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!
for the last day of school, we wanted to make something for my daughter’s teacher. both my daughter and i took the afternoon to make plain sugar cookies and spend an hour decorating them to their cutest :)
My favorite memory is learning from my mom how to make homemade rolls for Thanksgiving dinner and then that becoming my “duty” for future Thanksgivings.
My great Aunt was known for her apricot horns, they are a family favorite and much fought over! Since her passing many years ago, I have taken to make them for the family, since the difficulty is a little high. Well, this past year at culinary school, I used the recipe as a cultural assignment and it was then chosen to be made by all classes a few weeks later. I like to think she would be thrilled to know her recipe was made in a culinary kitchen by many aspiring bakers!
Wow, probably to many memories to choose from but here it goes; I loved, loved that when I was 5 years old my mom came to my class as the room mom and taught all the kids to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Ha! Still love that day and it was in 1979!
Baking is my happy place; it always has been and always will be. As a child, I remember getting in trouble with my mother for using the oven without supervision (I didn’t have an Easy-Bake). When my baby brother turned five all I wanted to do was share my happy place with him. We made Christmas sugar cookies..in April :) I’ll never forget the look on his face as we mixed the ingredients, him exclaiming that it was like an experiment, and decorating the trees w/M&M’s. It was the best batch ever and somewhere along the way, a memory was made.
Decorating gingerbread cookies with my brothers as a child while singing along to Christmas music!
My favorite baking memory is baking homemade cinnamon rolls with my grandmother. Although I don’t have to use a stool anymore to reach the counter, we still make them together whenever I visit!
My favorite baking memories is of making Christmas cookies at my aunt’s house. We made so many different kinds but the best were the sugar cookies that we got to decorate. She had every kind of sprinkle and decoration that you could in the 80’s early 90’s. My favorite part was to see which one we got in our plate of cookies for Christmas. She made them to give out as gifts. Nothing better than homemade cookies for the holiday.
my older sister and i always bake my niece’s and nephew’s brithday cakes together. every year, we try something new and it’s a great way to bond as sisters. i look forward to it every year. :)
My favorite memory is making ferdins with my grandma, she would cook them and I would dust them with powdered sugar, or roll them in cinnamon sugar . She only made them during Christmas. Our family loves them!
My favorite baking memory is making Valentine cookies with my son for his teachers during his first year in school – and being extremely pregnant with his little brother!
My mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and I get together each year for a day of baking Christmas cookies. My mother-in-law has so many old family recipes, and I thought I would introduce one of my own last year. When I was a little girl, we would go visit my great-grandma’s house and she always had a white and green cookie jar filled with frosted sugar cookies. Whenever I went to see her, I would open her lower cabinet, where she kept the jar…just so we little ones could reach…and take a cookie. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I made the dough and put it in the fridge. We also made some dough similar to basic tart dough for one of my mother in law’s recipes. Hers are like little pies…two flat round cookie dough pieces with jam in the middle, and sprinkled with sugar just before baking. We went to get a pan out of the oven and the cookies were at least 4 times the size they typically were. We could not figure out what happened. Upon tasting one, we realized we had accidentally used the sugar cookie dough! The cookies were delicious and I intend on making them again! A brand new family recipe was born!
My favorite baking memory is baking chocolate chip cookies with my mom and then licking the bowl clean from the leftover cookie batter!
My favorite baking memory is spending days baking holiday cookies with my mother and brothers. We watched holiday musicals, decorated sugar cookies, and “quality control” tested dozens of cookies.
My favorite holiday memory is when I bought my kids a gingerbread house for Michaels and we spent all Christmas morning assembling it !
Christmas candy baking with my grandma!
my favorite baking memory is making split seconds with my mom. they’re a shortbread style cookie with fruit filling and powdered sugar. they were always my favorite cookie growing up and i only ever ate the apricot ones. i’m 25 now and work as a bakery assistant and these are still the simplest, most delicious, most favorite cookie to make :)
I love baking cookies every year for our annual holiday cookie swap. a bunch of family members each bake 3 dozen then we get together and talk about the cookies we made its a great holiday memory
christmas baking, we’d make a bunch of stuff for the neighbors and it was such a great time to be together
My favorite baking memory is when my mom and my sister and I make hundreds of Christmas cookies to take to friends and family. When we got to that “I like a boy” stage, my sister and I would always make sure that his family’s plate of cookies had the best and fanciest looking cookies.
My favorite was coming home from school and having the house filled with the smell of the apple ring cake my mother had made.
I don’t really bake, but my grandmother did and my favorite memories are of helping her to make my favorite chocolate chip applesauce cookies. She’s been gone a long time but those cookies always remind me of her.
I used to pretend I was Martha Stewart while I was baking cookies. My favorite memory was of my little neighbor boy helping and he became Mini Martha. We made a lot of cookies that day.
My family loves to have bierox when we get together. It is a wonderful German entree. The nursing home ask me about them this week because it was requested by some of their residents.
My grandma used to bake strudel for (and occasionally with) me. Only now that I am an adult do I realize how hard it is to make a good strudel! How I wish she were still around so I could get a proper lesson and be able to make them myself like she did.
I used to “help” my grandma bake pies, and she would always roll out the extra crust and bake it with cinnamon sugar to give to my siblings and I – yum.
I remember baking with my sisters during the holiday season while my mom worked. We were the bakers in the family :)
I used to play cooking show host when I was a kid. I had completely perfected my Snickerdoodle performance
I guess I’ll have to move to the U.S! ;) Good luck to the rest of you guys though!
every year we bake Christmas cookies at my parent’s house–we use my Dad’s Mom’s recipes. my sister and her daughters are there and we all have a great time–sugar cookies, spritz, pecan puffs, icebox cookies–it’s a real tradition. this year I’m making cookie cookbooks which have all the recipes and photos from over the years along with a cute apron for all the nieces
my favorite baking memory is making “caque” ( a lemon yogurt cake) w/ my dad’s best friend’s parents every summer in spain! they grew all their own vegetables and cooked everything froms cratch! :) they even did all the measuring for baking with the yogurt cups…talk about rustic! we sitll make it that way to this day :)
My favorite baking memory is being in the kitchen with my 5 year old making decorated sugar cookies. Out of the blue, she turns to me and says, “Mommy, you make the best cookies ever! Your cookies are even better and prettier than the ones we buy from the store!” I love that. I love knowing that she is going to grow up with sweet memories of her and I baking together. :) Makes my heart warm.
One Christmas my brother was visiting with his 3-year-old son. I thought it would be fun to bake cookies with my little nephew and have a memory of making cookies with his Aunt Liz. I made the dough and rolled it out. I gave him a big teddy bear cookie cutter to use. He instead wanted to use the very tiny teddy bear cookie cutter. We cut up lots of tiny cookies!! It was taking quite a while to bake and they were almost too small to decorate so I ended up hiding half the dough when he wasn’t looking so we could get our project done!!! He didn’t seem to know the difference and we all enjoyed tiny teddy bear cookies. He is now grown with a little girl of his own and we both laugh about our cookie baking that day. :-)
My Grammy and I always used to make these pie crust things out of leftover pie crust. We would sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, and they would be a real treat! They were so good! (:
My husband and I have hosted an annual cookie party with our family and friends since we were dating. Everyone looks forward to the special get-together and spending time together just before the holiday rush.
I love making cookies with my daughter(3). It is a joy to see her face of determination when putting in the ingredients. just melts my heart!
My favorite baking memory is when my grandma taught me and all my girl cousins how to bake pies. Picture about 5 teenage girls in the kitchen with flour everywhere! Such a sweet memory for all of us. :)
I absolutely love family memories with baking, and it is so hard to pick just one! I’ve baked with my mom and my grandma and each time is great.
I’ll go with the most recent. I recently found out I had to go gluten free and I told my grandma that meant I’d no longer be able to eat her special brown bread (which is amazing!). My grandma said it wouldn’t be a problem and that she’d teach me how to make her bread with gluten free ingredients so that I’d always be able to have some.
My favorite parts were when I asked how much milk we add (enough so that the mixture gets wet) and how long to bake it for (when it’s done)!
She even wrapped me up some ‘picks’ so I can make sure I know when it’s done when I make it on my own. =-)
When my fiance and I first got together, both of us “bragged” about how good we were at baking pumpkin pie and apple pie (respectively). We had a “bake off” for our firs Thanksgiving. Needless to say, both pies were delicious and are now permanent fixtures in our Thanksgiving day spread.
Baking christmas cookies with my mom!
Two words: Christmas cookies. My mom goes CRAZY with the cookies every year, sometimes more than 40 or 50 varieties!! Our home was always pretty much covered in flour the entire month of December :) The holidays would not be the same without it!!
Every Sunday we would go to my great grandmother’s house for a family dinner. Every week she would teach me how to bake a different type of cookie. I gradually worked my way up from cookies to pie dough, bread and cakes! She passed away when I was 21 years old and I miss her every day and when I make her apple pie I feel her in my heart. XXOO Grammie!
My mom and I baking Christmas cookies together every year. It’s tradition!
Making late night lemon bars with mom, just because I said my co-workers looked like they could use a treat.
Baking lots of different kinds of cookies with my mom and sisters at christmas time :)
I never had enough patience to bake with my daughter when she was young but recently spent the day baking with her as an adult. It was a wonderful day. I plan on doing it again at Christmas and making it a tradition.
Some of my favorite memories in at the kitchen table with my Grandmother. She has a tradition of making homemade marzipan for Thanksgiving into all the different fruits and veggies. She was so happy when I started to take over the task as it is very sticky and time consuming. Grating the almond paste took a long time as it would stick in balls on the grater and clog the wholes. Then adding the fluff to the paste and powdered sugar, then mixing by hand! Your hands where covered so badly that it seems like you had a cast on all five fingers! Forget going to the bathroom at this point (note to always check that before starting this). Then rolling the marzipan into long snakes and waiting until the next day to shape them. We would be laughing the whole time etc… I love spending this time with my Grandmother. She is getting pretty up there now in age and I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to say goodbye to her. Love you Grammy!
My brother and I would bake Christmas cookies with our Mema. Our favorite cookie was the sugar cookie because we would always eat the dough before we could even roll it out and bake the cookies. Had to usually make multiple batches of dough before we would get enough for Christmas Eve.
I would bake with my mom. The first thing I learned how to make was chocolate chip cookies. When I moved out that was pretty much all I knew how to cook. Now that I am older I bake with my sister this time of year and we make a day of it, our kids also help and that makes it special too.
What a lovely family tradition! And I lovely giveaway.
One of my favorite memories isn’t exactly baking but sometimes cookies were involved but when I was in middle school I would always help my best friend and her mom when they made all their holiday candies.
Well, when I was very young my mom and I were bringing prepackaged cookie dough to my aunt’s to bake for Christmas. There was a ton of snow on the ground and I didn’t realize there was a hole in the bag I was carrying the dough in. We walked to the house and by the time we got there, no cookie dough left in the carry bag! We had to backtrack and sift through snow before we could bake. Now we bake all of our cookies from scratch! But it is a fun story and one of my favorite childhood memories!
I love baking with my mama. I love baking anything with her. But I’d have to say my favorite memory with her is baking biscotti. Though I do make it throughout the year, we usually get together and bake tons of it in the fall/winter to give away as gifts. We always find new things to put in it and always have so much fun!
I’ve just recently truly fallen in love with baking all kinds of treats but I do remember making rice krispy treats and chocolate chip cookies with my uncle. I cherish those memories because then we would bring some to my dad( he recently passed away ). I will continue to make those when my daughter is old enough to help me.
My favorite baking memory is baking sugar cookie angels with my kids when they were small. I let them decorate all on their own and we had some psychadelic angels that year!
Every holiday season, my mom and her sisters get together to have a baking day. The kitchen is a whirlwind of flour, powdered sugar, and chocolate. I remember those days as a child and now I continue the tradition with my family.
My Sweet Aunt Rine was a baking queen, she could do it all. I remember staying with her during the summers as a child and i had to sit in the kitchen with her cooking and settle down from chasing the boys down the dirt roads. One time she called me in to help her bake a weird shaped cake. The next day to my suprise we were baking the base of my barbie cake for my suprise party. My Aunt Rine was always full of suprises how I miss baking with her but hold every memory dear to me, she bought me so much joy and taught me sooooo much.
Making a huge mess with my best friend!
My favorite baking memory? Any time I’ve had an idea in my head of what something needs to look/taste like and I succeed. And of course, the memory of eating everything after ;)
My favorite baking memorie is baking Christmas cut-out cookies with my mom. She used a recipe that her mother used with her. She continues the tradition by baking cookies with all of the grandkids. It never fails that when the little ones get tired, that the kids have to finish up the baking and decorating. Fun, fun times!
My favorite baking memories defiinitely involve holiday baking with my kids – the house is decorated, Christmas music is playing and we are all in the kitchen surrounded by yummy smells, usually working on cookies – can’t wait to do it again this year!
Christmas cookies with my Mom and sister – miss that.
Baking Carrot Cake with my mommy for thanksgiving. We always have a great time and get to eat lots of yummy cream cheese frosting. It is no my favorite cake and favorite holiday :)
My favorite memory was when i was little and baking cookies every Christmas with my mom. It was always so much fun watching her and learning something new each year. I wouldn’t even be able to explain to her how much those memories mean to me.
I would have to say my favorite baking memory to be when I made my complete first Thanksgiving. Yes, I did some cooking, but I baked my first turkey, and baked alllllll the pies! My dad loves a traditional pumpkin pie, and I like to jazz things up. So I made a toffee and walnut pumpkin pie. He loved it! And now I get asked to make that one instead of the plain version.
Our family baking tradition is choc chip oatmeal cookies and heavenly hash… …expected as Christmas gifts too!! It’s really sweet that everyone looks forward to them so me and my twin keep it going!!!
My mom is a wonderful baker. She always had my sister and I right beside her in the kitchen. We of course complained and whined as we would have rather watched television or go play. My mom would say other people are always asking me to teach them and here you two are complaining about the most important thing you will ever do in your lives daily. We would end up spending countless weekends in the kitchen. No matter how quickly we got something done my mom would always say, “well since the oven is already on let’s make this now…blah blah blah” It wasn’t until I got married, moved out of the state and starting cooking and baking that I realized just what a great cook and baker I had become; but truly how much I missed the weekends baking with my mother and sister. Looking back we had great conversations, happy moments, so much love and sometimes fought about something silly but in the end the food was amazing and the bonding was priceless.
I made pumkin cupcakes for my family. well tried to make! I undercooked them and kept adding and adding ingredents, I was making up the recipe as i went and they ending up tasting like muffins but they turned out yummy at least! My favorite baking tradition is making nasty sugar cookies just for the fun of decorating them for santa ;) and baking them together. I have always wanted a kitchen aid!!!!!
My favorite baking memories are making assorted cookie boxes for neighbors at Christmastime. My husband and five kids spend 3 or 4 days baking hundreds of cookies and packing them in beautiful boxes for our dear friends and neighbors.
My grandmother baked and sold cakes so my fondest memories of her before cancer took her, is baking her famous chocolate cake :)
My aunt who raised me until I was 18 loves cooking and we got to spend time in the kitchen making appetizers for profit. Now I am starting to bake with my daughter and planning to make it a tradition.
My grandmother started to teach me how to bake with I was about 8 or 9. She gave me a notebook for all of my receipes and when I would come to visit her she would teach me new receipes that I would write down in my notebook. I still have that notebook and the delicious receipes she loved to make.
Making fudge with my mom around Christmas time. My siblings and I would dig in while it was still warm. Yumm.
The first time I made ganache for a chocolate cake. It was perfectly wonderful and rich. I could’ve eaten the whole bowl and skipped the cake part! :P
The first time i tried to make macarons they didn’t work out at all. The almonds were not ground enough and they were a disaster.. I got really frustrated and there may have been batter on my kitchen cabinets.. lol. Beautiful mixer! Love to win it!
Before I retired, I baked cakes, pies, cookies and other treats for my colleagues to enjoy at work. Many of them have told me since I left that they miss me and miss having a delicious surprise from me every week.
By far sitting on my grandmother’s kitchen counter helping with sorry cookies and anything else she was making!
My favorite baking memory is making birthday cakes for my kids. We sit down and page thru the cookbooks, they pick out the cake they want, and then we make it together. I don’t know which part I enjoy more: making the cake or watching them enjoy eating it.
My mom (resting in peace these past two years) would always use the pie dough scraps to make cinnamon sugar treats–she’d spread butter on the scraps, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, roll them up, then bake them for a few minutes on a small sheet on rack below the baking pie(s). I’ve continued this tradition with my own little family, and my husband and son hover around waiting for their little scraps of sweetness, just like I did when my mom would bake.
Thank you for helping me to relive such a special memory.
I remember my Mamaw teaching my sister and I how to make cake mix chocolate chip cookies. It was my first dish I was allowed to bake completely solo. The feeling of accomplishment was incredible–and I didn’t burn a single cookie or myself! From that point forward, it became my job when we visited Mamaw and JHeard to bake the weekly cookies. Since they’ve both passed away, I still bake those cookies sometimes, just so my house will smell like theirs. :)
One of my happiest baking memories is baking gingerbread with my kids when they were little and turning it into a candy-coated gingerbread house. We all had a blast and proudly displayed the house for weeks (only a few pieces went missing during the display time!).
When I was younger, I used to have one on one time with my grandparents for 3 days in a row each year. Just me and my grandparents, no sisters or brothers or parents to get in the way. My grandma would let me pick any dessert I wanted and we would bake it together. I grew to love baking because of this. Thankfully my grandma is still around and I can call with questions while I’m baking, But even when she is no longer alive, I know I will always have the memories (and recipes) from baking with grandma.
learning to make Greek Christmas Cookies with my grandma.
My favorite memory is when I was 16 (30 years ago). I had learned to make cream puffs in my cooking class at high school. I baked them for weeks after. I still love cream puffs to this day. Thank you, Mrs. Baken (really is her name), for teaching me how to bake! Now I bake anything and everything I can.
Mine is baking our sugar cookie Christmas tree with my kids every Christmas. They use the star cookie cutter and put different shades of green icing on the stars. Then they stack them up in the shape of a tree and decorate it with all sorts of gummies and sprinkles and stuff. They look forward to it every year and it makes my heart smile!
One of my favorite baking memories: we used to make cookies every Christmas with my mom – my mom worked very hard to raise us, whatever she had to do to put food on the table, so there wasn’t a lot of time for “fun”. This tradition was the only time of year we really got to sit down and “craft” with her. We would make all different kinds of cookies: sugar, homemade Oreos, peanut clusters, shortbread. We would drop plates off to neighbors in need of cheer anonymously & then we also got to pick out a very special cookie for Santa.
I still request these cookies every year from my mom, she hates it since we’re not there to help but I LOVE it because it brings back so many good memories :)
When my sister and I were teenagers, we loved to try our hand at baking. I remember my sister once misread the amount of water to add to a boxed cake mix. She added 3 cups instead of one and 1/3 cups of water. Our Mama saved the day by telling us how to correct the mistake. That was over thirty-five years ago. We both love to cook and bake now.
Debra
I remember when my parents finally left me all alone at college. I didn’t know a single soul in Idaho. So, to ease my pain, I made a batch of chocolate chips cookies. I called my parents and just cried. I told my father, “This isn’t working.” He thought I meant the cookies weren’t baking right because of the altitude (I’m from Indiana). He proceeded to try and help me remedy the recipe when I heard my mother say to my father on the phone, “She’s not saying the cookies aren’t baking right; she’s upset because they are making her feel better.” I’ll never forget that batch of flat, tear-salted batch of chocoloate chip cookies.
One of my favorite memories was helping a single mom out by babysitting her 3 kids while she went Christmas shopping, We made Christmas cookies to surprise her when she got home; the kids were 5, 3 and toddling, and we made quite a mess. This turned out to be an annual tradition and now that they’re teens, they still look forward to our annual cooking baking party. Now we donate the cookies to senior citizens.
My memory involves pecan pies too. My grandfather’s favorite dessert was pecan pie. I used to cook dinner every Wednesday night along with two pecan pies. One for dessert and one for him to take to his assisted living facility. I did this for years until his alzheimers progressed too much for him to travel. We have some great memories of Wednesday evenings with my grandfather!
One of my favorite memories of baking is when I was a little girl and Thanksgiving would come around. I knew my mom would start preparing for a feast for us to enjoy. Along with the feast came desserts to have after. She made everything from fudge, popcorns balls, to divinity. I try to carry on this tradition eash year now that I have a family. My kids now look forward to to Thanksgiving every year.
I love baking with my family. It always seems so more fun. My cousins and I would all get together and bake cupcakes, brownies, cookies. I think each and every time we bake is a favorite baking memory of mine.
PS: I am SO excited for the holidays, too! : )
My favorite baking memory is making sour cream sugar cookies and thumb print cookies with my grandma. We use the same recipe that has been passed down from 5 generations. They are amazing and bring back lots of memories everytime I make them.
One summer my sister and brother and I were craving cookie dough, but we knew my mom wouldn’t want us making the dough just to eat it. We decided to go ahead and make it and eat our evidence so she wouldn’t know (she was at work), but about two spoonfuls in, my sister and I realized our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. It was therefore up to my brother to finish it all – he was miserable!
Baking and decorating my kids birthday cakes each year. They are always involved in the whole process and get so excited when it’s all done.
My favorite baking memory is of my mother making holiday cookies every year to give out to various family members and friends. She always made enough to feed an entire town. We had frozen leftover cookies for months!
Homemade yeast rolls are my “assignment” during the holidays. The family gatherings aren’t quite the same when we don’t have homemade rolls!
My favorite baking memory is with my mom and sisters during Christmas making and decorating sugar cookies to give to friends and teachers.
Every Christmas we baked cookies with my mom and then decorated them with my dad….a tradition that has continued with my own children.
My almost 4 year old daughter, Tabitha is my little chef helper and we have never bonded more than we are now cooking together. We both very much enjoy it.
My favorite baking memory is making cookies and cakes with my oldest nephew when he was a toddler. Due to family issues we’re not able to see him anymore, so I have to hold on to those memories I have of him since I can’t make any new ones.
All my baking memories have been great! Love getting a little messy in the kitchen. This season I will be making new memories with my son! :)
Growing up, my mom always made these special Santa cookies around Christmas. My grandmother designed them with these special cookie cutters that have since been discontinued- but not before he bought some for my sisters and I. We would put the cookies together in an assembly line- once they were baked, they needed their noses and cheeks rosied (with diluted red food coloring), eyes painted on, and hats frosted. Then, once the hats were dry, my mom would swoop in and make the most perfect beards (and white hat fluff) from royal icing. The kicker was homemade stardust sprinkled over the frosting. The finished products were stunning, always worth the work even if we all whined a little along the way. We gave them to everyone in lieu of Christmas cards. My mom passed away several years ago, but making those cookies always brings back fond memories. It’s just not Christmas without them :-)
One of my favorite baking memories is learning how to make Christmas cookies with my Mom (sugar cookies, decorated with homemade frosting & every topping imaginable!), then passing it on with my son when he was little. I love to bake – cakes, breads, pies, and, of course, cookies! : )
my grandma passed when i was 7 and throughout the years i have i have collected a lot of my grandmother’s baking tools from family. Every time i use them i feel like shes cooking with me, especially when its her perfect pancake recipe; then i feel like i’m right in her kitchen again : )
My favorite memory is baking with my mom, who has since passed away from breat cancer (15 years without her this past August), we were making pie down (must stay cold!) with her kitchenaid that she was gifted as a wedding present from my parents wedding — my dad still has it, offwhite and heavy as ever!
Making Christmas cake with my mum as kids. Everyone has to take a turn mixing, and when it’s your turn to mix you have to make a wish!
My favorite baking memory (so far) would be learning how to make bread from my grandmother. Her bread is THE bomb and every time I smell homemade bread I am transported back to her kitchen and all the yummy memories of my childhood. She still bakes today at the age of 73 and she inspires me.
Silly as it is, Homemade Chex party mix. The old fashioned one, not one of the bizarre mixups they have going on. My mom made it one year and I liked it so much that I decided to take on the task the next year. So every year for thanksgiving and Christmas, I make it for my family and all the gatherings. I like hot sauce in mine, but the kids get the mild versions. It’s so amazing homemade!
I love making Biscochitos with my family for the holidays!
I love to bake with my nephews! They are always so proud of what we make together!!
Making sugar cookies with my mom as a kid! I went into my teens making those cookies every holiday regardless of whether my mom made them with me or not haha
I have so many great baking memories, mostly with my mother at Christmas. We would spend weeks baking all sorts of things to give to friends and neighbors. Now that I’m gorwn and moved out of state, I get really excited for Christmas, getting to travel home and pack in as much baking into the 2-3 days I’m home as possible :)
I remember always baking the day after thanksgiving and that whole weekend with my mom. We made goodie baskets for neighbors, friends and family.
I don’t have a specific baking memory, but I remember that my mom always let us help bake. It didn’t matter if we made a huge mess, slowed things down, or created chaos, she always let us stir, mix, scoop (and most importantly- lick the bowl). It’s why I’m as obsessed with baking as I am today.
My favourite baking moments are making sugar cookies with my niece and nephew.
One of my favorite baking memories is experimenting with my own recipe, that I was creating from scratch, until everything was just how I wanted it. And then seeing that recipe go on to win first place at my local fair!
My favorite baking memories are baking cut out Christmas cookies as a child with my mom, grandmother and aunts and then later with my sons, sisters,brothers,nieces and nephews
Two years ago all of my friends went in together and bought me a beautiful red KitchenAid Mixer for my birthday. I was so overwhelmed at their love and generosity! Every time I use I think of how unworthy and blessed I am!
My favorite thing is baking with my kids. They are 11 and 14 and have been baking with me since they could stand on a chair and “help.” At first it was hard to let them take over because I love baking so much, but now I enjoy watching them do something from start to finish. I feel good knowing that they will go off and be able to bake for themselves and the people they love. My kids have never had a store-bought birthday cake or taken packaged cookies to school for a party. Their friends love our stuff and that makes me glad.
My favorite baking memories also involves the holidays and family time. Every year my dad and I make homemade rolls for Thanksgiving. And every year we try a new recipe. 2 years ago we decided that instead of a new recipe we were going to use our favorite form years past and just design them differently. We made little turkeys our of the dough, using raisins for the eyes and almonds for the beaks! It ended up being overly time consuming and we were almost late to dinner but we such a blast attempting to fashion the perfect little bread bird. It was definitely that rush to get them all done.
My favorite baking memory is my mom always having a themed birthday cake for me as a child- her best was probably an under-the-sea cake
When I was little, I remember baking with my Grandma! We would play lots of Frank Sinatra, and wear aprons that ended up covered in flour! I’ve been in love with baking (and jazz) ever since – I’m studying to open my own bakery, in fact! It’s in the works right now, and I’m the happiest when I see/hear the reaction of someone who has tried one of my baked goods! But my favorite part is tasting it while I make it… mmm! :)
I remember the time I decided to make a cake for my mom’s birthday when I was probably 12 or 13. I had been at a friend’s house baking and she had used crisco to grease the baking pan. I had always used Pam, so when I went home to make my mom’s cake I saw we had Crisco, so I thought I would use it instead. I pulled it out and it was clear (and smelled different)…and I remembered my friend’s being white. I didn’t think much of it and proceeded to grease up the pan and bake the cake. When we ate it later that night it tasted….off. I told my mom about the Crisco and she burst out laughing. Apparently it had been in our pantry for a long time and was way beyond it’s expiration date!
My favorite baking memories are always with my two young daughters.When my daughter was three, she would pass me the ingredients. On one occasion, I was using Twix in a recipe. My daughter asked if I needed both pieces but I only needed one. She handed me “one twick” I smiled as she thought of Twix being plural for twick :)
When I was younger, my mom and I used to watch Natalie Dupree on PBS. She ALWAYS ended up with flour on her face somehow. So whenever mom and I would start baking, we would first get some flour and put a smear on our faces as our way of saying “We’re baking now!”
When my sisters and I were little, at Christmas Mama would mix up a huge batch of sugar cookie dough and roll it out for us to cut out shapes. It was the only time Daddy ever got involved in baking/cooking stuff back then. He’d always cut out a Santa WITHOUT a cookie cutter. He’d just cut it out with a knife and piece parts together to form a Santa figure. We thought that was AMAZING. Then we’d decorate the baked cookies any way we wanted. Looking back at the pictures, it was a terrible looking Santa cookie but I wouldn’t trade the memory of him sitting with us and cutting it out for all the perfectly shaped cookies in the world. :)
I remember baking cakes with my neighbors. We were about 10 years old. I know… i know… different times. Then we would celebrate our dolls’ birthdays. We would decorate the tables, etc. but definitely the baking was the best part.
Christmas of ’98…. bonding with my stepmom while glazing and sprinkling her Italian Chocolate Cookies….at 2am…..with sprinkles bouncing all over the table and floor. One of the most fun and special nights of my adult life.
Like many families, we baked a ton of cookies at christmas to give away as gifts to neighbors, etc. one year after baking over 1,000 sugar cookies, we went to dinner and came back to find that our dog had eaten over 50 of them….miraculously she didn’t get sick and we still had enough to decorate!
My baking memories is right when October-December comes I start baking up a storm for families and friends. My kids are my biggest helpers…Luv the holidays!
Favorite baking memory would have to be teaching my nieces how to make brownies from scratch.
They had so much fun measuring and mixing!
Love baking at Christmas with my daughter, and fixing up baskets to give as gifts.
The best has to be baking with my Granny who is no longer with us. Everytime I see or smell or taste a Texas sheet cake, my thoughts immediately go to her!
Baking cake pops christmas morning :’)
My favorite baking memory is every year when I was still in grade school my family would take a Saturday to make candy balls. We had no other name for them but they were wonderful. My grandmother would come over and my mom and I would help her make tons of them. My mom would mix up the dough and chill it. I would be in charge of rolling the dough into balls and sticking the toothpicks in. My grandmother is always in charge of making the chocolate candy coating. There’s such a nack to getting the right consistency of chocolate and wax. She’s the only one that can do it. We had an assembly line going. My mother would hand her a ball (with a toothpick in) and she would dip then set it off on another tray. I would take out the toothpick and put it in an uncoated ball. I’d dare say it makes 150 to 200 balls each time. I still can’t remember what goes into the dough except for the coconut. And I always requested at least 50 balls without the pecans. It would take us an entire afternoon to make them but it was time well spent. And usually my mom would make goodies that morning so we had at least 5 different ones to munch on through the holidays. Fudge, turtle brownies, chesscake squares, white trash, haystacks, sugar cookies and candy balls… Mmmm… delicious memories. I make most of these on my own now but I’ll never make candy balls without my family.
My mom was never really a big baker but her mom, my late grandmother, loved it. It was a joy that she passed on to me, even though our time was cut so short. One of my earliest and favorite memories with her involved baking. We made homemade chocolate chip cookies. Not for any special reason, just because. She let me hold the mixer with her and once the cookies were done, she held me up so I could see them cooling. I still think of her every time I see a Nestle Tollhouse bag of chocolate chips. I miss her so much but I am so grateful that she instilled a love of baking in me, something that I can still do and think of her.
Baking cookies–dozens and dozens of cookies–with my stepmother at Christmastime is definitely my favorite baking memory. The smells, the sights, the feeling of responsibility and trust I got from getting to be her assistant–priceless!
My favorite baking memory is from a few years back when my kids were finally old enough to start baking and decorating Christmas cookies. We have since evolved to other goodies as well, but I absolutely love baking with them and trying new things with them.
Best memories I have are my Mom and I baking. She didn’t cook much but she loved to bake. I love to bake with my kids as much as possible. :))
Baking with my grandmother when I was a kid-she is the reason that I can make a delicious cake and have a too-large collection of cookbooks. :)
I love to spend my Thanksgiving day baking and listening to an audiobook. My favorite books to bake to? They are Maeve Binchy’s Tara Road, Maeve Binchy’s Scarlet Feather, and Kate Jacobs’ Comfort Food. All three are great combos of Food Lit and Chick Lit. Indulging in those guilty pleasures keeps me from sampling the food too much. My Thanksgiving stand-bys are Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Tart and a Pear Tart along with the ubiquitous Pumpkin Pie and my momma’s Devil’s Food Cake with Whipped Cream Icing.
Hi Bakerella!
My Sweet Baking memorie was and still baking with my mom for the Holidays we would make the Moroccan traditional bagels sort of and share with neigbours… you made me remind of it, I Will probably make some and post it on my blog!!!
good luck everyone…
My favorite baking memory is only a few years old, when I really discovered my true love of being in the kitchen! I was making cupcakes for the Halloween party at work the next day, just me, myself and I in the kitchen, listening to music and mixing and eating batter and all that good stuff. All of a sudden, it hit me — this, this is what makes me happy! And I’ve never looked back. :)
Anytime I get a chance to bake with my Mom is a lot of fun, but specific memory was helping my Grandma bake her infamously buttery chocolate chip cookies when I was in elementary school. After they came out of the oven, we were allowed to have just one, along with a warm cup of soda. She was Irish, so she kept her soda in the cupboard. She passed away 10 years ago and none of us were smart enough or maybe brave enough to ask her for that recipe. Every time I bake chocolate chip cookies, I try my best to reach that buttery yummyness without them being too greasy and I am never successful.
My favorite memory is making fudge one year with my friend, and not boiling the condensed milk long enough, and we couldn’t figure out why we had delicious chocolate soup.
spending days and days making cookies for EVERYONE with my mother to give as Christmas presents.
My favorite baking memory was an early baking attempt with my younger sister. She and I were making chocolate peanut butter chip cookies from a recipe I found in a magazine. We didn’t have (or didn’t realize we needed) a cooling rack and piled the hot cookies on a plate as they came out of the oven. Needless to say, we ended up with a fused cookie mound! It was still yummy and is a story that still makes us laugh today.
One year i spent thanksgiving with my best friend & her family. We got put in charge of pies… Pumpkin, lemon, & pecan. Her daughter, who was only about 3 at the time bugged us all day about pumpkin pie. In all the chaos we forgot the sugar. When it got time for pie, the little girl had to have the first peice of pumpkin. We knew something was wrong with it because after one bite, she dropped her fork, pushed the plate away and asked if she could have “leon pie” instead. She’s 16 now, and we still tease her about leon pie every year. Apparently lemon & pecan pie together is much better than pumpkin with no sugar. ;)
I don’t have any real special childhood baking memories. I remember watching my mom cook but not actually helping. She wasn’t into helpers. So I tried to let my kids cook with me. Sadly, only one of my children really enjoyed helping and I remember him making “onion rings”. He asked me once if he could make onion rings but what he really wanted was to caramelize onions for his hamburger.. We did and they were wonderful. :)
I made these “galaxy cookies” from an old betty crocker cookbook with my mom and aunt….they were colorful in the cookbook so i always wanted to make them…they finally decided to bake them with the kids. good times!
My favorite baking memory is making the cakes for my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration. Chocolate raspberry for my Dad and Italian Cream for my Mom. They were so appreciative.
I remember learning to bake Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies. She makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. I tried many times to bake them off of her exact recipe, but I’m convinced she has a secret ingredient, because mine never turn out as good as hers do! Last time I was at her house, I brought my mixer and we made cookies side by side (her in her mixer, and me in my mixer), so I could see if she sneaked in the secret ingredient. No secret ingredient, but hers still turned out better! I think it’s the mere fact that Grandma’s make the best cookies :)
My favorite memory in the kitchen is my mom helping me make her mom’s recipes.
I sadly lost my grandmother at the age of 4, but learning her recipes for chocolate cake roll (now the annual Yule log at Christmas) lemon meringue pie, and sugar cookies.
My five year old cousin and my aunt helped us make sugar cookies every Christmas, and she likes the ‘bright frosting and tons of sprinkles!’ It makes me feel like grandma is still helping us learn and share tradition and love.
The year my family had Christmas at our house and my mom and I baked all of the Christmas cookies together. Dozens and dozens and lots of varieties. It was so wonderful.
It is difficult to choose one favorite baking memory. Most of my best memories included some kitchen work. Baking cookies with the kids, baking bread with a teenage cousin, baking hundreds of cupcakes for parties with friends. I find that working in the kitchen is a great way to get folks to open up and share.
It would have to be when my oldest daughter came in the kitchen and asked if she could help! I had waited a long time for that.
I grew up baking in the kitchen with my grandmother. I have more memories at her house than my own home. She used to sit me up on the kitchen counter to help her stir or add flour until I graduated to standing on a step stool next to her. To this day, baking in the kitchen reminds me that she’s always with me.
Hands down, it is baking pies with my grandma. She always had a tiny bit of leftover dough for me to play with. i would roll it out and cut out little shapes, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, and she would bake them.
baking pies with my dad… many have claimed you can’t bake a great crust with oil, but try telling that to my grandmother, and everyone in my family for that matter!
fondest….ooops!
When I was little and my mom did some baking my brother and I always helped her. We got our own little baking stuff like a mini rolling pin, mini cake pans and stuff. so my mom made a big cake and we kids had our own mini cakes. Oh and there is christmas baking w/ like a gazillion different types of gingerbread/cookies/… and the “Stollen” ? (the dough was kneaded in my old baby bath tub!!!)
My dad was seldom home for Christmas because he was working overseas. When he’s able to come home for the Holidays, I would make Food For The Gods. There was a time that he would request for an additional ingredient to put in the batter. He was going Okonomiyaki style on his Food For The Gods. He’s not exactly known to us as having the best taste buds in the world, but he gets to have his own twist on the recipe. Now that he’s no longer with us, I’d still continue on with the tradition
Hi Bakerella!
My foundest baking memory would have to be learning to bake Italian Rainbow cookies with my Mom. They are delicious tri-colored almond flovared cookies with apricot and raspberry filling.
We have since perfected our recipe over the years and make them for friends and neighbors every christmas :)
Making Christmas candy with my sisters and mom when I was little.
I love baking sugar cookies and decorating them with my kids. I bake the cookies in advance and then not only my kids but any neighborhood kids and cousins come over and we have a great time. The candies on the cookies usually end up being thicker than the cookies. It is such fun!
I’m so scared of my Mom-Mom passing before I know her recipes. Over the past 2 years, she and I have been cooking and baking our way through our family favorite ‘Mom-Mom’ recipes and I’ve been scrapbooking them for a family recipe book. I treasure this time with her and I treasure my recipe book!
My fondest baking memory is really one I created myself. I started baking apple pies in college and just really enjoyed the process and the wonderful smells. Now apple pie reminds me of college and fall football weekends with friends and family.
Anything that first came out of my EZ Bake Oven. I did it myself and my Dad just loved everything I made for him. Now my son cooks in one – and man that stuff is horrible!! I tell him it’s the best I’ve ever had. ;)
Every year for as long as I can remember, my mom and I would make Indian Pudding. It is by far my fathers favorite dessert and pretty much eats it all him self. I can’t deny how delicious it always turns out to be, especially with a dollap of french vanilla ice cream. YUM!
My favorite baking memory is holiday baking with my mother, grandmother and my 2 sisters. Every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas we were always the dessert family. So my mother and grandmother made homemade chocolate pies (the real chocolate pies not pudding) and pecan pies. My grandmother is no longer with us, but we still gather together and make all those pies together! Even my kids join in on the fun!
When I was little, my grandmother let me make pies with her. She showed me how to cut the crust into stips and weave it together on top. We would take them to the Senior Citizens Center and they went on & on about how great my pies were. I am sure they tasted like most but they sure did make me feel special. As an adult, I admire my grandmothers patience with me while I learned!
My favorite baking memories are all with my mom. We always collaborate on which parts we like. She likes baking the cookies and prefers me to make the dough, which I find the best part so it works out! And if we make a cake, she bakes it and I frost it and it just always makes sense.
My favorite memory is making candy cane cookies each year at Christmas with my mom, sister, and even my Dad. It was a tradition my Mom passed down from her Mom, and my sister has now passed on to her girls, and I hope to actually pass it along to my son. They are time consuming cookies, but even if things are insane during the holidays (my son was in the hospital last year), I still have to make them. It’s not Christmas without the candy cane cookies!
Every year my aunt and I set aside a Saturday in December and bake up a storm. We have three cookie recipes we make each year and then we each bring two or three new recipes to try. It is so much fun, and now that my daughter is old enough, she helps us too!
Baking lemon meringue pie with my grandma Betty Ann. She taught me how to make the perfect meringue!
My favorite baking memories started back in elementary school. My best friends mom would make a big batch of cookie dough as well as gingerbread men. We made it a yearly tradition and we would get together to make cookies and decorate our gingerbread men. This started when we were around 7 and it continued until we were 21. I then started the tradition with my own daughter.
I remember baking with my grandmother. She didn’t have recipes. She just knew exactly what was needed. I can’t even remember her using measuring spoons or cups. It smelled incredible and tasted amazing. I wish now that I had written down her recipes as no one can reproduce them. Mike.
My daughter saw a magazine photo of a cake in the shape of a bird house, complete with thatch icing roof, vines and flowers growing on it and a marzipan bluebird perched by the doorway, and said “THAT’S what I want for my birthday cake!” I am not a very accomplished baker, but there is nothing I wouldn’t do for that little girl, so I said “Sure, no problem!” and you know what? I DID IT. I look at those photos with such pride because I will always remember the smile on her face when she saw that cake.
My mom used to make gingerbread men a few days before Christmas and I remember the amazing smell and anticpating eating their little heads off :)
My favorite baking memory is standing in the warm cozy kitchen on a cold Wintery day baking homemade cookies with my mom for Santa Claus. She’d make sure I wouldn’t add too much chocolate chips or over-beat the batter. When it was time for “quality control,” she made sure I saved some for Santa. Ah, nostalgia~
Cookie baking sessions with my mom and my sister. We haven’t done it often enough to be a tradition yet, but it’s fun to get together and bake up a storm.
My favorite baking memory is actually in the making. Ever since my daughter was born I dreamed of the days I would show her how to bake and let her help me. Now that she is 4 its on! She has her own apron and bakers hat. Whenever we bake she will scoot a chair across the kitchen and is as eager to learn and help as I am to teach. I cannot wait for this heat wave to be over so we can get out bake on! For now, its the easy bake oven. Which is just as precious. <3
My favorite baking tradition is at Daddy’s house Christmas Eve when my sisters and I, and now our husbands, nieces and nephews have a gingerbread decorating contest! It’s so nice to be home for the holidays!
every time we have company over I like to whip up some kind of baked goodie. Just being able to make others happy with something from the oven is always a good memory.
Baking cookies with my mom for a boy scout bake sale for my brother’s troop. It was the first time I got to measure and stir things by myself!
my favorite baking memory was not too long ago. I made treats for the nurses at the hospital a couple of days before I went into labor. That was such a special time knowing that in a couple of days I would be meeting the love of my life.
My favorite baking memory is one that has just happened recently. My oldest daughter is now big enough to help me start baking in the kitchen. She loves to help dump all the ingredients in the bowl and mix them together and then help taste test them. Those are precious memories that I can share with her for the rest of her life. :)
My favorite baking memory was making Christmas cookies – my mom always made spritz cookies and my brother and I got to dip them in the icing and sprinkles! My other was helping her make choc chip cookies – she kept adding flour to make a really stiff dough, and when they first came out of the oven, they were soft – the next day they were so hard we had to dunk them in our milk!!!!
I don’t think I’ve had a favorite baking memory yet. I am self taught, but I look forward to the memories I will create with my two lovely boys.
I would have to say that my favorite baking moment could also be a sad one. When I woul dbake cookies, and my boyfriend was on the road (worked as a truck driver).. I would tell him in spanish that I was making “galletas” and he would ask if I was going to give him a “galleta” which in spanish also means a “slap”.. we always laughed about it and I always saved him some of my cookies/galletas. But this past December (2011), he had a motorcycle accident and passed away on December 26th. I miss our funny talks about my cookies so much and how enjoyed everything I would bake. He had quite the sweet tooth. I pray he has a personal angel in heaven making him some yummy “galletas”. When I make cookies, I think of you my… Super Rafa. Christmases will never be the same…
making christmas puddings with my gran in a huge metal bucket because we needed to make eight at once. it was a mission and making them in advance means they taste better the next year!
Baking with my little girls. They are 6 and 4 years old. They love to help measure and stir. Then lick the bowl of course. Some of my favorite memories are made in the kitchen with them.
Anytime that I bake with my sister, we make memories. The one that sticks out to me the most is when we made a double batch of gingerbread cookies, but we made a mistake and added rice flour instead of all purpose flour! We had the cookies all decorated and perfect.. Until we took our first bite. The cookies were so crumbly and dry. Needless to say, those cookies ended up in the trashcan.
My favorite baking memory is baking Valentine cookies with my daughter.
My favorite memory is baking cakes with 2 friends in a college kitchen. We were using 2 ovens on opposite sides of the dorm. All of a sudden we realized that something was burning in the oven across the dorm. When we went over, we found that our cake batter had somehow overflowed out of the tray and was all over the oven ground. Needless to say it was quite a clean up and we had to start over.
I have to say my favorite time was when I finally received my grandmother’s homemade candy recipes. The first year nothing turned out right, so the second year I was able to get to bake with my grandma and I learned all sorts of stuff from her, that I will never forget. I cherish that time with my grandma to this day and that was 10 years ago.
I used to love making cookie gun butter cookies with my mom around the holidays!
Baking pb blossoms with my younger brother….we are more kisses than there were cookies, so we had plain pb and kiss cookies :)
Was last Christmas, baking cookies & making candy with my kiddos :)
My favorite memory is making Christmas goodies with my mom and two sisters! Each year we would make so many wonderful treats to share with family. It is such a special time of year for family time!