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 favorite baking memory is baking angel food cake with my grandmother. I love angel food cake to this day but couldn’t say for sure whether it’s the cake that I love or the memories tied to it. Food and love go hand in hand.
Kiffles at Christmas! It’s a tradition in our house, and even when my helpers disappear, I know they’ll always come back to help eat them up! :)
One of my favorite baking memories is our teacher gifts that my mom and my sisters would prepare each year during the holidays. It was usually fudge or something similar. I loved it!
A great memory was when my oldest child and I began baking together…Just to see her joy when she gave her teachers the cookies and bars we made together was special.
My Dad was a longshoreman who worked nights. One night he came to his Mom’s house. I was there baking Gingersnap cookies. Daddy ate a cookie and smile as he ate it. Then he said these are the most lovely cookie I ever ate. Then stated too much baking powder. Best his heart he tried to eat more. So my heart wasn’t broken. Tomorrow it will be 50 yrs of him living this world. To a better place. Still miss him. He was only 40.
One time as a joke he told me he ate dog biscuits as a child. I thought how yukky. Grandma had a dog and he ate one in front of me. Till he explaine what they were made of.
Thank you for these wonderful memories to remember. Am not teaching my Grandkids to bake. And read the recipe twice. Then they won’t have lovely cookies you can’t eat.
I loved helPing my grandma in the kitchen making treats for thanksgiving or Christmas. Sharing that time with my kids in the kitchen now.
Favorite memories were when I was a young girl and our whole family entered the cooking contests at the county fair! We all prepared our dishes and always had a great time. Funniest memory was when my mom dropped her lemon meringue pie going through the turnstiles. But we new it was delicious!
Baking with my granddaughter; hands down. She lives in Seattle and I get to see her once a year. This year she’s coming for Christmas instead of the summer and I’m so excited. She’s seven and we’ve talked extensively about what we’re going to bake.
My favorite baking memories are mostly during fall and winter time… the cooler, crisp weather puts me in the mood to go [baking] crazy. I make my Christmas bread every year – a recipe I came up with during a semester abroad in Spain… it’s my personal Christmas tradition now.
The first sweet I learned to make was a family recipe crispy bar dessert. We had them at every family get together and special occasions, or just because. Every female in my family knows the recipe by heart…even my sisters- in-law. And now I am teaching my 3 girls :) I love sweet traditions!
There are so many great memories of Holiday baking along with my Mom’s weekly cake baking. She always made it fun for me and I always learned something new. And the best part was sampling the baked item right out of the oven. When Easter rolled around, she would make Chocolate covered eggs. She used unsweetened chocolate for this and always got me to taste it before it was made into what would later become the best chocolate eggs ever……I fell for it year after year….we always had a good laugh. Now I am making the same great memories with my granddaughters.
one of my favorite baking memories was my mom showing me how to make her favorite almond cookies!
Mine is probably baking cakes and fudge and other goodies with my grandma, whom I lovingly call Nanny. She always taught me to put “love” into all of my baking and I appreciate that she knew her recipes by heart and never used a measuring spoon or cup very often. She still bakes from time to time and her pineapple upside down cake is amazing. Although I’ve moved away from home and don’t see her as much, I always look forward to holidays when I get to taste her creations again and help her in the kitchen.
My best friend and I loved baking when we were kids. The best memory I have is that of making baked doughnuts (recipe from Fanny Farmer) and watching The Little Mermaid while they were in the oven. Mmmm.
I lived in Australia for a year and baked some Christmas cookies that my Mom always makes for the Holidays. Baking (and eating the baked goods, of course) have never tasted more like home.
My favorite baking memory is teaching my best friend how to make chocolate peppermint bark at Christmastime and having the chocolate stick to the pan so badly that we ended up scraping the pan and eating it all right out of the freezer!
My favorite baking memory is baking with a friend and our kids. We each pick our favorite cookies and bring ingredients and spend the day stirring, shaping, decorating, and, of course, sampling. My list changes a bit each time, but I always must make peanut butter kisses. My kids want to try different jobs each time, but they always, always want to lick the beaters. I can’t blame them.
My favorite baking memory is making Christmas cookies with my mom. The best are her chocolate mint cookies. They have melted Andes mints on top and my sister and I always got to swirl them with our fingers. I still make those cookies today.
My mom taught me how to bake starting when I was probably 10 or so. One thing I always remember is how she drilled into me to ALWAYS grease the cookie sheets even if the recipe says to bake it on an ungreased sheet. I have been thankful many times for her wise words!
I remember when my grandma would come to visit when I was a little girl. She was Finnish and would make Finnish Pulla bread and rye bread. She never used a recipe and would show me how to put a pinch of this and a handful of that in the batter. The house smelled wonderful when the bread was baking and to this day, it was the best bread I have ever eaten. I sure miss her…..
Anytime I baked with my grandmother as a child are my favorite memories. We made lots and lots of things. I still love baking today and I know it is because of her!
My favorite baking memory consist of being in the kitchen with my nieces. Since they have been able to see over the counter (via a step stool), they are always eager to help me bake layer cakes and cookies from scratch. I can’t wait to become more a part of their baking memories as they will continue with mine.
I love to bake…I inherited it from my mom. We have pictures of us covered in flour w making cookies hen I was just two! The first time I baked a cake alone, I was 10 (my mom only required that she put the cake in the oven and take it out) I made my dad’s favorite cake as a surprise for him. But I forgot the baking powder…oops. flat as a pancake, my layered masterpiece didn’t exactly “take the cake”. My mom tried to make me feel better by frosting it with pink icing and sprinkles. I sobbed when my dad came home and I told him my tale…he ate a piece out of pity I think. It’s been years now and I always double check to make sure I have the leavening in there!
My Grandmother had a small glass bowl that was topped with a pair of metal beaters that she always used to make her whipped cream for most all the Holidays. My sister and I would almost fight to see who could do the most turning of the small metal handle that resulted in wonderful whipped cream. I now own this precious piece of memories and look forward to sharing the experience with my Grand Children!
I didn’t really have any baking memories with my mother since she always baked while my brother and I were at school. But I associate banana bread and chocolate chip pan cookies with her and baking since we would always come home from school with the house smelling deliciously!
And this can’t really be considered a baking memory, but I do remember us having an old fashion ice cream maker where you had to spin the handle by hand. Ice cream took forever to make since we little kiddies couldn’t turn the handle, but it was oh so fun and tasty!
Every year the weekend either right before or a week before Christmas, my grandparents would come down to my house and we’d spend the entire day baking cookies to give away. We make about 10 to 12 different kinds of cookies, most in double or triple batches. There are some standards (peanut blossoms, pizelles, chewy noels, and others) and some new recipes. We called it (appropriately enough) Cookie Day and it has become legendary. Friends, family, and co-workers start asking in October when Cookie Day is this year so they can prep for all the goodies. My Nana and Grampa stopped being able to travel to our house several years ago and we lost my Nana this year, but the tradition continues. I’ve even managed to get my fiance involved :) It is easily one of my favorite days of the year.
Mine would be baking christmas cookies every christmas as a child with my grandmother. Then teaching my cousins the proper sprinkle-applying technique!
My mom is a gingerbread fiend. Every Christmas, to this day, we cut out and bake a ton of shapes and then have fun decorating them. There is always a bunch of anatomically correct gingerbread men with candy bits.
One of my favorite baking memories are the times I would spend with my kids baking cookies. One time I started a flour war and it esclalated from there. We were wearing more flour than I think was in the cookies but the fun part came from the smiles and giggles of my little kids. That is a time that I will never forget!
I have a great memory of baking cinnamon rolls with my mom. Granted, they were the kind from the tube, but the memory is still a great one!
My favorite baking memory is of my grandmother teaching me how to make her cinnamon rolls. I will never forget it, and can’t wait to teach my daughter when she’s old enough to help out in the kitchen!
My favorite baking memory is with my daughter last Halloween. We had so much fun baking and decorating halloween cookies for her friend.
My favorite baking memory is making lots of sugar cookies and decorating them with my mom at Christmas. I miss her so much but she left her love of baking with me and my heart.
One baking memory I will never forget is the first time I attempted to make dessert for our family on Thanksgiving when I was about 14. I made a cheesecake, but didn’t realize it had to cool over night before serving and I had started making it that afternoon. Everyone ate warm cheesecake for dessert and lovingly lied to my face about how good it was. I’ve since learned my lesson and make awesome cheesecakes every year!
I remember my mom making an apple cake when I was little. She still does and no I make one too!
All of my favorite baking memories are with my Granny :) The last one was making her yummy chocolate fudge icing for a chocolate cake. She still lives in the house she was born in, and every moment we spend there is very special in my heart..
Throughout the year, as she cooks, my mom saves up rendered goosefat in a great big plastic tub in the fridge and near the holidays we can usually convince her to use some of it to make us goose feet cookies. These are just sweet dough made with the goosefat, shaped into layered triangles and dipped in coarse sugar, but its the best thing about fall. We would stick toothpicks into them and take our geese for a walk before eating them, layer by layer. Delicious fun :D
I remember mom’s recipe container so clearly. Whenever she would take it off the shelf I knew we were going to make something amazing! She gave me a love for making everything from scratch. My favorite time was Christmas time, when we would make gingerbread!
Making persimmon cookies with my grandma. I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies like “normal” people. I am so glad she taught me to go outside the box!
My favorite baking memories are my first ones of baking with my Grandma Veinhuis making peanut butter cookies. She used to always let me dip the fork in sugar and make the tine marks on the cookies.
My favorite baking memory is baking pies on Christmas morning with my mom.
My favorite baking memory is those times i’d help my mom or dad baking the yearly apple pies. We had this apple tree in our backyard that had such beautiful apples every year and we’d bake an abundance of pies to eat, give away.. and the house always used to smell so good. My mom would make the traditional lattice tops for the pie and i would always be so fascinated… such good times!
Watching my mother make her delicious apple pie at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter :)
My beloved Aunt Trishie gave me my Easy Bake Oven when I was five. I baked and baked and baked….very badly, to be honest. But it started a passion for all things sweet that I have to this day. I’ll always cherish that Easy Bake Oven and forever cherish Aunt Trishie for giving me that gift.
A few years ago at Thanksgiving, my older sister and I got to spend the week before at our aunt’s house, helping with holiday preparations. She taught us how to make banbury tarts using our family’s old foolproof recipe. We spent a whole day in the kitchen baking dozens of banbury tarts and homemade pumpkin pie. I can’t wait to pass that tart recipe down to my kids!
My favorite memory occurred on October 31st EVERY single year!! My Mom made me a homemade 3 layer German Chocolate cake for my birthday. This was my very favorite cake and she went the extra mile to make it THREE layers!! It was beautiful and delicious! I continue this tradition, now that Mom is gone, for my oldest son, who guess what???????? Has a birthday, like me, on October 31st!!
What a wonderful memory!!
I remember baking toll house cookies with my sister when we were little girls. Somehow our stand mixer got stuck in the on position and we had cookie dough all over our kitchen! Wonderful memories of baking in the kitchen with my sister!
My first time baking apple pie. It was for a school thanksgiving dinner, almost 9 years ago. Still my favorite apple pie recipe to date with many improvements added.
I love baking with my kids. We talk about the recipe, proportions (for doubling or tripling), why we need to mix the dry ingredients separately from the wet ingredients, why sugar is considered a ‘wet’ ingredient, what chemical processes go on with various leaveners, etc. And then we get to eat!
My favorite baking memory is baking chocolate peanut butter doozies with my 9 year old son and watching his face light up as we bake together. He even goes to school the following day and shares the excitement with his whole class, with pride beaming across his face! Priceless ?
I remember making my 1st strawberry shortcake with my mom when I was little. It is especially memorable because I dropped the glass bowl of freshly made whipped cream.
My favorite baking memory is when I was about 7, going to the local library with my aunt and cousin and checking out a cookbook. My aunt let us pick a recipe to make from this cookbook. My cousin and I choose Snickerdoodles. They were the best cookie I had ever ate. My love from baking began there!
My favorite memory of baking was making frosted Christmas cookies every year with my mom and sister. We would make beautiful ones the first hour but then after the third hour these cookies no longer looked beautiful but rather the frosting was just slapped on we were so over the decorating. It was fun though
Growing up in 2 households I learned to cook and bake things so differently. My step mom was Italian so that is where I get my love of Italian foods from but she did teach me how to bake butterscotch cookies. She never used a spoon to stir she said you always use your hands as it gets all the ingredients mixed better. Of course my favorite part was eating the dough. I learned how to make homemade pie crust on my own so every Thanksgiving and Christmas I would make my step dad his very own cherry pie as he is the only one that liked cherry pie. Now that I am married and have 3 children of my own my husband (half German) does the baking in the household now which he loves to do and our youngest one takes after him. His favorite thing to bake and everyone else in the house and at both our works is homemade carrot cake. I am entering this contest to hopefully win this for him as he has been wanting a mixer like this for years.
My mom and I make thumbprint cookies every year for Christmas. Usually it ends up being a Christmas ever-we ran out of time thing, but I love the time with her. She doesn’t have a mixer, so I would love to win this for her :)
My favorite baking memories are baking with my niece. I tend to be fairly uptight in the kitchen, don’t like people to mess with my order of things or get in my way. But there’s something about the joy a child gets from helping you create that lets me let go of all of that. Yes, we made messes. The cookies didn’t turn out “perfect.” But I wouldn’t change it for the world!
My Grandmother would make bisquits anytime someone was visiting. She would put us little ones on the counter and give us a bowl of dough and some flour to make bisquits with her. We would get flour on us and her and she wasn’t bothered at all. She also made the best homemade yeast rolls for me. I could eat and entire pan. She would make me a pan seperate from everyone else. Thanks for letting me share.
Baking with my best friends in college!
My baking memories are every time i use my kitchen aid mixer ,
which was my Father’s ( R I P Dad ). He taught me how to make all the Italian Christmas Cookies, that were made in multiple dozens , and handed out to everyone I could think of. My dinning room table was covered with tins of cookies from one end to the other, several deep . I have tried to carry on this , our family tradition, over the years, getting my children involved , which is very time consuming . Thanks for a great site to visit, and your recipes.
One of my favorite baking memories is helping my great grandma bake a variety of things for her community around every holiday. She loved to bake everything from peanut brittle to pecan pie. She is the reason that I love to bake.
Mine was making fudge with my Granny
For someone who seems to have been born with a love of baking (and creating in general) I did not come from a family that enjoyed baking. I remember baking my first pies from my 4-H cookbook and quickly became the family baker. I still love to bake; to me it is a creative outlet just like my quilting, scrapbooking and other crafts I enjoy are. I don’t have one specific memory but rather love every time I bake with my little ones whether for a holiday, class treat or just because. They get so excited to see the finished product that they helped create.
When I was 4 or 5, my mom baked sugar cookies for us to decorate. We used the this frosting that you put on with little paint brushes. I thought it was so much fun to paint the cookies. That was a one time deal but I still remember it.
I always pushed a chair around to stand on and bake with my mom. Then all my boys did the same with me (they are all taller than me now so they don’t need a chair!). Now my great niece and great nephew push a chair up to the counter and help me bake. I love it!!
My grandmother passed down her sugar cookie recipe to my mother, who has passed it down to me. As per tradition, we make these delicious cookies for only 3 holidays – Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate and spend time together each year.
Every year at Christmas time my mom and I and sometimes some of my sisters bake our family’s favorite Christmas cookies together. It was our tradition since I can remember. One year we decided we weren’t going to do our big baking and I don’t remember why but I couldn’t take the thought of breaking tradition! So late one evening I told my mom we had to bake so we stayed up till the wee hours of the morning getting them done. We even took turns watching the oven while the other one snoozed on the couch! Lol!
One of my best memories!
My favorite baking memories would be baking with my kids when they were smaller: making chocolate chip cookies and decorating sugar cookies for their classes.
My favorite baking memories are with my late grandma at Christmas time. Hours were spent in the kitchen preparing gumdrop cookies, patitza and pizelles. Family and friends all around the country looked forward to her special treat packages that we would make each year. Ah…I miss those times.
My favorite baking memories are the new ones that I make with my daughters just like I use to do with my mother. We love to bake cookies and doughnuts and cakes together!
My momma, sister, and I bake Christmas cookies together every year. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of cookies and treats. Besides the spritz cookies we make, I have yet to meet anyone who makes the other kinds of cookies we do. It makes it all the more special and personal to my family!
Funny enough, Passover is the best baking memory for me. So many guidelines to follow, but my mom and I would always dig up recipes for the most delicious treats. I miss her everyday, but think of her especially come Passover and hope to pass along that tradition to my daughters.
I love baking Christmas cookies with my daughter and now can’t wait to start baking with my new grandson. That smell throughout the house makes it a home
My father started to teach me how to bake when I was 10. The very first thing that he showed me how to bake was his famous strawberry cake. It took me about 6 years to make my strawberry cake better than his. I was visiting him in California he went off to work and I made dinner that night with my strawberry cake. He came home and everyone ate. I handed him the cake he took a bite and said to me “I think your a baker now” One of the The Greatest Moments in my life!!!!
After many, many attempts at the perfect chocolate chip cookie, I finally found a recipe and procedure that produced cookies that my boyfriend promptly declared the best cookies ever. Given what a cookie monster he is and my love of baking, I was so happy to have finally found a recipe that he really loved.
Throughout my life my mother and I would bake fruit cakes – yes, I actually said fruit cake – which was really good. I am not kidding here. It had no milk or eggs so it lasted forever (well almost). I think my fondest memory was sitting around her kitchen table once we were done baking – we had a great cup of coffee and our warm fruit cake – loved those time. This ones for you mom.
These look delicious! My boyfriend loves pecan pie, but I always assumed that they were too complicated to make at home. How wrong was I?
One of my favorite baking memories happened a few years ago when I was teaching a friend of mine how to bake vanilla cupcakes with a lemon frosting. Having grown up in (and just moved from) India, she didn’t have much experience grocery shopping or baking in the US. At the store I helpfully reminded her that she should buy unsalted butter for the cupcakes. I guess she didn’t hear me. And of course, I didn’t check before we added the butter to the batter. The cupcakes were way too salty, and tasted like movie theater popcorn. But we laughed a lot! And I am proud to say that since then she has become a fabulous baker, churning out cheesecakes and macarons like nobody’s business.
My favorite baking memory is the first time I baked cookies with my mom! :)
My favorite baking memory was right before I started college. Right before my friends and I all went our separate ways, we had a sleepover at my house. We decided to make cupcakes, since we all loved sweets. We went to the grocery store at 11 pm, and split the check equally. We started baking at midnight, and didn’t finish until 3 am! Even though we finished late, I will always remember the great fun my friends and I had before starting a new chapter in our lives!
It is not a baking memory. My Grndma makes the best caramels every year for Christmas. I wanted to learn how to make them just like her, so I had her teach me one year. I am the one she asks to make caramels for Christmas boxes and no one ever tells the difference.
Growing up my Mom was always in the kitchen! I loved watching her cook. Now that I’m older (37) and have 2 beautiful girls (13&16) I’m instilling a love of cooking into them. We love when the holidays roll around. We decorate cookies, build gingerbread houses, make candy and tons of other stuff!!!! Good luck to whom ever is picked for this wonderful gift!
My favorite baking memories are when my husband and I bake together and also baking for the holidays with my little girl.
I certainly didn’t get my baking gene from my mother, but from my paternal aunt, who was the neighborhood pound cake baker extraordinnaire. I gravitated to her house early on, and she patiently shared her skills of chocolate pie, pound cake, and lemon pie baking with a very eager (and appreciative) student.
Thank you!
my favorite baking memory was when my 2 oldest grand babies were old enough to help with Christmas baking. It reminded me of the days when I would bake with my mom. She was a fabulous women and passed on many great baking recipes. One of the recipes is a Christmas tradition for our family..Polish Cheese Torte. I KitchenAid stand mixer would definitely make creaming 9 pkgs of cream cheese much easier. The tradition carries on as I bake the Torte every year and bake cookies with my grandkids.
My favorite baking memory would be last Christmas when my mom and I made cookies together for the first time. She taught me how to make snickerdoodles, and we laughed and listened to Christmas tunes in our tiny kitchen. It was wonderful! A memory I’ll cherish for years as we were covered in flour and had fingers covered in cookie dough. Yum!
Favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my kiddos!
All of my baking memories remind me of my grandma. She was the best baker I know! When I was in college I remember visiting her to make kiss cookies and her famous fudge. And still every time I make those recipes I think of her and just smile. I even have the dish she always used for her fudge. I’m convinced that is what makes it taste so good.
My favorite baking memory is being with my mom and baking up a strom for the holidays… pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, divinity, fudge, candy, pies, cookies… anything we could come up with. I am now enjoying the time and the memories I am making with my daughter. With mom gone, I have to carrying on the tradition and hope it means as much to my daughter as it did me!!!
Every Christmas my Mom and my brothers and sisters and I would make Grandma Honey’s Dark Dough cookies. These are cutout cookies with mollassas (dark dough) and a delicious spicy flavor. All five of us kids would spend hours decorating the dark dough cookies together. We all bake and decorate them now with our own kids and I hope my children will too when we have grandkids.
Favorite baking memory…that’s tough because I bake so much but probably it’s a combination of all I’ve baked with my children and seeing them now embrace the kitchen. My daughter is quite talented in the kitchen and son #2 has taken to pancakes quite well. The 18 and 16 respectively so I know they have years of learning and know they will embrace learning. that’s a joy.
My favorite baking memory would have to be baking up different types of cookies around Christmas with my dad. He taught me how to make a lot of homemade cookies, and now when the holidays come I look forward to being home and baking some together still!
Oh, how sweet! My grandmother always made pies around the holidays! Pumpkin, pecan, apple… the pecan was always my favorite. And when I went away for school she made sure to send me one so that I didn’t miss out on the holidays. I too now make her pies every year to carry on the tradition.
My mom teaching me how to make blackberry pie for my then boyfriend now husband. It must have been good!
My favorite baking memory is with my great grandmother mitten making the best sugar cookies ever. I was about 5 and she was well into her 80’s.
I loved to bake chocolate chip cookies with my mom when I was young. It is something I look forward to doing with my kids some day.
I started baking when I was 12 years old. My first baking experience was a chocolate pound cake for my dad’s birthday. Now at 50 years old and my dad at 77 years old, I still bake him the same chocolate pound cake for his birthday each year. It’s a family favorite!! :)
In my family my mom doesn’t like to bake but my Dad sure does, so I have vivid memories of being 6 years old on a chair in the kitchen covered in flour trying to help my Dad with whatever baking he had to do for the week. He taught me how to make the best chocolate chop cookies and the most amazing key lime pie. I treasure those memories!
My favorite memory baking is making Dutch cookies (my father is from/grew up in Holland) at Christmas time. They are of the slice and bake variety, brushed with egg and decorated with nuts, sprinkles, or colors. As kids, we’d help my mom to make these. I just love love love these cookies & it makes me smile every time knowing I’ll have the recipe & memory for always!
Wow, I have so many memories of baking it is hard to put one as my favorite, but I think the best memory would be when I made my first pumpkin pie one from pumpkins I grew. I had decided that I no longer wanted pie from a can and grew my own, then roasted them, spiced them up and baked them for Thanksgiving, not only did they taste so much better, but I enjoyed the process, from seed, to garden to table. Now this season I have over twenty pumpkins growing, including a special plant that I have growing for my friends son NAT, I am excited to share with him his “pumpkins” and have him bake with me in the kitchen. I think that will end up being one of my new best memories
My favorite baking memories are baking each Christmas with my daughters. We try new recipes each year and always make our favorites too!
My favorite baking memory is actually my first baking experience I was only in the 3rd grade. I always spent the weekends with my great grandmother and I got a craving for sugar cookies. She said well you can make some so she told what I needed and I needed to do. I was so excited and when my cookies were done I was anxious and to my surprise I didn’t add enough sugar lol but my granny tasted them and said well they make good biscuits LMBO!
I remember making and decorating christmas cookies with my parents. My dad would cut all these fantastic shapes out of rolled cookie dough (still in the weird tube) and then my mom would decorate with us before baking! I really need to get him to show me how he made things like angels and trees out of that circle of dough…
My mom and my grandma used to make homemade doughnuts when my mom was little, and she would take them in her lunch to school. She hadn’t made them since she was a small child, but this past Mother’s Day we sat around, she and my grandma and I, and made homemade doughnuts with nutmeg and cinnamon. My grandma passed away this summer, so this is my last memory with her. I’m sure my mom really appreciates it as well.
One of my favorite childhood memories involves cooking and baking! Every summer my mom would make my brother and I plan and cook a dinner once a week. We had to make dinner AND dessert! I never really cared about the dinner part, but always enjoyed the baking! She taught me how to make everything! Now that I have a little girl I want to pass my love of cooking onto her! She is only 2, but we make cakes and cookies together at least once a week!
My favorite baking memory was during the holidays, my Mom would make a huge spread of food. She would always let me help with the desserts. I think I just wanted to lick the bowl! But now, desserts are my favorite to make! :)
I remember when I was a little girl I would go back to PA with my father to visit my grandmother. My father would go out hunting and my grandmother and I would bake for like a week all day long. We made nut rolls where we would use a hand grinder to grind up all of the nuts. We made raisin filled cookies. We also made decorated sugar cookies with royal icing. I love to bake and have a small decorated cookie business (Teaspoon of Vanilla) and thanks to the many days of baking with my grandmother I fell in love with it!! Thank you Grandma Grace!
My mother baked with us all the time when we were kids. My favorite memory is when my brother and I raided the baking cupboard to eat my mom’s baking chocolate. Little did we know that it was unsweetened chocolate. I still remember the look on my little brother’s face when he bit into that chocolate and the amusement on my mother’s face.
My favorite baking memory is making cookies with the big Treasures chocolate chips right in the center!!
My favorite baking memory is making Mondell bread with my mom for the Jewish holidays!!!!!
Since I was a small girl, every year starting in October, my mom and I bake and freeze dozens and dozens of several different kinds of cookies. These are given out by the plate full around Christmas time. Great memories.
I host a cookie exchange every year, and I love when I can bake a ton of cookies at once, but I don’t have to worry about eating them all! :)
My fondest baking memories are with my late grandma. She taught me how to make pie crust and bake bread. Everything was from scratch.
Teaching my granddaughter to make chocolate chip cookies, I had her kneeling on a chair stirring while I added ingredients to the big bowl. Her little arms kept mixing and mixing and she was getting tired. She said, “Grandma, when can we be done? It is so much easier making cookies with Mommy!” I asked how it could be easier… what did Mom do differently? Her response was, “Well, we just go like this and this and this” and her little hand pretended to slice something invisible on the table. Then I realized all my daughter was teaching her daughter was to slice and bake! Busted!
My favorite baking memory is that of baking with my young sons years ago and now baking with their girlfriends!
My favorite baking memory took place in my grandma’s kitchen. She was making mini apple pies in star-shaped pans and I wanted to make one too, so I took some scraps of pie crust and an apple (peel, core, everything) and wrapped the crust around the apple. The picture is still in our photo album.
My favorite memories of baking involve my dad begging one of us (my mom, sisters or me) to bake chocolate chip cookies. He’d hold up his hand in the shape of a C and shake it three times to mean CCC… chocolate chip cookies! To this day whenever I’m feeling a little blue or homesick, homemade chocolate chip cookies are what I fall back on… not only do they taste delicious, but they hold precious family memories of love, laughter and friendship!
Baking pumpkin and pecan pies with my mom the nights before Thanksgiving and Christmas have to be my favorite baking memories. She’d do most of the work, but always let me make the “homemade cool-whip” aka whip cream!
Baking Italian fig cookies with my mom, my aunts and my cousins…trying to outdo each other with the crazy designs.
Making apple pies with my dad and Christmas cookies (spritz!) with my mom. Yum!
My favorite baking memory is spending time in the kitchen with my southern grandmother when she made her famous coffee cakes! I didn’t full appreciate it until I started making them by myself two years ago. The first time I ever attempted it, I doubled the recipe, but forgot to double the flour. I was dumbfounded for a little while before I realized my mistake and fixed it. My grandmother passed nearly ten years ago, but I definitely feel closer to her when I make those delicious, warm coffee cakes!
My favorite memory is waking up early to bake blueberry muffins with my grandmother. She made the best muffins!
My favorite baking memory is baking and frosting sugar cookies with my little sister!
Baking with my kids when they were little.
Most people have memories of being in the kitchen with their mothers or grandmothers, but for me it was my time to spend with my dad. He retired from the Army and became the best stay at home dad ever. We spent many weekends in the kitchen experimenting with different desserts and breads. The memory that stands out the most is the time we made taffy. It was sooo much fun pulling it and streching it. Because of those memories I shared with my father, I decided to go to culinary school to become a pastry chef later in life. I’ll never forget those precious moments with him.
My fondest baking memory is making a ton of Christmas cookies with m y mom when I was a kid. Blaring Christmas music, flour everywhere, sneaking cookie dough. Great memories.
My mother always baked a million baked goods at Thanksgiving each year. I moved to Miami and married a man (and his awesome family) from Peru. They had no clue about Thanksgiving and so I have spent the past 10 years teaching my daughter the joy of baking while his family has become accustomed to having my (almost) my mother’s fabulous desserts. I don’t think they can go a Thanksgiving without requesting some of “Grammaw’s” famous North Carolina Pecan Pie and zucchini bread. My mother’s legacy is now international as we shipped some desserts to family in Peru. They are hooked now too! :)
my fondest baking memory was baking cookies with my nephew who was 4 or 5 at the time (he is now 18). He would always to me.. “I know you can be the big chef and I can be the little chef.” Well we were making cookies with mini m&m’s and I went to open the bag and the mini m&m’s went flying everywhere. We managed to salvage some that went into the actual bowl, but we laughed so hard. To this day every christmas when his mother (my sister) and I bake cookies we talk about it and laugh as it is as funny today as it was the day it happened.
I learnt to bake with my best friend during our high school years and it is one of the best times we had together..we made all sorts of birthday cakes with decorations and she was the person who introduced me to baking! Aah..miss those times now!
My favorite baking memory would be making all sorts of desserts during the holiday season. Every year we make creampuffs and a christmas log :)
I always loved helping my parents bake-my mom did most of the baking (cookies, cakes, pies, etc), but my dad broke out his family recipe for bread a few times a year. I loved getting to help add the ingredients and knead the dough! The bread always tasted the best straight out of the oven too, although it seemed like it took forever for the bread to finally be ready!
Loved baking with my Grandmother! When I look back, I’m amazed at what she could do with a small oven, four burners and no microwave. The amount of baked goodies we could churn out…
One of my favorite baking memories is baking blackberry cobblers with my Granny :) My sisters and I used to pick wild blackberries when we lived in Washington and bring them back for her and she was always happy to make us a yummy treat with them.
My mother always makes mini challah rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, and we braid them together. One year my grandmother was in town for Thanksgiving, and she joined us. The only “problem” is that she never really cooked or baked when my mother was growing up. You could definitely tell which were hers, especially the one that ended up looking like a guy wearing a long scarf! We had lots of fun and laughs that year – it was great fun having all three generations there.
One of my favorite baking memories is making christmas cookies and chocolates to take to our neighbor every year! My mom would make so many different kinds and always was teaching us exactly how to make everything just perfect. Such a deliciously good time with my Mom! I’m keeping this baking tradition alive with my 3 daughters!
My mom made wedding cookies for Christmas. So good warm right out of the oven and sprinkled with powdered sugar!
I have tons of baking memories, but i always remember making the peanut butter kisses cookies growing up, and to this day they are still a favorite… one year though, mom let my brother and i make them on our own.. unfortunatly, we didnt recognize the difference between the salt and sugar containers!!! the cookies were horrible!
My favorite baking memory is baking german chocolate cake with my great grandma when I was younger.
I just wanted to say I love your website I check it nearly everyday to see if there’s a new post. It has it’s own browser open at all times on my phone. <3
My favorite baking experiences were baking birthday cakes with my mom. She used to make the most amazing cakes! And she taught me everything knows. Now Im the baker, baking all the time for my friends and family, cakes brownies cookies cake pops you name it!
My favorite baking memories have always been with my Grandma. Her kitchen just has that baking smell to it. My favorite thing to bake with her when I was young was bread. I’d help her add all the ingredients, then wait for the dough to rise, and my favorite part was being able to punch it down and of course eating the finished product. :)
My favorite memories of baking are all centered around fall and the holidays. My mother was quite the seamstress and she made matching aprons for the girls in our family. From a very young age she involved us in baking, and it’s a passion I have to this day!
My grandmother was the Queen of Baking Pies and she passed on her recipes to my mother, who has passed them down to me. Now, each Thanksgiving, I take a day to help each one of my 3 children bake their own pies! Pie=Love
I remember baking with my grandmother. She loved baking breads and biscuits, especially around the holidays. People would pay her to whip up a pan of biscuits and pick them up (unbaked) to bake at their own homes. They always made the kitchen smell so delicious and cozy.
Though she has been gone for many years now, people still reminisce about those wonderful biscuits.
My aunt Hollie use to bake once a week with my siblings and I. We made anything and everything – cookies, cakes, pies, bread, etc. It is because of her that I love baking so much! Now every year around Christmas time I bake bad decorate gingerbread cookies with my nieces and nephews! :)
Baking Thanksgiving pies. But I think it will be overtaken when I teach my daughter how to bake.
My mom was more of a cook than a baker so I don’t have any childhood baking memories, however, my 5-year old nephew loves to bake. We live hours apart and so when he visits, we bake up a storm.
I used to help my grandmother make the most delicious angel food cakes – they were so light and fluffy! My grandmother is 98 now and in failing health. I’m glad we had so many good times together but I regret never getting her recipes.
My favorite baking memory is around thanksgiving time about 2 years ago my husband decided he didn’t want to continue to buy pumpkin pies. So he came up with his own special recipe and he tweaks it a little every year. He makes the best pumpkin pie ever. Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year and this definitely puts the icing on the cake!
Each year my family makes new baking memories and they are all wonderful. My mom, Mother-in-law, sis-in-law and cousins all get together and we each pick 3 to 5 cookies that we each want to make. It usually ends up being like 30 types of cookies. We all start early and make up our batches, then make up a giant pot of coffee and while they all bake we watch christmas movies or play games. Its always a little hectic as my in laws house isn’t huge but that’s the best part its just like the holidays with tons of people around. I grew up in a small family as an only child so I love having so much family around!
I don’t have one specific baking memory, but I love to bake every year around the holidays. Thank you for the giveaway!
As a kid, I always remember watching both my grandmas in the kitchen. I had the Italian grandma and the Cuban grandma, best of both worlds and both were the best at what each did!! Boy was I lucky! I always remember my Italian grandma with flour all over the kitchen rolling out the homemade gnocci’s…yum yum. And then no one made arooz con leche (rice pudding) like my Cuban grandma, I could eat the whole batch by myself! And for Thanksgiving, she always made a pumpkin FLAN!! They were the best! I miss them both so much, but thank you for the trip down memory lane! Can’t wait to try your mama’s pecan pie!!! :)
I love the memories I have of baking holiday goodies with my kiddos. I’ve baked for years but this past holiday season my oldest two (then 7 and 5) really got into help me make all the cookie doughs, decorate cookies and pack up the boxes for friends and family. I cannot wait to see them get involved again this year and we’ll find a way for my princess (she’ll be 6 months on Friday) to get involved too!
I was baking with my goddaughter when she was about 5. We were making a batch of cookie frostiing with powder sugar. I just added the sugar to the mixer and she asked if she could turn it on. I told her just move it one speed at a time…not too fast. Of course, she turned it to high and the powder sugar cloud came flying out of the mixer. Our faces and everything around us were covered in powder sugar and her long eyelashes were white. She looked at me with this surprised look thinking i was going to get mad at her. We just started laughing at each other. We looked like ghosts!
Every year for Halloween,my mom and I make spud-nuts (donuts). They are so delicious! We invite the whole neighborhood over and eat and visit. It is wonderful!
Making cookies for Santa on Christmas eve was the best! Few actually made it to the plate, though…
My grandmother was famous for her desserts. As she got older, she wasn’t able to get around like she once did and I volenteered to help her make sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving dinner. I will never forget how she measured and mixed the filling, much different than I did in my own kitchen where I tried to make sure everything was perfect. After she passed away, I found an index card with her recipe for sweet potato pie written in her hand writing. I could not believe it. I have it saved for a shadow box with her picture. She was one sweet lady and I surely do miss her, but will cherish all the memories we made in the kitchen.
So, I love to bake, and I get my zealous excitement to bake from my mom. My mom loves to find these kind of out there recipes.
Well, my favorite memory is one Easter she found this recipe for lemon curd and chocolate shells. To make the chocolate shells you had to gently blow up balloons and dip them in chocolate and then freeze. So as my sister, my mom, and I were all do this, enjoying ourselves, suddenly one of the balloons pops sending chocolate everywhere in the kitchen! All three of us were too stunned to do anything for a few seconds, then we all burst into laughter and began to clean everything up.
We still make reference to that crazy Easter dessert. We actually did finish making the desserts and they were really tasty. That was a fun Easter.
I share a lot of the same memories that Heather (#3383) has, as we have the same great-grandfather. I was a little too young to do any of the actual piping and baking, but I remember watching them both as I sat with the modeling clay making swans. Besides that, I do remember watching my great-aunt making her famous strawberry-rhubarb pie. I was one of the few in my family who liked rhubarb, so I was especially excited when she’d make it. Years later, she was kind enough to give me the recipe. Sadly, my attempt was a dismal failure. :( But it made me appreciate hers all the more!
One of my fave memories was being about 9 years old and making cookies in the kitchen while also tape recording myself (on an old cassette recorder). I spoke as myself and occasionally, as Julia Child :-)
My great grandma always told us a story about a “laughing pie”. And every year when she could still cook she made a pie with a big open grin smiley face, my grandma continued that tradition and my mom has as long as I can remember. Its just not Thanksgiving without a cherry laughing pie!
My favorite memory is baking cheesecakes with my mom when i was young. It was so much fun to spend quality time with just the girls!
My favorite baking story isn’t a successful one. I was trying to bake a cake from scratch, frosting and all and decided to make many substitutions. I was in college so this was my first solo baking quest. long story short, it turned out horrible almost inedible. so i ended up making waffles with some of the leftover batter and putting fresh fruit to make it taste better…this was far better than the cake i made. so i threw out the cake and stacked a bunch of waffles and iced it over with store bought icing….not my finest hour but it turned out ok in the end. people thought it was creative…and not horrible….although i suspect it was. i’ve since learned my lesson
I started a Christmas cookie party for my kids every year. It is a lot of work but the kids seem to enjoy it.
Making Ice Box cookies at Christmas Time with my grandparents.
Some of my baking memories as a young girl was helping my grandmother making deserts every Sunday so we could have something sweet to eat. Making home made pie crust and cakes with home made frosting were the best. They was so much fun to do.
I always loved baking with my grandmother.
My fondest memory comes from just after we took custody of my two nieces. They hadn’t had a real mother figure – at least one that cooked. We started with chocolate chip cookies. It was so much fun watching them. They were so excited to see their finished product and eating it was twice the fun. They have gone on to enjoy baking themselves but prefer when I make it for them : )
My mom and I always used to make buckeyes around Christmas. After I got married, my husband shared his tradition of making orange coconut balls. So…we end up with lots of nibbles throughout the holidays.
My favorite baking memory is making coffee roll cakes & lemon roll cakes with my mom. To this day I use the exact same recipe, but they still don’t taste the same! (must be the mommy love :)
Every year, at Christmas~time, my mom and I used to make roll out sugar cookies. Then my brother and I would be in charge of frosting them and putting the decorations on.
It’s the sweetest memory I have, because my brother passed away 10 years ago. I think of him every time I make the recipe and cherish the memories. It makes the holiday season a bit easier to bear.
I introduced my husband to the wonder and glory of the hot from the oven, chocolate chip cookie when we bought our home. He smiled at me sheepishly and asked- can we put the batter in the refrigerator and bake (1) sheet of cookies each night? We had hot chocolate chip cookies all week!
Looking at all the cookies and cakes lined up on my grandparents kitchen counter. Bliss.
My mother-in-law is such a great cook and baker. I love to help her out with recipes or be the “guinea pig” taster. She makes the best struedel at Christmas time. She also take in to consideration that my husband is a diabetic and makes him sugar free recipes when she bakes.
My favorite baking memory is my brother teaching me how to bake brownies when I was just a little girl. We spent time together in the kitchen and he even let me lick the spoon! ;)
My parents were from Germany, and every year my mom created a cute dish of goodies for each child. We baked all sorts of tasty little treats; I especially loved making treats using martzipan!
My baking memory is Christmas time with my mother. We would spend the week of Christmas baking up cookies and cakes. These would be the gifts we would take to visit family and just have a great time eating and laughing.
My favorite baking memory as a kid was my mom catching me eating brownie batter because it was all over my face!
I have always loved to bake pies for Thanksgiving. During my freshman year of college, 12 hours away from home, with a tiny, poorly equipped kitchen, I still baked my pies. Someone had borrowed my rolling pin and I had to find it in another dorm. The oven locked halfway through baking the apple pie, and I can’t remember how I pried it open! I made three pies, wrapped them up, and drove them 12 hours to my brother’s house for Thanksgiving.
I remember making peanut butter and hershey kiss cookies with my Grandma at Christmas time. Now, I carry on the cookie tradition with my nephew.
My favorite memory was (and still is!) baking gingerbread men with my mom. She would let all of us kids decorate an equal amount of cookies, and her cookies were ALWAYS the best thing to cheer up a sad or mad child.
The holidays are my favorite time of year! My nanny used to bake the pecan pies in our family, but that was handed down to me this past year. But on top of that, my mom, me and my two older sisters spend DAYS in the kitchen baking cookies and making candy to hand out to everyone we know. If it stands still in our kitchen long enough, it will get covered in chocolate! It’s not just a memory, it’s a tradition-one that has stood the test of time. I don’t remember a Christmas that we haven’t done it!
Baking Christmas cookies with grandma and mom. Even as a little kid they would let us help decorate with colored coconut or sugar on top of the Italian Sweet S’s. I love letting my girls help now too when
I do not have a favorite baking memory yet, but I believe I would and could create several with this mixer and gift card!
My annual cookie-palooza with my partner-in-messiness, Juliet. We always make cookies for the church youth group’s Christmas party – generally somewhere around 30 or 40 dozen…….
I love baking with my siblings. it was always nice one-on-one time with them. We always made a lot of noise, and there was usually a big mess, but we had fun.
My favorite baking memory is baking double chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin cookies with my childhood babysitter Stephanie. I haven’t seen her in years, and I think of her all the time. I no longer live in the city that I grew up in and neither does she, so I don’t know how I would go about tracking her down, but I always think about reuniting with her again one day! Anyway, my memories of baking cookies with her are the earliest and some of the dearest baking memories I have.
Watching my husband bake oatmeal cookies with our three kids. :D
I cannot win, but just wanted to let you know I got your toy set, for um, my kid, yeah my kid. But that cake crumbler is like the best thing every, you should make one for grown ups.
My favorite is three years ago my Mom and my two kids decided to bake their own gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve. It was a HUGE mess, they had some very odd and very organic shapes that really did not stand, but they had a good time!!
My mother loves white chocolate/raspberry combination. So for her birthday one year, I made her a DELICIOUS white chocolate cake with raspberry filling. The following year, I wanted to make another white chocolate/raspberry cake, but different… So I opted for a raspberry cake with white chocolate frosting.
However, I forgot that adding raspberry puree would be like adding extra liquid to the cake batter, and still added the recommended amount of water/oil/milk… So the cake didn’t bake. After an hour in the oven it was like a soaking wet sponge. Not at all edible… We ended up using a yellow boxed cake mix and some vanilla pudding to whip something up instead, but it was the thought that counts, right?!
I love to make chocolate chip cookies with my kids on Chritmas eve every year. It’s just a nice little tradition I started with my oldest. It’s nice to bake with the kids on christmas eve and then have them leave out the cookies they made for Santa (aka Dad). It just brings a smile to my face! I hope to continue this tradition even when they no longer beleive in Santa! :)
My favorite memory is baking at Christmas time when my siblings and I would help decorate the cookies.
My mom make homemade sugar cookies for every holiday, but my favorite is Christmas. She decorates her cookies with buttercream frosting and will do it in batches by color. She makes the cookies look like what they are with the frosting.
watching my dad sneak and eat a whole coconut pie as soon as my mom pulled them out of the oven the night before thanksgiving.
My favorite baking memory is a new one- we’ve only begun 2 yrs ago. My daughter and I jooin my sister in law and her daughter for a day of baking Christmas cookies. We bought a recipe book to keep all the recipes we have baked so we can hand this book down generation to generation-and this year I have a brand new grandbaby who can join us- at least for the eating!
I have so many wonderful baking memories, but probably my favorite so far is when my daughters and me and my mom are baking pumpkin pies together on Thanksgiving. It’s so nice to have the four of us in the kitchen together!
My mom wasn’t an avid baker when I was growing up, but she did like to try new things every now and then. I, on the other hand, love to bake, and try to involve my boys whenever I can. We are trying to start new traditions around the holidays (or any chance we get)!
I love making homemade birthday cakes for my kids. What ever they want. I’ve made alien cupcakes, hello kitty cakes, aquarium cakes, Bob the builder and on and on….
Then one year my young son said with a wishful look in his eyes, “someday I’d just like to have a store bought cake”. I could have strangled him!! :)
My favorite memory is making German Chocolate Cake with my Nanny. I have tried her recipe at my home but it is never quite as good as hers. I still use her recipe and it is even more special since she passed away last year.
My mom wasn’t one to bake but I love it. I hope that the things I bake with my girls will be memories made for them. They are for me!
My favorite baking memory is cooking with my great granny. she would give me my own pie crust dough to make my own little pie. she would make the big pies while i worked on my own. mine was always a milk pie, with cinnamon and sugar. it was the best pie ever.
My daughter is a much better cook than I am. I’m sure she gets it from her grandmother on her father’s side of the family. Using my mother-in-laws recipe we spent one fall day making the most decadent caramel and placing spoonful’s of the caramel on 2 pecan halves. Later that week we got together again and dipped the caramels into chocolate. These made the best turtles to be used as gifts for family and friends.