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!
My aunt taught me how to make the best chocolate chip cookies ever! With chocolate chunks. MMMMMM, they are so good! I love cooking them with her!
The first time my grandma showed me how to make our special family cookies, Montecaos, will forever be in my memory. She always made them at Christmas and showed me when I was about 11 or 12 years old. The recipe makes a huge batch, so we rolled, cut and baked cookies for hours that day and I loved every minute!
My favorite baking memory is when my husband spent weeks in the kitchen making nearly three thousand truffles and cake balls (and other things dipped in chocolate) to serve at our wedding.
My mom was a working mom. So moments spent with her were precious. My favorite baking memory is her teaching me to make Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies and Quaker Oats Oatmeal Raisin cookies. I still make both to this day.
my mom and i always baked gingerbread cookies!! and we always built gingerbread houses and decorated cookies to match their houses!
Wow! First, pecan pie is my favorite pie EVER! My most cherish able baking memory is when I was 15 years old and I use to help my mother in the kitchen during thanksgiving time when everyone in my family would crave “Lisa’s Banana Cream Pie”. We always made two and she would make one as well as I would. That year was the year I fell in love with baking all types of desserts and making the people around me happy with my sweets! Till this day we still make those banana cream pies and actually made one last Saturday for one of my cousins pregnancy announcement. (It was one of her cravings! Haha!)
I have super fond memories of baking homemade pies with my mom… they were always taken to the local school concession stand to be sold by the slice, with profits benefitting the school. That was over 35 year ago. I returned to that same school for a sporting event about 8 or 9 years ago and saw that they were still selling slices of homemade pies. They were delicious, but NONE compared to my sweet momma’s pies. She passed away 9 months ago, and the best way for me to feel close to her is to step into my kitchen, pull out some of her most-loved utensils, and make/bake one of her favorite recipes.
My favorite memories are in the process of building…But every year around Christmas time, the memories are doubled!!
My dad and I tried to cook a turkey in my new apartment. What should have taken 4-6 hours took almost 12. The oven was obviously broken. We ate at midnight and enjoyed every bite!
My favorite baking memory, that still makes me giggle is when I would always help my mom make carrot cake (usually on occasions). She usually makes 3-5 pans (sometimes more if we have a party) of it for family and friends. Anyways, I seem to ALWAYS end up peeling and grating ALL the carrots…by hand and a grater of course. LOL. It’s supposed to be a team effort, but for some reason I always end up doing everything myself in the end. I guess because of my little OCD on how things are supposed to be done. LOL. Can’t I just want things to look clean and neat? Hahaha!
My daughters and I bake year round. We love baking and then taking pictures of our creations for our own keepsakes. There is special bonding that occurs when you are sharing yummy recipes with loved ones!
When I brought my boyfriend (now husband:)) home for Christmas the first time and we put together a gingerbread house with my nieces and nephews. It was hilarious and everyone had such a good time… All I can remember was a lot of laughing :)
I have the most wonderful baking memories during my recuperation after having been hit by a car, flying off my bike, and then losing two of my front teeth. This happened one night when I got out of work; I didn’t go straight home, I stopped by a supermarket on my way home to see if they sold macadamia nuts because I had an intense craving for white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies. To my dismay, they didn’t sell them. On my way home, I was hit by a car. My left knee was injured, my right arm was in pain, and all I could think about was the two front teeth that was missing. It hurt so much as the wind passed by my mouth. I could barely support myself on my own as I attempted to use the bathroom at the hospital. I called my mom the next day and told her what happened. She told me to head to her place and stay with her for a while because she wanted me to fully heal. During those days, what really kept me going was baking cookies. I baked triple chocolate chip cookies, I baked white chocolate macadamia nut cookies (I finally found a store that sold them!), and even cookies with M&M’s in them. It was during this time, I did the most baking. My mom would bring a bunch of cookies and slices of cakes to her friends at work. The cookies baked up perfectly and stayed soft. Nowadays, I can’t seem to whip up as perfect a batch as I did during that time. Even though I suffered a medical injury, the baking was what kept me sane, it comforted me and kept me going.
When I was 6 my mother had my sister on October 30, she was in the hospital for Halloween and couldn’t take me out trick o treating. She called me and told me to have a great time with my grandparents, I told her she owed me. Christmas time came along and she came into my room and said do you want to do something fun with me? I said yes what are we gonna do? She was holding a paper and was leading me to our kitchen, there she had all kinds of stuff on the table. She said just you and me are gonna make cookies. I now know that they were sugar cookies, because it has been a Christmas tradition to make them a couple of days before and go around to friends and family and distribute them. Now I am going to be 25 that is my earliest baking memory, and still get excited for those plain sugar cookies.
I remember helping my mom bake a delicious Vietnamese desert that required a lot of fresh shaved coconut. We would crack the coconut in half and shave the inside meat with this interesting device that had spikes on one end that was connected to a wooden paddle. It was a strange device that my mom made…but it worked and my sister and I had a such fun and good memories of that.
My favorite baking memory was actually the time when absolutely nothing about the recipe my father and I were trying went right. The cake sunk in the middle and the frosting congealed, but the hilarity of the end product made it totally worth it (even if no one would eat it)
My great grandmother used to send us each a tin of her famous swirl cookies at camp every year, and we would each get a card that said, “I’m sending you these cookies because you were the first to send me a letter!”
My favorite has to be baking with my grandma when I was little. She always used lard, and would sneak me spoonfuls of brown sugar or handfuls of chocolate chips. To this day, I’ve never been in her house when there weren’t freshly baked cookies!
My favorite holiday baking memory was the time my then-teenaged niece came over the day before Thanksgiving to make pies with me. She’s rather quiet, but we share a bond in baking & had a good time.
My favorite baking memory is from 5 years ago, when I volunteered to bake 400 cupcakes for my company’s annual gala. I had 2 sous chefs, 2 mixers, and one oven! It took 2 whole days to bake, frost and decorate all 400. It was a lot of work but lots of fun too.
It’s the simple things I love. I remember my mom & I making cookies that were nothing but pie crust spread with cinnamon and sugar, rolled up and cut into pinwheel cookies. Yum! Still love them!
I just started baking this year. My mom took a baking class with me and we made my birthday cake together. We baked the cake my grandmother used to always make for birthdays :)
I have a fond memory of helping my grandma when I was a little girl make homemade molasses candy. I remember pulling & tugging that stuff.
My mother was never a big baker, but she always made our birthday cakes. I’ll never forget those simple, heartfelt cakes. And…it was back in the day when we could lick the spoon even with egg in the batter.
My favorite and fondest memory is of my Great Grandma Nellie baking her fabulous sugar cookies with all the goodies (lard,sour milk,nutmeg) We all used to fight over who was going to get to help her each time and be the first to eat the cooled cookies which the thinner you roll them the better they are. She would talk to us in Norweigian and we would hang on every word not having a clue as to what she was saying but loving every minute of it. I will cherish those days forever.
One of my favorite baking memories is the first time I baked cookies with my daughter. We made Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve when she was 3. She was more interested in eating the cookie dough than making cookies. The kitchen was a mess but we loved every second of it. And now every year we make cookies together!
My most recent favorite baking memory was maiking banana bread with my Grandmother one last time before she lost her eye sight. growing up we used to bake with her often and she loved it. She wrote a cookbook and occasionally we would pick recipes from there to make with her. As she has gotten older her eye sight got increasingly worse and because of her glaucoma she is now blind. About a year and a half ago my family and I came over for a visit and my grandma and I made one last batch of banana bread. I loved getting to spend that time in the kitchen with her because I knew that it was probably the last time I was going to get to do that. Now that she can no longer see I cook for her often and share with her the new recipes I’ve found and want to try and she still imparts her wisdom on me.
my mom didn’t bake when I was growing up as a child, but during christmas my adopted grandma and I would make cookies for the younger nephews and nieces that are always around
My favorite baking memory comes every christmas, when I bake tons and tons of cookies and treats with my daughters!
Making sugar cookies as a child with my grandmother. And now using the same recipe with my daughters.
My favorite baking memory is making teacakes with my grandmother when I was a very little girl. I would stand in the dining chair next to her , cutting out the teacakes as she rolled the dough. Yummy! Wish I had her recipe today.
I have made desserts that have dirtied every pan in the house and had people ooh and ahh over them, but my baking memory was when in summer school cooking class in elementary school, we made haystacks – melted butterscotch chips and chow mein noodles. That was my ah ha moment, that the sum is greater than the parts and that people love to get sweet treats that you make with your own little hands, no matter how humble.
My mom, sister, and dog Skittles all gathered in the kitchen to make Christmas cookies. We spilled a lot of powdered sugar, and we perfected our decorating skills with sprinkles. It was a lot of fun, and we all wore our Christmas aprons- even got Skittles in one at the end of the night!
for our first christmas together, i baked cinnamon buns from scratch for my family, and my now husbands family. since then, it’s become a christmas eve tradition. and a wonderful way to spend christmas morning!
My daughter and I spent the day at a friends house making cookies to pass out to trick or treaters. We had hours of baking and icing cookies. I think we had to have had more flour and icing on us and the kitchen then the cookies. That night, the rest of our family joined us. We dressed in costumes and handed out cookies to all the friends that came to visit.
I think that one of my greatest blessings in life has been the wonderful examples of my mother and grandmothers who are amazing cooks. One of my favorite memories was when I was young my grandmother would tell me to go to the garden and pick fresh veggies like, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, and onions and then we would steam them and have them for dinner. I have a great grandmothers roll recipe that I make every Sunday and then deliver the rolls to my neighbors.
Making Christmas cookies with my Mom!
My favorite baking memories are baking cookies with my mom for Christmas. :-)
Making pop corn balls last year with my husband’s family in our kitchen. His Aunt taught us the recipe that his Grandmother used to make every holiday. It was fun involving three generations in the process.
It was my birthday; my husband and my then 3 yr old daughter baked me brownies (instead of a cake). Watching them mix everything and try to clean each other’s mess was just precious. Especially the part when they lick the leftover batter. I have pictures to help me remember that day :)
As a child I think my favorite memory has to be making the Easter Bunny cake every year. So much coconut everywhere but you have to have it! As an adult, all of my new memories are being created by baking with my daughter who loves to bake cupcakes, cookies, make cakepops, or ANYTHING creative in the kitchen!
Making buttermints with my grandma. That to me is Christmas.
When I was growing up, my mom and sisters and I would spend a week each December making hundreds of cookies. On Saturday morning, all the girls from the neighborhood would come over and we’d decorate the sugar cookies together, then take their creations home with them. That afternoon, they’d all come back over for a Christmas tea party, where we’d feast on every type of cookie you can imagine and enjoyed egg nog and cider and talked about what we wanted for Christmas as we listened to Christmas music. I have such fond memories of that time.
My grandmother is the inspiration behind my baking, she taught me and I was as close to her as anyone to their mother but I think even from all those memories the one of me and my 3 yr. old son baking his birthday cake is one of my most favorites. He teaches me to hold on to all those valuable memories and enjoy each special moment. He was so proud to help create his own cake. He helped mix, and cracked the eggs, and poured other ingredients in the bowl. We were both so happy and its always a happy memory baking with anyone of my kids. He’s my baby, though, the older kids are moving out so until I have grandkids of my own I want as many baking experiences with him as possible. thanks for your blogs they are truly inspiring.
Every Christmas, my sister and I bake all sorts of delicious cookies. We have so much fun! It’s as if we become kids again. Laughing and acting silly while my mom and dad cook the actual Christmas dinner.
My favorite baking memory was the first time I made cheesecake. I made the most beautiful cheesecake squares by making plain cheesecake and then drizzled ganache very lightly on top very artistically, and lastly, placed a raspberry on top of each square. Everyone loved them!!!! Our guests thought we bought it from a bakery, which made me feel incredibly happy about baking.
My favorite baking was with my grandmother. When we would visit her in Mexico we would make homemade doughnuts and cinnamon bunuelos.
One of my fondest baking memories was baking with my Dad. He would make these fun dessert nights with a theme and we would bake a cake to that. My sister and I made a raspberry lemon cake- delicious!!
My favorite baking memory is making cupcakes with my niece for her first time and how much she enjoyed it :) She’s now 14 years old and says that because of those memories she wants to become a pastry chef!
My favorite memory is baking a birthday cake for my grandma with my easy bake oven. I frosted it carefully and put it in a little tupperware cake holder and took it to her with my Mom. She cried because it was the first time anyone had ever baked her a cake! I was about 5.
My husband and I ended our first date by baking a cake in the kitchen of my college freshman dorm. We had no idea what we were doing (not to mention the oven temperature was a bit temperamental) – but we had a wonderful time. A picture of us (covered in flour) still hangs in our kitchen from that first date.
My favorite baking memory is when I made sugar cookies in the shape of Africa for my students to announce that my husband and I were adopting from DR Congo! :)
Anytime my Grandma and I would bake together. Inevitably something would go wrong and my Grandma would say “Well this is like a fluefdioch!!!” One time when we were baking together I asked her what that meant and she told me “I have no idea, it’s just what my grandma (who only spoke German) would say when things were going right while she was baking.” Now I say that when things aren’t going the way I would like and I can’t wait until my children ask me what that means so I can tell them the exact same thing my Grandma told me!!!
My favorite baking memory would have to be the time I decided to have a dessert party. I baked for 2 days and invited friends over for a taste of Z-Cakery. It was perfect because every guest left with a bag of decorated sugar cookies and got to eat tons of baked good for free.
I would love to win!! My favorite baking memory would be making chocolate pies for Thanksgiving with my Grandmother. She made the best pies!
As a child, I loved baking and decorating sugar cookies for holidays and now I do it with my son.
Thanks for a chance! One of my favorite baking memories is stirring sugar and butter together to make fudge with my mom. My mother didn’t love having us kids underfoot while she baked or cooked, but she would let us into her kitchen to stir and stir and stir the fudge. To this day, fudge is my very favorite sweet treat, and I make it just like my mom. Soon my daughters will be able to stir the hot sugar for me.
My mom wasn’t a baker but whenever I needed something for school out came the slice & bake cookies. We would eat as much raw dough as baked ones.
Definitely baking cookies every Christmas to give to friends, coworkers, and family. There is nothing better than a gift made with love and plenty of sugar!
A favorite memory of mine was when I was about due with my first baby. To pass the time my husband and I decided to tackle a chocolate layer cake.
As a child I used to love when mom baked those pound cakes. The house smelled so good and my brother and I could lick the bowl. Mmmmm mmmmm…
My favorite baking moment is making cookies with my grandma when I was young.
She let me “help”, which meant eating the chocolate chips she’d leave on the counter for me, and licking one beater. The thing was, with the chocolate chips, I had to count how many chips she put down for me before I was allowed to eat them.
Great way to teach a young child how to count! :)
Every Christmas my mom (and us) would make and decorate sugar cookies. I loved those times. We would also bake some Hungarian cookies since that is part of our heritage. They were special cookies because we only got them at Christmas time. Those are some fond and yummy memories.
Teaching my girls to make chocolate chip cookies! What fun
We used to flour the whole counter and cut out cookies with my Nana.. Those were the days! We ate lots of non perils and sprinkes!
Baking maid of honors with my mom every Christmas. I would give anything to have one last baking session with her.
My favorite baking memory is making pumpkin pies with my mother at Thanksgiving. She always made the most delicious pumpkin pies!
I’m in the Navy and last year a friend and I decided to make cookies and pumpkin rolls for all the military personnel that had to work on Christmas. The best part about it was that I dressed up in a giant penguin costume, including big yellow feet, to deliver the goodies.
I’ve never seen the guards on our base laugh so hard!
I loved baking giant batches of fruitcakes with my mom for Christmas!
We always used to make stained glass window cookies at Christmas with all my siblings. There were mini-marshmallows, coconut, and a nutty chocolate frame involved. They were logs, rolled up in tin foil and frozen, and my brothers and sisters and I would sometimes try to sneak a slice here or there without mom noticing.
when i was a kid i used to watch my mom and grandma making Christmas cookies made with pistachios and walnuts and dates, i loved them. now i bake them sometimes, the smell just reminds me of them both and brings back a lot of memories…
You may not consider it real baking, but that first year I got my Easy Bake Oven was so THE.BEST!!
My favorite baking memories are those involving teaching my sisters, 12 and 14 years younger than me to bake Christmas cookies every year. Now almost 8 and 10, they can’t wait to whip out my “Holiday Cookie Binder” after Thanksgiving and pick which of the dozens I have book marked to make :)
My parents hosted an annual “Posada Navidena”
every year, for which my Mother would bake about
a thousand cookies from many different recipes.
My sisters and I would decorate the reindeer-shaped
spice cookies. Beautiful memories!!
Learning to make lemon meringue pie with my mom. She makes the best ever lemon meringue pie.
When my mom was first married she got her KitchenAid stand mixer as a gift and 30 some years later it’s still chugging along. I can’t even begin to write down all the memories that go along with it, but Christmastime is always extra special. There are a few types of cookies and candies that we have made every year for longer than I can remember, and every year we try out a few new recipes too. I don’t have my own KitchenAid yet, but I’ve been planning on investing in one for a while now. This would be an amazing prize to win!
I love making new baking memories with my 6year old son! He loves to bake! He especially loves to roll cake pops into perfect little balls ready for dipping!
I remember when I was a little girl I used to stay with my grandmother in her summer home while my parents worked all week and joined us for the weekend. My mother’s younger sister used to keep my brother and myself from getting homesick by keeping us busy. One of the things she did was bake chocolate cookies with us. I still remember the happy, secure feeling I had doing that.
My favorite baking moment is making pies with my mom for thanksgiving :-)
hmm it’s so hard to pick just one but if I had to it would be making gingerbread cookes during the holidays!!!
I come from a long line of bakers. Everything I know I learned from my grandmas or my mom. So many memories, lessons, stories were shared in those kitchens. And now I’m considering using everything I’ve learned and opening my own place. Scary! But I’m confident they will all be helping me :)
My favorite baking memories are with my mom, when she’d let me lick the beaters or mixing spoon. I’m 30 now, and I still get caught with brownie/cookie/cake mix all over my face!
Baking my first Thanksgiving pies from scratch. New pie plates, rolling pin and I was ready to take on the world!
I loved making gingerbread houses at Christmas time. It always invoked lots of laughs and candy!
The first cake my friend and I made from scratch in high school was such an adventure. The recipe said it would take 45 minutes…4 hours later, we had a three layer german chocolate cake decorated with homemade chocolate icing and flowers. So much fun and years later, we still talk about it and continue to bake together.
My favorite baking memory is Christmas time with my mom. She makes pecan pies, pumpkin pies, and all kinds of candies. I love being in the middle of it. I need to learn how to bake them myself so one day I can carry on the tradition.
It was my first time decorating a cake and I went a bit crazy with the sprinkles. I was being quite dramatic sprinkling the cake and that cause me to stab the cake with my fingers. Till this day, every time I decorate something with sprinkles, my sister tells me not to the stab it and laughs.
Christmas time is a time for baking cookies with my momma. Last year, my sister and I joined my mom for the first time, from our own homes (instead of just living with momma). And of course, my brother or boyfriend, running to town for the last minute items we’ve run out of while making their favorite cookies. :-)
My mom and I would always make dozens of little chocolate-vanilla marble cookies. She’d make the vanilla dough and I’d make the chocolate swirl. They didn’t have any eggs in them, but I’d still have to sneak bites of the dough while rolling them into balls. Mom wouldn’t make them any other time of year except the month of December, so I had to get my fill for the whole year during the holidays.
My favorite baking memory is making pies with my grandmother. She taught me to peel thinly and slice apples just so, and then roll out the pie crust without tearing. She lives in a skilled nursing facility now, and I make pies for my children, but I still miss rolling out the dough on her formica table with a coal stove heating the kitchen….
For Easter my Dad would bake traditional Italian Easter pies with with my sister and me. In the typical old fashioned way, he never used a recipe. As I got older, I kept track of the ingredients and actually have a written recipe. Of course, Dad still wings it each year.
My favorite baking memory / tradition is making hundreds and hundreds of Christmas cookies every December with my mom and sister. Even if we are on opposite ends of the country we speak on the phone while baking and send cookies to each other.
Baking Christmas cookies with my dad each year! We use an old recipe that has been in the family for years. The cookies themselves aren’t very sweet, but slathered with buttercream frosting, they are delicious!
My favorite baking memory was the first time I ever baked something! I made spritz cookies with my best friend in elementary school and her mom during Christmas. It was so much fun and it made me fall in love with baking! My family immigrated here from Vietnam, so prior to that day, I had never baked anything. They still boggle over all the different types of Christmas sweets there are! =)
My mom taught me how to bake. I remember making chocolate chip cookies with her on winter afternoons and eating them when they were so hot we would burn our mouths but eat more anyway.
My favorite baking memories was when my grandmother would fly in from Mexico. She would spend a whole day, sometimes two (if we were lucky) just making a variety of cookies for us. Since there was a lot of us (13), then we would devour them. I never saw her ever use a recipe, it was all in her head.
My favorite baking memory was with my best friend making asian egg tarts for the first time. It was almost a disaster! Despite reading the directions carefully, we ended up realizing we forgot an ingredient after we had filled each shell crust in the cupcake tin. So what do we do? We grab a spoon and scoop out the filling back into the bowl and added the ingredient! Luckily, the end result was still delicious. Ugly and slightly burnt…but delicious. =)
My sweet grandmother was a fantastic baker and made biscuits no one has ever been able to duplicate (and, of course, there is no written recipe, as she did it all by sight). But, she suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed on her right side – her dominant side. I only remember her as paralyzed, but I also remember her as being amazing in the kitchen. She would roll her wheelchair as close to the counter as she could get it, put the brake on, stand herself up and lean against the counter. Then, she would make her scratch made biscuits using her left hand and would always let me help. She passed away when I was nine, but that will always be my favorite baking memory. When my grandpa passed away a few years ago, my mother gave me the tin biscuit cutter my grandma always used, and I now use it with my three year old daughter. It usually makes me teary eyed to watch her get excited about it. Hopefully, my younger daughter will enjoy it one day soon, too.
I am blessed to have many favorite memories of baking. But one of my fondest memories of baking is apple pies with my mom. We would have contests to see who could make the apple peel the longest, or who could peel the fastest, or anything we felt like that day. I can even remember the smell of the apples baking! The best part was that she would bake me an entire pie crust of my own with just sugar and cinnamon on it because i loved the crust so much!
Back when my children were still in grade school, there would be many nights when our whole family would get together in the kitchen and would just bake simple cookies, muffins, and our favorite sio pao or meat buns. I loved those days because that was the only time we were all together now my children are all in college and i really want us to do that again someday soon.
We always made sugar cookies and spritz, I loved to decorate them with all the colored sugars and sprinkles. We would always start baking early for the holidays and then store them in all these Big tins we used to have.
Wow… either making snickerdoodles to sell at our little lemonade stand (with my brother and sister), or – I don’t know if this counts – my grandma making divinity around Easter OR my mom, grandma and I making feloges (Portuguese fry bread) for Fat Tuesday. Mmmmmm…..
A week before Christmas when I was little, I would make sugar cookies with my mom and younger sister. We would make it an all day event baking, frosting, and decorating our sugar cookies. We would give them away to friends and neighbors. Our favorite was to leave some cookies we made for Santa. Christmas morning we would wake to see that the cookies were half eaten with a half empty glass of milk left. :) Corny, I know, but it’s always something I will remember.
One of my favorite memories is of my dad attempting to make italian cookies like his grandmother would make….. A+ for effort
Over the holidays my mom always makes traditional portuguese honey glazed ‘donuts’ (I use the term very loosely). The process is extensive, and I always liked to watch and tried to help by making things accessible or handing her items. To make the donuts, you would need to roll the dough thinly, and my mom’s were always perfect. She always let me make a few that were “snakes” (aka I rolled dough into a thin cigar-like shape) or made some bizarre shape that was always a little doughy. I used to be so proud that I was able to contribute and it was always so much fun.
I was the official baker in my family when I was 10 years old. My mom didn’t bake much. My creations were let’s just say ambitious.
Baking and decorating cupcakes with my grandma is my favorite baking memory. She always pulled out all the toppings she could find-sprinkles, nuts, coconut, chocolate chips, etc.- and let me decorate each one differently.
My favorite baking memory is baking spritz cookies with my grandma and mom each year for Christmas. We use my grandma’s antique cookie press and the recipe she perfected. Unfortunately my grandmother is no longer with us, but my mom and I still uphold the tradition each year. Some day I hope I can pass this yearly tradition on to my children. It’s the only time of year we make these cookies and it’s always very special.
Every Thanksgiving my family decorates “cut out” cookies. Each family in attendance brings at least 2 batches of their favorite “cut out” cookie baked and ready to be dressed!
After the huge turkey dinner, the boys pass out on the couch and the girls and kiddos head out to the garage that has been completely cleared out and turned into a cookie workshop.
We decorate cookies till there isn’t one left. By the time we are done there are sprinkles, frosting dollups, and cookies everywhere!
Once they dry, each family chooses from ALL the cookies and takes 2 batches home. Easy, fun and very memorable.
My favorite baking moment is from when I was about 5-6 years old and used to help my grandmother make alfajores de maizena. I use to lick the dulce de leche off the sides, then roll them in coconut and put them back on the plate!
Christmas baking with my mum and dad growing up. We would baking for hours and hours and just have a blast!
my favorite time was the first few weeks of marriage and i was making brownies for my hubby. lol he was so excited to lick the bowl and poured a bag of chocolate chips into the batter when i wasn’t looking. the brownies turned into mini lava cakes because i baked it in a cupcake pan and they didn’t bake all the way because of the extra chocolate. :)
Going to my best friend’s house and staying up late baking cookies to give all our friends.
My favorite baking memory is when I made cupcakes with my son for his second birthday. He sat on the counter and helped me, and then parked himself in front of the oven and watched them bake. His face was priceless when he finally got to eat one!
my grandmother passed when I was very young, but I treasure the memories of her teaching me how to bake pies in her old fashioned kitchen.
Definitely baking Christmas goodies with my mom.
My favorite baking memory was a few years ago with my friends when we made a massive batch of sugar cookies around Chirstmastime. However… we used a fetus cookie cutter which is the most absurd and vulgar cooking utensil I’ve ever experienced. We then decorated the fetuses like different people including Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Timmy Pickles. It’s honestly as disturbing as it sounds.
My favorite baking memory is baking cupcakes for a dinner at my aunts house, proud because everyone asked me for the recipe:)
Every January we host a pie potluck. It is a time I get to go all out baking and I love to see what kinds of pies the other families bring.
A memory i have about baking is when i tried to make a homemade bundt cake for the 1st time for one of my boys birthday and it was a huge disaster :) the cake fell,sunk,ran, dripped, crumbled and looked awful. Who would have known that 10 years later i’d be making cake’s by the hundreds to make our new found passion “CakePops “
My Mom’s recipe for Oatmeal Cookies is the best…really. I used to make a whole batch for my Dad and wrap them up for Christmas. It’s still one of the best presents I can give him.
My favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my mom and sister. And we get to relive it every year!
My favorite baking memory is at Christmastime with my mom. We would make butter cookies with a cookie press. I always liked decorating them.
My favorite memory is baking pastries and breads with my father. As a little girl it was my ultimate favorite thing to do sit on top of the kitchen counter to watch everyone cook and me trying every single things for taste and helping out with baking I loved the smell in the entire house it always smelled like a bakery. We loved to bake weekly and watching my father bake his bread was my favorite thing to do.
Decorating sugar cookies with my family.
when i was little, my sister and i would crush graham crackers, mix them up with peanut butter, and mold them into little cookies. into my toy oven they’d go, and even though it wasn’t real baking, they tasted real good! our dollies thought so too. ;)
Baking with my girlfriend. We bake all the time! Well, she bakes, and I do the dishes.
My favorite baking memory is baking pies with my sisters and Mom at Thanksgiving.
My favorite baking memory is making cookies my dad couldn’t help but eating, despite being stuffed from food!
my sister and i bake a pie for thanksgiving every year. one year, when we made an apple pie, we forgot to put a cookie pan under the pie pan so some apple juice dripped down into the burner and the oven almost set on fire! luckily, we caught it early so everything was fine but it was scary! the pie still tasted delicious. (:
My family wasn’t much for cooking but my great aunt always seemed to have pies, cookies, cakes and such around the house. One time as my Nana, my great aunt and I were sitting around her kitchen table eating one of the pies I mentioned it was wonderful that she knew how to do all this cooking stuff. She smiled and told me her secret. She had kids and a ton of grandkids and couldn’t keep up anymore. She’d stopped making crusts from scratch and used store bought crusts. She’d stopped making all the fillings from scratch. She used pudding mix for the lemon meringue pie we were eating and many others. She did make the meringue by hand still but that was it. She said anyone could do it. In the grand tradition of the family when I need a pie I look up the recipe, check web sites for inspiration… and go to Village Inn and order a pie to go. But I love the inspiration and I love to watch people who love to cook and bake do their magic. Maybe a mixer would inspire me but I’d likely share it with one of my friends who make kitchen magic.
I remember baking cream puffs when I was in high school and college. My mom, who has since passed away, loved them!
My favorite baking memory was when my eldest daughter and I were making and decorating a red velvet (Bakerella’s recipe) birthday cake for my youngest daughter. We made guinea pigs out of Rice Krispies and fondant. It ended up being a fantastic cake.
We celebrated the party at Chuck E. Cheese. It was quite an interesting experience.
My favorite baking moment so far has to be when I took my 3 year old son to my parents’ house and let him make rolled sugar cookies with his grandpa (my dad) just like I did when I was a little girl. My dad is getting older, but he still loves to make those cookies and they taste just like they did when I was 6!
My favorite baking memory is my two year old son helping me make a cake. Cake batter was on his face, in his hair and everywhere….and I loved it!
My fondest winter/holiday memories are always of my grandma and grandpas house. Nothing has or ever will smell like their house when grandma was baking. I hope that when my children are older they will remember our house the same and how we always seemed the happiest when in the kitchen. :)
My mom gets together with her sisters a few weeks after Thanksgiving each year to bake for Christmas and they are so funny because they all want their cookies to be just a certain way and there is always at least one disagreement during the weekend but at the end of it we all trade cookies and it works out.
Baking cookies with my mom. Then turning around and having cookie baking night with my kids.
My sister and I were baking christmas cookies one year when my mom’s hand mixer started smoking and then died. We finished the cookies and then had to buy a new mixer for my mom as a christmas present.
Anytime I’m baking with my kids is a favorite memory!!
My favorite baking memory is of baking cookies to pass out during the holidays with my youth group. It was so much fun and a nice way to spread Christmas joy, plus we all got to sneak a bit of cookie dough! ;)
I love baking with my Mom during the holiday season. She always reminisces about baking with her Grandmother, who I never met. It is fun to listen to the memories, it makes me look forward to baking every year! She has a huge old tin that they used to fill with baked goodies, and now we spend weeks baking and making candies to fill it up. :)
My mom makes a famous toffee! She is known for it around the holidays and reminds me of your Grandmother’s famous pecan pie. I try to help, but it never seems the same. Just pure love in it, I guess! :)
I loved Christmas time at my parent’s house. My mom and I would spend the whole day making gingerbread cookies and then giving them out to the neighbors. 20 years later, its one of the things I look forward most during the holidays.
I always think of my mom making fudge, pecan pies and when my dad was lucky, she would make his favorite–peanut patties.
I loved baking sugar cookies at Christmas time with mom and grandma. I, personally loved the decorating part. We would get sticky and colorful in powder sugar and food coloring, all sorts of candies to add to our creations. We watched movies like Rudolph and sang carols while we decorated. It’s a tradition I work hard to keep with my own little each year now. ^_^
One of my favorite baking memories is every year around Christmas my mom and I would bake tons of cookies, brownies and fudge. It is why even today, I get excited about making cookies for christmas, and I can’t wait to have that tradition with my child.
Baking French Silk Chocolate pies with my Mom because it was my Dad’s absolute favorite! So delicious!
I love holiday baking!! Ever since my kids were tiny we’d start planning our Christmas cookies at the beginning of fall and perfecting the lineup by turkey day. The first two weeks of December was solid baking – 100s of cookies for family and friends. Even though my little ones are adults now, we still plan over the phone and if they can steal the time, come home and bake with me, otherwise bake along me virtually. Too many memories for all to count!!!
Baking (and decorating!) Hanukkah cookies with my mom and sister.
My favorite baking memory is our whole kitchen full of every cookie you could imagine ready to be put in beautiful christmas tins. I loved makin the sugar cookies the most!
My favorite memory is baking gingerbread animals with my boyfriend and cousin. We made some wacky shapes, then ate them all!! I live the holiday season including Halloween!!
My favorite memories were baking cookies with my mom during the holidays. I can’t wait to get baking this year with my twin boys. I’ve got a whole slew of recipes I want to try!
When I was a little girl my mother would always let me watch her bake. She would often let me help her. My favorite memory would be when she needed her egg whites whipped to make meringue on her lemon meringue pie’s. All we had at the time was the old hand held,hand cranked beaters. My little hands would crank those beater’s as fast as I could until those lovely white peaks formed. Oh how far we have come today. I still have that set of hand beaters and I often look at them and cherish that time spent in the kitchen with my mother.
Baking has always been my little de-stress. I just love it. When I was a kid my Mom would bake put together apple pies for the family to enjoy during the winter when you just couldn’t get fresh apple pies. One year she with the help of my sister made 30 of them for the freezer. My Mom was a great baker and cook. I sure do miss her. Thanks, Mom for making me love baking just as much as you did.
Baking Christmas cookies with my family!!
My favorite baking memories are baking holiday cookies with my 4 children, I try to have one on one time with them while baking several different cookies but often they would all join in and we enjoyed that as well. Lori A
Aww…my favorite baking memory is from making chocolate chip cookies with my Grammy. She loves to bake for others and instilled that love in me as well.
My first time baking peanut butter cheesecake won over my boyfriend’s mom years ago, and she still raves about it being most awesome dessert she’s ever had in her life. Talk about brownie points!
My grandmother made apricot hand pies. I’m so glad I was able to learn how to make them with her. Every bite reminds me of her piece of plywood that she used to roll out the crust and the sweet unique glazey crust with cinnamon and cloves. I’ve tweeked the recipe a little but everytime I make them it takes me right back to her Texas kitchen. Wish I had been old enough to learn my grandfather’s sweet roll recipe before he died. I have all the recipe files from my grandmother and it isn’t in there.
My favorite holiday/baking memory is baking a variety of Christmas cookies with my Mom. We make about 6 different kinds every year my favorite being my Great Grandma’s candy cane cookies!
I took homemaking in freshman year of high school. When the county show came around, I entered a German Chocolate Cake that I made from scratch, never having made one before. I was so disappointed because I was sure it tasted awful. To my surprise, I came in third in the county. My mother and teacher were both confident I could do it. We were all so proud of me. I took homemaking classes throughout high school. In my senior year, I was selected as a Betty Crocker homemaker for my school and was given a pin, which, 39 years later, I still have. This is one of my top baking memories.
Baking a chess cake with my Granny is one of my most vivid baking memories. I can still hear her saying, “Pass me the sugar, Sugar.”
My favorite baking memory is making funny cakes wiht my grandma.
I have SO many but I think one of my favorites involves my brother and my mom. Every time my mom used to make pies she would give my brother and I the scraps to play with. We would always roll them into tiny ball and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar! It was always such a treat.
My grandma Sandy and I used to bake Carrot Pudding for Hanukah each year. She would let me grate all the carrots, even thought I couldn;t help myself and ate them by the fistful. Her recipe made enough batter for 2 big pans full of Carrot Pudding which would be served to family later in the week, plus a little mini one that we would always eat with lunch. That was always my favorite part.
My favorite memory is of my daughter baking cupcakes with my mom and both of my grandmothers. Such a sweet time!
On her last visit up to where I lived at the time, my grandmother came to my apartment and gave me a one-on-one cooking lesson to teach me two of her most famous (within our family) recipes: cheese straws and divinity. Because of that lesson, I can make both exactly like she used to, even though she’s now passed away. The first time my aunt bit into my versions of these recipes after my grandmother’s passing, her eyes widened in surprise and she said, “This tastes just like Mama’s!” That was a big moment for me. I think food traditions are a wonderful way to honor the memory of beloved family members!
I like to make spritz cookies with my mother.
my favorite holiday baking memory is making so many cookies, brownies, pies, etc. for all the high holidays and trying to get them all baked in time!!!
My favorite baking memory is on Christmas Eve, my granny kitchen would smell like sweet potato pies and peach pie!! I still remember the smell and it makes me think about Christmas!!
My favorite baking memories include the day just before Christmas when my mom and I spend the entire day making lots if yummy tramways for the neighbors. It was so fun to bake with my mom!! She’s the best!!
My favorite baking memories is when I was in the Philippines and doing it with my children. Every Sunday was our family day so one of our favorite baking was banana loaf bread and brownies. Here in America I baked banana loaf bread for my friends especially when we have some gatherings. How I wish I can bake more for my family and friends.
I hope I am so lucky to win one of these beauties
I would always look forward to the holiday season to bake cookies and cupcakes to bring to school for bake sales :)
Hi! My favorite baking memories were in the kitchen with my mom when I was young. I remember making things for bake sales and feeling so excited to get to make something pretty that someone else would want to buy : )
My favorite baking memory is baking sugar cookies with my mom and sister at Christmastime and eating myself sick on all the dough!
My favorite baking memory is making Christmas Cookies with my family. Mom was a single parent and we were always strapped for cash but she made sure Christmas was always special and full of fun family time. We’d make the cookies then go give them away to needy families with small amounts of money Mom would scrape together.
My mom never baked but my grandmother would sometimes make cookies. I made cookies occasionally too, but I remember they always tasted better when Millie made them for me.
It’s all hand on deck in my house for holiday baking. We then take all the cookies and sweets and package them up nicely to deliver to the police department. Our little way of giving back!
every xmas my mom and i made humdreds of italian cookies! its fun!
Making Amish bread with my mom! We didn’t do a lot of baking at home when I was little, but it was pretty magical watching bread appear from the oven.
one of my favorite baking memories was when i made a tiramisu for the first time from scratch for my friend and my cousins birthday. it was crazy and hectic but with the help of my mom, it felt nice to see such great results (:
My favorite baking memory is when my sister and I made 200 wedding cake cake pops for my wedding. It took two days and lots of precision cake-pop making but we did it. My sister earned her maid of honor title that night!
Baking with my mom =)
I remeber great memories of baking with my maternal grandmother…even our yucky Rum Balls that we made one year..,and of making Jello with my Mom when she would “let” me stir the Jello….
making chocolate chip cookies with my mom when i was a kid!
My best memory was literally baking nothing at all. As my grandma was making her amazing chocolate chip cookies, she would like me mix, pour, concoct, whatever it might be in my own pan. I would mix anything and everything and she would just let it go… even baking soda and vinegar= big mess. She would do it all with a smile and just throw it in the woods afterwards!
My favorite baking memory is time spent baking with my grandma when I was younger. Cookies were the best!
My favorite baking memory is making chocolate chip cookies with my grandmother. We would make them every time I went over her house when I was in preschool. By kindergarten I had memorized the entire recipe and still have it memorized to this day. My grandmother has been sick for quite a while now, but whenever I make chocolate chip cookies I always remember a sweet little memory from when I was a kid. :)
My favorite baking memory was making boxed cupcakes and bringing them to the homeless shelter I worked at in college. The residents absolutely loved them. It was so nice to be able to share something special with them. That was when I was bitten by the baking “bug” and I haven’t stopped baking since!
My favorite memory is when my brother and I would help bake sugar cookies with our mom before Christmas. We would spend a lot of time decorating them with all different colors of icing. There would be Christmas trees, santas, snowmen, ornaments, and stars. We were so proud of our masterpieces. We would always set some cookies and milk out for santa on Christmas eve and were amazed when only crumbs remained in the morning!
I remember making peanut butter blossoms every Christmas with my mom. I would unwrap all of the Hershey kisses and make the biggest foil ball possible. I’d also snitch a couple kisses here and there. I’d also help roll the dough in sugar before my mom put them in the oven. It wasn’t until I got older that she allowed me to put the kisses on the cookies (she was afraid I’d get burned on the sheet). They’re still my favorite cookies and now my husband loves them, too!
My Memories are of baking our round sweet Challah’s for our Jewish New year. They include plum raisens to remind us of having a sweet and happy new year.
My favorite “baking” memory is baking mud pies with my Grandma Jo. I loved each moment she spent showing me the ropes of “baking”.
I am now passing those wondering memories on to my kids!
One of my favorite memories was watching my grandma, mom and aunts making lefse when I was a vary little girl.
My favorite baking memory is of one of my best friends and I creating crazy concoctions in the kitchen. After making bisquick pancakes, we would use the leftover batter and mix in whatever we could find in the pantry. Some things were edible…others were not, but it was so much fun!
My mom has always loved baking. Our favorite thing to make together is lemon merengue pie. Awesome afternoons together making pies from scratch.
My most favorite baking memory is when my paternal grandma would make cookies from a family recipe that had been passed down from generation to generation. She had really bad arthritis & the dough was really stiff-taking her hours of work to prepare it-but it never deterred her. This was her annual “Christmas gift” to my dad. She had given me her recipe card for the cookies a few years before she passed away. One year, I made the cookies for my dad as his Christmas gift from me. It was one of the few times that I have seen my dad cry. I couldn’t have given him a better gift.
I remember the first time (and only time- need to make them again!) i made macaroons! i aged the egg whites for two days and used the electric mixer to make them super fluffy! i also powdered almonds in a food processor. they came out to be a little humid and it wasn’t all powder-like like i wanted it to come out. plus, i didn’t take the skin off of the almonds, so it wasn’t white all the way. but, my macaroons actually came out nicely! made some chocolate ganache to put in the middle, and yumm! they looked beautiful =)