin rolls for our family and friends every year around Christmas. I was always in charge of making the cream cheese and holding the cloth down as my mom rolled the cake. I can’t wait to start the same tradition with my daughter :)!!!
It’s not really baking, but I loved making hard candy with my mother.
My favorite baking memory is when my mom would make homemade pies (usually a strawberry rhubarb or gooseberry) & then take the leftover crust pieces & brush them with melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar & bake them for an extra treat. I still can picture her making them like it was yesterday.
Helping my mom bake sugar cookies. I’ve probably done it twenty years in a row now. :)
I love being in the kitchen with my mom. She is an amazing cook and I love to bake. So when we have our family dinners, she cooks and I bake. I also love to bake desserts Ive had growing up, traditional guatemalan desserts. It is my passion and its a way to spend time with my mom and family.
My favorite baking memory was from a couple of years ago when I was in college, and was going to my boyfriend’s (now husband’s!) house for Christmas with his family.. I was so nervous, and I didn’t have any money, and I had no idea what to get everyone for Christmas! So my sister suggested I bake a bunch of sweets and fill Christmas tins with assorted homemade goodies, and everyone would get that as their gift. Cheap, homemade, and from the heart.. I love it! Of course had had help from her and my then-boyfriend, and we all had such a fun time baking together.
My sister just passed away in July, and this was such a great & meaningful memory I will always remember.
My favorite baking memory was baking with mom during the holidays. We would make tons of pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and lots of cookies for Christmas. The family favorite were her sugar cookie snowmen.
My favorite baking memory is when I made a sand castle cake for a friend of mine who had a destination wedding on the beach & a reception at home. It was so much fun to make, both because of the creativity involved and especially because I got to make it with another cake making friend!
Baking in the kitchen with my kids!! It is time that I will always remember, baking Christmas cookies with them!! They love to do this, both baking them and of course eating too!! :)
One year at Christmas my brother and I made wacky gingerbread men cookies for our nephews who were grade school age at the time. They loved them!
My favorite baking memory is the first time I made a dutch oven bread that came out prefect. I was pretty proud of myself!
I actually remember baking and learning from my Mom how to make our family’s favorite pecan pie! Happy Fall Baking, Bakerella and everyone! =)
So many great memories. One dear memory is the first time our younger daughter made a pie. She was maybe six years old and had bought a pie cookbook at our library’s annual sale for one dollar. It was almost two inches thick. Seeing her joy as she mixed, stirred and licked the spoon was a great moment in her cooking career.
My mom wasn’t a big baker. But come Christmas or Thanksgiving she’d always make about 9 chocolate pies from scratch…..still does. None of us kids have yet to duplicate her pies!
I don’t have a lot of baking memories from when I was a kid because we didn’t do a lot of baking in our house, but now that I have a niece (3 1/2 yrs old), I’m starting to do some baking with her, and last year for the holidays she helped me roll out cookie dough, cut it into shapes, and dip it into colored frosting. She had such a great time (and made such a mess) that now that is my favorite baking memory, but hopefully they’ll be many more to come.
My favorite baking memory is making cookies with my mom and sister. My dad would come in sometimes and add in mix-in ingredients when we weren’t looking, too!
My grandmother was like Betty Crocker and she would bake with me every time we would visit. I loved it! I remember her teaching me as a young girl how to make an angel food cake and showing me how to turn it upside down on an old glass coke bottle. It’s still one of my favorite cakes to make!
My favorite baking memory was Christmas seven years ago. We spent the whole day making all kinds of cookies and an ah-mazing dinner (my stepdad is a chef). Everything was delicious, the kitchen was warm and cozy, and I was surrounded by people I love. What more could I ask for?
Cutting out Christmas cookies with my dad!
One of my favorite memories is making cookie bars in my best friends kitchen… So much laughter and eating the dough! (actually we just kept picking the chocolate out) It was one of the best times ever! :) (making stuff with my boyfriend is also pretty awesome!) <3
Making sugar cookies with fun frosting and every sprinkle imaginable! My kids are both grown now, but I’m planning to start a tradition this year with my 5 year old grandson and 2 year old granddaughter.
I loved baking pumpkin pies with my mom at Thanksgiving!
My favorite baking memory was when I was a kid watching my grandmother bake pita bread. Our dining room table was lined with a clean white sheet and there were round loaves covering the entire table so they could rest and rise before baking. My little brother grabbed an entire loaf (as big as his head) fresh out of the oven and bit right into it. He couldn’t wait and his eagerness made us all laugh.
Similar to you, all of my best baking memories include my grandmother. She taught me everything I know about baking and she infused a love of it in me at a very young age. I remember how every year, I would “graduate” in helping her. At first it would be stuff like mixing in chocolate chips to the dough and the next year I would be measuring out the dry ingredients and helping roll snickerdoodle balls. I still miss her everyday of my life, but whenever I whip out her homemade caramel recipe or make her favorite chocolate desert, I feel a bit closer to her memory :)
Alright, sappy moment over ;P
I was passed a recipe for Martha Washingtons. So every year my dad and I break out the chocolate fountain and make as many of these candies as we can (we eat a lot of them in the process). We are major pranksters so one year we made a chocolate covered pickled and told my brother it was just a mis shapen martha washington. I was put into an airplane spin for that one!
I used to spend Saturdya mornings at my grandmother’s side while she baked. One of my favorite memories however was with one of my young grandaughters. We were baking cookies and I had demonstrated to her how to use the cutters and place the cookies on the baking sheet. Then I got busy talking to her parents. A few minutes later I turned to look at how she was doing. She had very carefully placed all the scraps on the cookie sheet instead! We baked them as she had laid them out: just as delicious but much more memorable!
My favorite baking memory goes back to my childhood when my mom taught me how to make cinnamon rolls. They weren’t anything fancy, but I loved rolling my fingers through the dough, rubbing on melted butter and coating the dough in cinnamon and sugar. I can just taste those cinnamon rolls right now.
I have wonderful memories of my mom and grandmama baking, and it is where I learned to have a love of baking. My favorite cake recipe is my grandmama’s pound cake recipe (nothing better!), and I have benefited greatly from my mother’s cake decorating skills.
My Great Grandma Ida made the best pies… Banana cream… Well any and every pie! I loved learning all her baking secrets. Sitting in the kitchen for hours singing, dancing and BAKING together. I was such a lucky girl to have made such perfect memories with such an inspiring and fun women.
My grandad was a chef and taught me everything. The moments we had in the kitchen are priceless. When I got older and he got sicker, he let me make the holiday desserts which was a very big deal for me.
My favorite baking memories are with my grandmother. We made peanut butter balls, tarts, pies, and cakes. I am so blessed to have learned such great baking/cooking tricks from my grandmother. :)
My mom is always in charge of desserts every holiday! At thanksgiving I help her make the apple and pumpkin pie, be helping I mean picking and licking everything! At Christmas we make chocolate chip cookies and butter balls! I am in charge of decorating the sugar cookies! I look fowarded to the start of every fall to bake with my mom!
my favorite baking memory was when i made bread pudding for the first time last thanksgiving. we usually would have plain bread pudding with just some raisins so i decided to give it a twist and added orange and chocolate. it was delicious
I have so many, but I think one of my favorites is watching my teenage brothers in my aunt’s kitchen helping two of our good friends daughters (ages about 6 and 7 then) bake cookies, and them just being totally into what they were doing, unconcerned about anything else.
I would make massive amounts of sugar cookies to have cookie decorating parties with my friends, and later for my kids and their friends. My favorite memory is when my daughter got old enough to help me roll out, cut and bake the cookies. We had so much fun!
Every December my cousin’s 3 kids come to visit for the weekend and we spend 2 days baking cookies. They love rolling the dough and covering them in sugar. The messier they get, the more they love it.
I love baking period! But lately my 6 year old said to me “mommy I want to be a baker like you” which of course made my heart swell! She loves helping me bake and frankly I wouldn’t have it any other way!!! She can crack eggs like a pro and measure liquids she’s amazing! This time is precious I’m just sitting back and soaking it in! Thanks Bakerella for all your fun posts!!!
My favorite baking moment was the first time I used my kitchen aid mixer. I had asked for a bright green kitchen aid mixer for my 16th birthday in January! One month later was our school’s semi formal, and I decided not to go. Instead, I baked homemade chocolate chip cookies and broke in my mixer. It was delightful and one of the best nights ever.
On New Year’s Eve I nearly sliced my thumb off making Dorie Greenspan’s Korova cookies. They were still delicious though!
My favorite baked good memory is fairly recent. I had just moved into a new apartment and I used my baked goods as a way to get to know my neighbors – stopping by with baked treats and a quick introduction. I can still remember the looks I got. :)
ileft a comment on your blog. think in the wrong place.
my memory is baking chocolate chip cookies and selling them at school.
i love baking. since i was young. sometimes i’m in such a frenzy in the kitchen, that the memory is more about after when sharing with everyone.
All of the cousins get together and make Christmas cookies with my grandma. It is the best.
I remember my mom teaching me how to make and bake chocolate chip cookies when I was about 9. I love that memory and the fun and happiness it brought to a young girl just entering a lifetime of happy baking memories. Thanks mom!
I remember going to visit my grandma and always making lemon meringue pie and spice cookies. We would do this every time I went to visit her.
My favorite memory was teaching my daughter how to bake choc.chip cookies for the 1st time. Now we make different kinds of cookies each year. <3
making a pumpkin pie with my fiancé at the time, I didnt even like pumpkin pie at the time but i just loved having the responsiblity put on us to make the thanksgiving dessert. thankfully it was just his family and I still don’t know how it turned out because I never tasted it
Every Christmas since I was 12 and my parents got me Emerils cookbook for kids, I’d wake up early on Christmas morning and make cinnamon buns for my family. Now I’m 22 and moved into my first apartment alone and still go home to make cinnamon buns! It’s one of the things I always look forward to and hope the tradition never ends.
when I was about 12, my brother talked me through the steps of baking a cheesecake. he couldn’t really help me as he was quadraplegic but guided me as I whipped everything with a fork, that’s all we had (until my Dad bought me a rotary hand beater). I’ve been making cheesecakes for 30 years now, “perfecting” that simple recipe, adding flavors, changing up crusts… I’ve come a long way since, now I had a Kitchenaid mixer! my brother passed away last year, losing a 4-year battle to leukemia.
Years ago, my father taught me how to make Apple Pie. I was so impressed with his skill (considering he NEVER bakes anything) and we made the apple pie a tradition for the two of us. We made it every year and eventually he even let me use the extra dough to create an apple for the top center of the pie!
Since I first became aware of the existence of the kitchen, I’ve LIVED to be the baker of my family. The holidays are my absolute FAVORITE time to bake!!! I have been blessed with so many beautiful baking memories, but one kitchen memory that I love remembering happened about 3 Christmases ago. A bunch of my girl cousins and aunts (we have quite a few in the family) came to my house to bake and decorate sugar cookies. It was one of my aunt’s first time ever decorating cookies and we all could not stop laughing at all of our creations! Every year since then, my aunt has always asked that we schedule a sugar-cookie baking/decorating girls’ date just to love and laugh our selves away :D
My best baking memory is with my mother. she would make these gorgeous cinnamon rolls and IWould get to help. she would roll the dough out and spread the butter by hand, then let me put the cinnamon and brown sugar on it. My mom is now too old to bake so the memories are near and very dear to my heart.
My family’s heritage is Norwegian and so we love making traditional sweets year round, but especially at Christmas. My parents, sister and I make Kringla, Krumkake, and sometime Rosetts. I have cousin who makes potato lefsa that is amazing. I am so proud of to continue these family traditions and have been enjoying making these things with my niece and look forward to the day that I get to teach my children and grandchildren. These are recipes that we love to make and eat. When we make them my grandma who is not Norwegian but is married to one always reminds us that “You can tell a Norwegian, but you can’t tell them much”
My 2 sisters and i have been baking Christmas Cookies since as far back as i can remember. It would take up an entire day! Now even though we live in different countries/time zones (USA, Mexico & The Netherlands), we pick a day to bake together and skype! :)
My mom always let me lick the beaters when she made frosting. She still does if I’m at their house!
My favorite baking memory was when I was 8 years old. My aunt and I were making cookies for Thanksgiving. Our whole family was there. Once the cookies were in the oven, we put all of the dishes into the dishwasher. Little did we know,
One of my favorite baking memories is the year my sister came over and we baked Christmas cookies all afternoon. My preschool son helped decorate the cookies. That evening we all had dinner together and enjoyed some of the cookie for dessert.
I remember the first time I made a cake it jiggled ever after cooking it and I realized I read the measurements for the liquids wrong. From then on I didn’t bake until I got to college and I realized I’m a pretty good baker when I read the instructions correctly!
My favorite memory is making kolachi (nut roll) with my mom. She used to let me mix the nuts while she rolled the dough. Oh the smell of the kolachi baking was sooo yummy!!!!
The first time I made Toll House cookies by myself, I was about ten years old. I had neglected to actually read the instructions and just poured everything together. My older brother came in and exclaimed “You can’t do it like that the powders have to be separated! (he added a few mean words to describe me)” I ran up to my room, tears rolling down my face. My dad came in a few minutes later and explained how this was a very fixable problem. My cookies came out great, and my brother got in trouble for bullying ; )
Christmas baking is one of the best times, because I always made candy cane cookies with my sons and now they sent there kids to bake with me so all they have to do is eat them. I even better baking with grands kids. I LOVE IT!!!!!
Oops forgot to put in my info – one of my favorite baking memories is of making sugar cookies with my son using dinosaur cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma. They were his birthday treat to share at school!
My favorite baking memory was definitely teaching others how to make cake pops at a non-profit I volunteer at (I have semi-regular baking night as social activities with the residents). Halloween Cake Pop night was definitely my favorite. Two of the resident had their little boys there, so when the time to crumble the cake (one chocolate, and one vanilla flavored dyed green), the little boys volunteered to do it. I instructed them to crumble the cake–they looked at me, at the cake, and then at their moms with a Can-I-Really-Play-With-The-Food-Mom? expression on their faces. Once they got their hands in the cake, they were having so much fun. When I added the frosting, they said “Ewww, this is so weird!” as they eagerly continued to make the dough.
I had mummies and Frankensteins planned out as tutorials but everyone let their creative juices flow and had some cool looking cake pops!
I loved baking thousands of Christmas cookies for gifts with my four siblings and parents growing up.
I remember when my mom and I would get easy cake mixes from the grocery store and bake them together. The cakes themselves weren’t anything special, but they introduced me to the fantastic world of baking.
My favorite memory was with my mom baking at Christmas time. Little did I know, that “santa” got the good end of the deal getting to eat all those sweets! We still continue to bake at Christmas time together but this time for our church, friends and family!
One of my favorite memories is every weekend when I was a child, I would get my mom’s little pink book of baking and pick a receipe to make and share with my family.
My family has a traditional recipe called potica, a Slovenian nut roll, that we make by hand every Christmas and Easter. Though we don’t crack the walnuts by hand anymore (sorry Great-Grandma!), we do almost everything else the same way that she would have done. Rolling out the dough to the perfect consistency and then NOT tearing it when we spread the nut mixture takes time and A LOT of patience, but it’s a rite of passage among the women of my family to be able to make this oh-so-delicious roll from scratch each year. My favorite memory of making the potica was the year my mom and I made six rolls with my Grandmother in order to “perfect” our technique. It took all day but it was definitely worth it at the end.
My favorite memories are having my two little girls help spoon the cookies onto the cookie sheets. I try to really let them do it all by themselves and they are so proud of their work!
One of my favorite baking memories is baking sugar cookies using Williams Sonoma dinosaur cookie cutters for his birthday treat for school!!
I hate cooking food but when it comes to baking my heart just shines. I make cakes every year for my sisters and parents. Every cake I do my heart and soul goes in it. But the best memories with baking is just to see my families faces when I bring out the cake.?
Baking holiday treats for my ginormous family and just having fun and enjoying the food.
My favorite baking memory just happened a few weeks ago. For years and years and years, my daughter would come into the kitchen and sit in a chair, chatting with me as I baked. I often included her, but most times she was just content to sit there and watch and maybe lick a beater or two from the mixer.
Two weeks ago, *I* walked into the kitchen as this now 12year old was doing the baking. I pulled up a chair, talked about the friends she was making cupcakes for and licked beaters together. It was like coming full circle.
Mine is when I was 8 and my mom gave me a recipe and she said ” bake this cake!!!”
My favorite baking memory is with my grandpa when I was young. He inspired me to follow my bakery dreams!
My mother never cooks unless it’s Christmas, and when she does she goes above and beyond. Baking christmas cookies and making candy with my mom and little sisters is something that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. We always made Santa peanut butter cookies (and it took me years to realize that we only made peanut butter because my dad was Santa) and used glasses instead of rolling pins to roll them out. A long afternoon covered in flour was always something I looked forward to during the Christmas season.
One of my favorite baking memories is making homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time in my very own kitchen after we bought our first home. I’m not a big cook but there was something special about that Christmas!
Making pumpkin pies with my mom. I still love her recipe best and still use it. It turned my husband from hating pumpkin pie to loving it. :)
My new favorite baking memories are the ones I create when I make my son’s birthday cake every year. Because of his many food allergies I am becoming more and more creative every year.
It’s a tie between one of my earliest memories of my mom, making chocolate chip cookies and older, as an adult, with my grandmother making a sweet roll called “rusk”.
Sugar cookies at Christmas using the OLD Betty Crocker recipe in the orange cookbook– still my go-to recipe. I keep adding to my cookie cutter collection!
I’m remembering the first time I made cupcakes, FROM SCRATCH! I was about fourteen and I decided to do something nice for my club at school for Christmas. So why not cupcakes! Well, I started making three different kind quite literally the night before and I ended up covered in flour and cocoa powder. I didn’t even get to bed till about four in the morning. I was tired and incredibly frazzled by the time I got to school, but the grins on my club members’ faces made it all worth it!
My favorite pie is a Brazilian pie called pudim. I am not a good baker but my mom makes the best pudim. Pudim is made of condenser milk, eggs and sugar, it seems pretty easy because there is not a lot of ingredients but the secret is to let it bake in a pan soaked in another pan filled with water, got to let it bake in low temperature until it is fully cooked. So delicious!
One that comes to mind is baking my very first all-on-my-own cake and asking Mom to pass me the “smallening” instead of shortening. She got a good laugh out of that and still hasn’t let me forget it 20 years later :)
My mom and grandmother would bake the best pies and they taught me as well. Every holiday, I bake pies and remember my heritage.
Every Easter and Christmas I would make cut out sugar cookies. The kids and I would have so much fun frosting and decorating them!! Then Dad would pick his favorites!
An unforgettable baking memory for me was when I was baking my nephew his 3rd birthday Elmo cake. I had the flu and was frustrated because the swiss meringue buttercream frosting was turning out like churned butter. It took 3 dozen eggs and 6 pounds of butter to learn that I needed more patience with the frosting. My nephew was sure happy to get his birthday cake!
I don’t have any baking memories as a child (no one ever baked with me), but I taught myself to bake starting in high school. My favorite baking memory would be baking with my niece and nephew starting as young as two years old for each of them. We mostly made cupcakes, and they loved standing on a stool in the kitchen and mixing the ingredients together, lining the muffin tins with paper cups, and plopping the batter in. And I’d let them go nuts with the frosting and sprinkles and decorations–good times, good times…!
My favorite baking memory …makes me laugh every time! Okay, the shortbread was nasty, but hilarious! One year, I decided to glam up our baking supplies and along with the beans and pasta, I put oats, flour, salt and sugar in beautiful large glass jars to display on the counter …. unlabeled, because “I” knew which was which, didn’t need labels … handsome husband decided to make his delicious shortbread cookies one evening. Later, he made a big pot of tea and called everyone in for a family treat …we all rushed, gagging, away from the table to whereever we could to get rid of the SALTBREAD in our mouths! Wasn’t funny then but is a great memory now. :)
It’s hard to say I have one baking memory over another. I love baking cookies for Santa with my kids. I also love baking my kids their favorite birthday cake every year. So I would say its baking my sons favorite S’mores cheesecake recipe from Bon Appetit. I have made it for him very year since 2008! It is fabulous
My favorite baking memory is with my late grandmother. When she would come to visit us, she would be baking pies and cookies while helping me do a puzzle at the kitchen table. I couldn’t tell you what kind of pies/cookies she made, but I do remember making Pinwheels with her from the leftover pie dough. Miss you grandma!
My favorite baking memory is making Christmas cookies with my kids with a train and tree cookie cutter. We made lots of cookies and an even bigger death but they were delicious.
Making cutout sugar cookies with my Mom and neat freak sister at my sister’s new house and getting flour all over the floor. She was cleaning everything up while we were still making them.
Baking chocolate layer cake with my dad. It was aways a production and always delicious.
My grandma would bake sugar cookies and we’d decorate them and make graham cracker “gingerbread” houses. So much sugar…so much fun.
I remember when I was in high school and baked, from scratch, my first 2 layered chocolate cake. I was so proud of myself looking a the frosted finished cake and knowing I had made it all by myself, AND it that it was delicious!
My BFF and I went through a macaron craze. We would start baking at 7 am to tackle this finicky cookie. We didn’t stop baking that day till we got it right
My sister and I used to help my mom make Russian tea cakes. She would put a cutting board, miniature hammers and a bag of pecans on the floor and let us go to town!
My mom was not a baker…but she did show me a few things…like how to make sure yeast was fresh, and how to roll cinammon rolls. She got very sick when I was in middle school, and never really recovered, so we didn’t bake much after that. But now every year, I make sugar cookies with my kids around Christmas…and the deliver to our friends and neighbors. They love it, and I love it too.
My favorite baking memory is when I first met my husband, my whole family couldn’t say enough about how great of a baker I was. So the first thing I baked him was a banana cream pie and out of desperation I used unripe bananas :/ It was horrible but he politely smiled and ate a whole piece. Eventually he told me the truth and I’ve since won him over. 10 years later it’s his favorite dessert of mine
My favorite baking memory is baking my Nana’s famous carrot cake. She received countless compliments on her cake and baked it for many events. It’s an honor each and every time I pull out her recipe and look at her photo on my refrigerator door when I’m baking it. Now I get the compliments and proudly tell anyone who will listen that it’s my Nana’s famous carrot cake recipe. :)
Every year around mid-December, my Momma and I get into a huge baking frenzy. I’m looking forward to it for the first year in my own home. :)
I loved sitting on the counter when I was young while my mom made her magic chocolate swirly cake. :)
I usually don’t bake but sometimes around Chritmas I make turtles with my daughters. It is really easy and it doesn’t make a huge mess. I really love to spend time with them and I know they love to make them!!
My favorite memory is a few years ago at Christmas time I was too sick to make the traditional night before Christmas cookies for Santa with my boys. My husband and sons knew how upset I was got a package of cookie mix and the boys made the cookies. Totally warmed my heart that they made sure my childhood tradition was continued.
MAKING COOKIES WITH MY SISTER!!!!!!!!!
Oh I have lots of baking memories but probably one of my favorite is around Thanksgiving in the kitchen with my mom baking pies. I remeber as a kid she would make her own crust and one she had them the kids would always make pie crust cookies.
My best baking memories are when my grandma would visit and she would teach me and my sister her secret recipes for cookies and cakes. I still to this day bake those cookies and cakes with her. Every time we bake it brings back those warm memories from when I was young.
One of my favorite baking memories is making butter cookies with homemade buttercream frosting with my mom every Christmas!
My grandma ALWAYS made fudge and raspberry jam tarts for the holidays. Such great memories!
making christmas cookies with my mom each year when i was little. we used my great-grandmas butter cookie recipe which has to chill in the fridge overnight, and i would always sneak in and steal bits of dough. SO GOOD. i do this at my own house now…
watching my dad make apple pie all of my childhood, then helping him make it when i was older and now i make it for my family and friends.
Baking with my mom holds my best memories. She had lots of patience and is an excellent mentor. She was even very supportive when I put 1 cup of baking soda instead of the 1TB the recipe called for. Now that I’m making cake pops I have become her mentor. We’ve had so much fun trying to duplicate some of the cake pops from your book.
When I was younger, sometimes my mom would let me take a day off from school and we’d bake lots of cookies! It was so much fun and a tradition I hope to continue with my kids!
I remember my mom when I was about 10 years she cooked a rich pumpkin pies and put them touched me the shine that was a scrambled egg and brush was easier
I remember baking a cake that fell on the floor when it was done, it wasn’t until I made the second cake I remembered to add water! Glad the first one didn’t make it!
I was making a cake with my mom when I was about 11. The powdered sugar we needed for the frosting had hardened into a large lump. I, of course, had no idea how to fix it so when my mother decided to put it in her kitchen aid to break it up I figured she knew what she was doing. She dumped it in and turned on the mixer to a rather high speed. Powder sugar shot straight up and somehow stuck to the ceiling. We just looked at each other, stunned. Then we both fell over laughing. Best baking moment ever.
Today my favorite is the memory of going to my grandma’s and smelling her always fresh brown bread, which we sliced and toasted in the toaster that automatically went down and up, then slathering the toast with soft butter and eating slices over and over.
my memory doesn’t involve me baking, but rather me sitting in the kitchen watching my mother bake and decorate the most gorgeous (and delicious) cakes ever! While now i have taken on her role in the kitchen, those memories are what i cherish the most
The first time I ever baked cupcakes was with a friend in high school. The cupcakes were for valentine’s day for the school to be sent out to students with a message written by their friends. Baking is truly a great way for friends to bond!
My favorite baking memory is baking sugar cookies at Christmas with my mom and little sister. It’s tradition to this day. The cookies can’t be baked until we are together. My nephew has begun to help, which makes it even sweeter!
I used to love baking, but after being diagnosed with Celiac Disease I was discouraged. It was so difficult trying to figure out what mixture of flours would give me something close to what I had been used to eating before having to go gluten free. I found a banana cupcake recipe that seemed simple enough and I mixed up a batch of flour. They turned out great! It was the exact thing that I needed to encourage me to continue experimenting and baking with gluten free flours.
Learning how to make chocolate cake from my mum – who learnt it from her Aunty Mary.
When I was 6 I lost my leg in a law mower accident so for months mobility was difficult. Naturally, this was during the summer & 4H fair time. My sister was in 4H & in my mind she was (&still is) a super baker! Butter cakes were her project for the year so from my chair or couch or wherever someone would move me to I would cheer her on as she baked “the perfect butter cake!” I always got so excited when she would ask my opinion! S, my baking memory doesn’t necessarily put me behind the mixer, but my wonderful sister who bent over backwards to include me!
My mom wasn’t a very big baker, so my personal favorite memory was the first time I ever made banana bread… it was way too salty (I over-estimated my pinch of salt) but I definitely learned what to do the next time!
I wish I could pin down one favorite memory but honestly? There are too many. My grandmother was short (5’2″), round and had curly white hair, always wore an apron and was a typical storybook type of sweet old lady grandma. She was ALWAYS in the kitchen and if I had to pick one memory it wouldn’t involve baking, it would involve sneaking the results. My grandmother made the yummiest, softest, sweetest molasses cookies and when my sister was about 2, my brother & I “taught” her how to find them in my Nana’s kitchen. She’s 10 years younger than me, 9 years younger than my brother so it was our job to teach her the important stuff. Molasses cookies were THE most important stuff at Nana’s house…
Baking apple turnovers with my mom with the apples from our backyard =)
My mom never formally taught me how to bake her potato rolls, but for years I sat in the kitchen while she made them, taking it all in. The thanksgiving after she died, I announced I would make them for our family gathering. Yars of observation paid off. I love making them now at the holidays…I miss my mom dearly, but when I bake them ( an all day affair) I feel like she’s there with me.
Her kitchen aid stand mixer is in its last days. I’d love to replace it and keep the tradition alive.
My favorite memory was when how i learn to bake,because i miss so much the pastries of my country that i come from.so i started to make cake and different sweets.and its been 10 years in this business….thanks GOD i love it.
My mom was a fabulous cook but not much of a baker. My favorite baking memory was when I was about 8 and my girl scout troop required each of us to bake an entry and enter it in the local Girl Scout Bake Off. My mom and I baked our first cake together.. and I WON!! My mom was as excited as I was when they called my name. She has been gone for 12 years and I would give anything to have another day to bake with her.
We were making sugar cookies and my brother isn’t doing something quite right – first my Mom tells him “no no no”. Then pretty soon I’m telling him “no no no”. The cookies still turned out delicious!
My favorite memory would have to be baking alongside my mom on thanksgiving mornings. The air is crisp and fresh and our kitchen is cleaned spotless in anticipation of the day events. My mom works alongside me cooking up the beautiful main dishes while I, of course, bake up some delicious desserts. Every year I try a new one alongside the originals and soon the kitchen smells of food I can only associate with an Ibisanmi family thanksgiving :)
It’s amazing that you posted about pecan pie and asked us to share of favorite baking memory. Every year since I can remember, New Year’s Eve is the one time that all my family and friends gather to celebrate my brother’s birthday and the coming New Year. Me and my mom, to this day spend hours baking her specialty…mini pecan tarts…100’s of them…wish I could post a pic…my first baking experience…barely 3 years old, standing on a kitchen chair…mixing the pecan filling with a wooden spoon…thanks Mom…thanks Bakarella for the trip down memory lane =)
I remember one summer day baking with my grandmother. We made dinner from scratch with my cousin, both of us were about 10 at the time. We made meatloaf and other food but I remember the homemade bread the most….I can smell it now. Afterwards our families came over and everyone ate what we had made.
my favorite baking memory is when my girlfriends and I get together for a weekend bake-off. We always end up with a huge pile of goodies. :)
Making a Valentine dinner cake with my 5 and 2 year old. I made a heart shape layer cake (using cake pans from my great aunt :)) and I frosted them. Now my 5 year old son was always so careful with everything, almost like he was afraid of making a mistake. So I gave him the red sugar sprinkle jar and told him that he could decorate it. I then started on another part of the dinner. I looked back and he had used the entire jar on the top! The cake crunched when we ate it!
The most fun I’ve had is making a gingerbread house from scratch with both of my children. My son was young enough that he didn’t quite understand that the gingerbread people weren’t for eating. Needless to say, one of our gingerbread people was headless! :O
My favorite baking memory is of my grandmother. She would make chocolate chip cookies and special cream puffs for me without the cream. I did not like that cream as a kid, I like it now.
i loved making cookies with my grandma as a kid, she worked at a bakery and always made the sugar cookies with egg wash and those thick sugar crystal sprinkles! yum yum!
I used to have cranberry cutting duty when my mom made cranberry nut bread. She wasn’t much of a baker but we always made those in aluminum pans then wrapped them in saran wrap and put big bows on top for gifts.
Every year at Christmas-time my mom and I make my Grandma’s sugar cookies! When I was little she would make the dough and roll it out for me to cut out and decorate, but now I’m the designated baker!
My best memory is a few years ago, when my neighbor first introduced me to baking. She’s the reason why I spend hours each month baking. (cupcakes are my specialty). I love how When you’re baking, it just lets you forget about everything, and get so wrapped up in the ingredients. I love it :)
My favorite baking memory has just become something that started about 5 years ago, when I got married. I love going back home during the Christmas holidays and finding fun and tasty Christmas cookies or cakes and baking and decorating them with my mom. I am going to have a baby around this Christmas, but I “plan” on keeping up with the new tradition. My mom just might have to come to my house this year. :)
I enjoyed making cookies with my mom at Christmas and purposely making mistakes in order to eat them!
Mine is more of a disaster but it was so hilarious that It’s my favorite memory. When I was maybe 14 I started loving to bake but my dad was the cook/baker of the house during holiday season. This one time he let me bake for Christmas, I decided a pumpkin pie would be good. So I did but I didn’t read the recipe close enough and ended up baking the top layer and the inside was all gooey! So my dad set it aside til he decided what to do while he cooked the rest of dinner. My cat jumped on the counter right on top of the gooey pie! So he freaked out, fell, the pie fell right on top of him which scared him AGAIN and so he ran around the kitchen and living room while getting pumpkin all over EVERYONE. My dad and I were laughing so hard cause the cat looked hilarious and everyone was running around trying to catch the cat! Not everyone found it very funny but my dad and I are still giggling over that.
Baking cookies on Christmas eve with my Mom for Santa. We always did it right before Christmas Eve services at church. It was a wonderful memory and I now do it with my children!
My grandma is known for her cookies. All around town. When she turned 80 we threw a surprise party for her. She thought it was a party for a group in town. We couldn’t convince her she didn’t need to bake dozens and dozens of batches of cookies! When she walked in the door she was so surprised AMD the first thing out of her mouth was “and here you let me bale cookies for my own birthday party!”
I love to bake cookies or brownies with the kids I babysit and enjoy a good ol’ movie with them afterwards. These are the memories I am currently making! :-)
my favorite baking memory is baking christmas cookies with my mom and sister. (as sad as it is, the following is the truth) my mother was predominately an absentee mom. this was the one time of year she’d make a point to do something with us. i have two daughters (and a son!) of my own now and enjoy teaching them to bake. their attention spans are quite small (3 yo and 2 yo) but they’re learning and getting more and more into it each time :)
Love how you and your uncle are honoring the spirit of your grandmother. Your creation of the mini pie is a wonderful modern twist to tradition.
My best memories of baking go back to my grandmother, Nona. Her chocolate cake and frosting were divine. You can bet I was by her side “helping.” My speciality was licking the luscious frosting off the mixers =)
My favorite memory is making fudge with my Grandma. It seemed so easy. We made it all the time. Somehow nobody else can make the recipe turn out unless they made it WITH Grandma.
Every single year my kids (9 & twin 2 year olds) and I get on the kitchen floor and make Chex mix. We empty the boxes, add spices, butter and what not however we want. We just have a great time doing it and I love every minute of it!
My favorite holiday baking memory involves my Dad. When he was alive, every year at the start of the Christmas holiday he would spend a whole Saturday doing nothing but baking a huge variety of Christmas cookies and my sister and I would be entrusted with decorating. He would let us each pick out one type of cookie (I would always pick out Gingerbread) to make, and once we were old enough he would let us bake them ourselves. My sister and I have continued the baking tradition with her two little girls and I look forward to starting new baking memories with them.
One of my favorite baking memories is when I first realized that baking is my outlet. I had a rough day at work and that night I had to make cookies for some occasion the next day. I really got into it and was able to relax. And then the “aha moment” happened. I actually realized that I was relaxed and that I was enjoying what I was doing. And so began my favorite hobby. :)
My favorite baking memory is with my husband’s grandma who this year will be 94. She makes an amazing Vanilla Chiffon pie, but one year instead of vanilla she changed it to lemon. You should have seen the looks on everyone’s face when they had a bite, quite a different taste between vanilla and lemon. Now everyone asks what kind of pie it is before they take a bite:)
A couple years ago I wasn’t living at home during the holidays and there was no family around. The same went for all of my roommates, so we got together and just went crazy with baking. It was so much fun just enjoying ourselves without the expectations of anyone else.
One of my favorite baking memories was going to a cupcake decorating workshop with my best friend. I officially became obsesses with cupcakes after that!
Since my family doesn’t have any traditions, I decided to start one with my son who’s now seven, for the past four years now we’ve been making Christmas cookies on Christmas day. Fun and delicious!
Making candy, cookies, cakes and all kinds of stuff with my mom. She always made a batch for both her and my dad to take to work. There was a lot of good stuff
Making Christmas cookies with my mom – we would end up covered in royal icing, sprinkles, dragees, you name it, and would laugh until we were in hysterics!
Baking bread with my kids. I also have fond memories of my mom baking bread when I was the kiddo.
I have many wonderful baking memories. We did a lot of baking in my family. But my favorite baking memory is baking sugar cookies and decorating them for Christmas, Halloween or just for fun. My husband helps me come up with cute ideas.
My mom would always make the most beautiful pink frosted sugar cookies for our friends on Valentines Day. She would write our friends names on them and everything. Loved Valentines day and so did my friends!
Every Christmas, my Mom and all of my siblings would bake cookies from the recipes handed down from my Hungarian grandmother. We especially enjoyed the prune and apricot “diapers”.
My mom used to bake cakes as a side job, and I remember my sister and I just basically sitting on the floor next to mom in the kitchen, and we’d fight over the batter bowl when she was done pouring cakes into pans. :-P
When it came to frosting leftovers, though…my sister always got that bowl. I was more into cake batter. :-)
Baking cookies with my Mom. Especially at Christmas when we would make spritz cookies. Those are yummy!!
Every year around te holidays my mom and I bake lots of cookies! I enjoy spending the time with her baking and talking and alot of the time we get my niece helping us too! Lol though I’m sure she’s just in it to lick the mixers and the bowl
Watching my husband and our 3 kids help him make the best apple crumb pie ever.
My favorite baking memory was when I was little my sister and I would beg my mom to make these cookies for Christmas which were little wreaths with either a red or green almond paste filling. They also had a delicious powdered sugar glaze. They were a real pain to make and took a lot time and my mom would never want to make them, I think that’s why we liked them so much! When she would finally give in and make them we would get so excited, they were so fun to make. I will forever make these cookies and pass down the recipe to my daughter.
My favorite memory is making cookies for my then boyfriend. He loved them and 7 years later we are married with 2 children who I can’t wait to bake with :)
I think for me, my baking memories aren’t complete without the final taste test…when I give my treats away to other people and DEMAND they eat it in front of me :P I will never forget the first time I perfected my Oreo Truffles (complete with a few yummy surprises!) and handed them out to coworkers and friends. Just to watch them close their eyes in sinful delight is enough to make every time I bake absolutely worth it :)
When I was growing up my mom would make 10 to 20 different kinds of cookies all from our heritage. I remember one year my mom started to make her cookies like always in October and she would freeze them. Well having 5 kids smell cookies for months and not being able to eat them it finally gets to you. We started to sneak cookie out of the freezer. Will need less to say when the holidays came up and my mom went to make trays and cookies were missing you never saw 5 kids run so quick.
Love your site so much…I tried some of your recipes and they turned out great. However my favorite baking memory is that of peach crunch aka dump cake (your recipe): I made it for a party and it was literally gone in less than 5 mins. Everyone begged me for the recipe :)
My mother and I actually make Pecan pies for Thanksgiving every year. She has a giant pie tie (12 inches across) that is always reserved for the pecan pie.
I baked a lot when I was younger for my family- cookies, doughnuts, pies, cakes whatever I could find a recipe for. Now I love to bake with my daughter.
We always had a day long baking session on Christmas Eve when I was growing up. I’ve continued this tradition with my kiddos and we look forward to it every year!
When I got married I could not make mac and cheese (seriously). I had been given America’s Test Kitchen and decided to try and make a peach pie for his office gathering. I learned to love the methodical and soothing actions of baking and mixing. Everyone raved, since then I have come to love cooking and baking! Here we are 4 years later and a bit fatter :)
My favorite baking memory is at Christmas, making divinities and cookies with my grandmother who raised me and whom I consider to be my mother. There is something wonderful about the smells in a kitchen around Thanksgiving and Christmas. :-)
Stealing cookie dough from the bowl while my sister tried making chocolate chip cookies!
My favorite baking memories are during Thanksgiving/Christmas time. I have a HUGE family, so every time we get together, I labor all day making a variety of desserts in massive amounts. I love spending time in the kitchen with my family!