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 memories are of my sweet “Grammy”… She’s always been so patient and so excited to teach and share with me, all of the things her mom taught her… ;) From her award winning bread recipe to her favorite dishes of the family’s, I have cherished and learned to perfect and enjoy each shared recipe… <3
I baked this cake for the LOST series finale, and decorated it to be an island. It was just SO much fun to do and everyone at the party we attended loved it!
One of my favorite memories is baking sugar cookies with my two small boys. They loved decorating them with icing, egg yolk wash, sprinkles, etc. We made them for every holiday. My boys are both grown now, but I enjoy baking with my grandchildren.
I remember baking Christmas cookies every year with my mother and all five of my sisters. I continue to bake as many every year as I can, involving as many of my sons and nieces and nephews as are available!
Christmas cookies is a favorite baking memory of mine. Mom would make so many varieties. And we’d even get to help with things like cutout cookies. And then we’d hit the neighborhood cookie swap, and get even more scrumptious treats to eat!
For years my brother and I would go over to my grandparent’s in December to make sugar cookies. The batter was delicious, and I imagine it would have made fantastic cookies if we didn’t do experiments that neither of us truly wanted to eat, like making “hot pockets” filled to bursting with red hots. It was one of the most memorable parts of the holiday and was always so fun!
I make cakes and cupcakes for people, and my little girl started at 3yrs old bringing her toy mixer and pots and pans n2 my kitchen to bake w moma! She has to have a little of every ingredient that moma uses. Now her baby sister (2yrs) has started dragging up a chair. I’m assuming baby #3 that’s on the way will be baking with us before long! :)
I think my favorite baking memory was with my children. They loved to be in the kitchen with me. I see them all grown up now and how they know how to make cookies and love to give them away like I did. My daughter knows how to make a batch of Chocolate Chip cookies by memory. She can whip up brownies with no problem. I am so proud.
My favorite memories are of baking with my children. It was something fun, easy and delicious that we could do together no matter what the time of year, and because of it, one of my children is now studying to become a pastry chef!
Christmas cookie baking with my mom, aunt, grandma and younger cousins. Since I was the oldest, I was “trusted” and would be able to measure or bake more on my own and not just the egg cracker or spoon holder like the rest of them.
Definitely baking Christmas cookies with my grandmother and mom. I love carrying on the tradition with my girls. I also love that our Christmas cookies aren’t like everyone else’s. It’s a delicious recipe that is just different enough to be original and everyone loves it.
My favorite memory is baking cheesecake for family members as a child.
I have been baking the cookies at Christmas time for my family since I was about 15. Then with my daughter for the last 31 years and now her and the newest… my grandson Tadpole. We have a shelf elf and that is a lot of fun as he happens to always eat some *lots* of our cookies while no one is looking. Ha!
My favorite memory was baking jello cutout cookies with my grandmother in northern NH. The flour was always kept in a “flour drawer” and being big enough to measure it out and sift it while sitting on a stool was the best memory I have….baking years lately it is still one of the best since it was so early in life!
My favorite baking memory (and I certainly have a lot-with a whole family of bakers), is our yearly gathering to make our Holiday cookies. My parents have 5 girls, so you can imagine how full the kitchen can get with the seven of us… but add to that some spouses and children… and sometimes even cousins and aunts! Each of us adults choose a few favorite recipes to bake. And for the kids, they roll out and cut sugar cookies. When the cookies are being baked, the kids get to make a gingerbread house! After the houses, they decorate the sugar cookies. It’s always so much fun and such a memorable family tradition that we all treasure so much!
Every Christmas my mom and I get together and bake cut-out sugar cookies. I would say close to 100 dozen. We give them as gifts and take them to all our family get togethers. It’s a tradition and one that I would love to continue with my girls.
Every Christmas my mom and I get together and bake cut-out sugar cookies. I would say close to 100 dozen. We give them as gifts and take them to all our family get togethers. It’s a tradition and one that I would love to continue with my girls.
Making cutout sugar cookies with my Mom and my Daughter. Then icing them, then eating them. YUMMMM!
I have lots of great baking memories but my favoite is probably one from my childhood- standing on a kitchen chair turned backwards so I can reach the counter, wearing one of my mom’s half-aprons just under my arms so it doesn’t drag the floor, making chocolate chip cookies with my mom. The first time I did this very thing with my own daughter a few years ago, I got all teary. :)
Making cookies for the holiday’s with my Mom! We’d make sooooo many and had nowhere to store the cookies once done besides the garage!
Every December my mom completes a baking marathon to stockpile goodies to get her through parties, family dinners and unannounced guests. My sister and I used to begrudgingly help her, thinking she was crazy the whole time, but now that I don’t live at home, I cherish ths time that I get to spend with my mom in the kitchen.
My favorite baking memories center around the holidays. I loved being in the kitchen with my mom, sisters, and aunts baking up love and tradition.
When my boys were little we baked christmas cookies each year for Santa. Those are some of my best memories!!!!!
Baking with my Grandmother was always the most precious time to me. But when I was 7 I had less of an exciting experience. We were baking banana bread and I dropped the entire pan of batter all over the floor. I had never see my Grandmother mad before that day. However, after I grew up, we both laughed and laughed about it until she passed away almost 3 years ago. Thanks for reminding me of this silly baking memory Bakerella!
My favorite memory is baking Christmas cookies with my Mom during the week of Christmas break from school. The house always smelled so good!!
I loved baking with my mom growing up, and I am thrilled to have a daughter that loves to bake with me.
Reading my mom’s spanish recipe for her delicious banana nut bread, I switched the amount of sugar with the amount of flour. Let’s just say it came out more like banana nut cake! Very yummy though!
I think my favorite is making 1-2-3-4 cake with my son– after we made it he asked everyone to make 1-2-3-4 cake with him!
Christmas wasn’t complete without my dad’s favorite Christmas tree cookies. My mom would slice off the triangle shaped cookies (after chilling in the fridge), and we would put the trunks on and sprinkle them with red and green sprinkles.
Baking Christmas Cookies with my Grandmother is my favorite baking memory.
Hi…my favorite baking memory is with my grandmother, who immigrated from Czechoslovakia. I was her only granddaughter (she had two grandsons who were not interested in her baking skills, however were interested in eating her productions! LOL) Anyway…she was totally old school…she would clear out the kitchen except for a hard wood table and flour everywhere!! She “threw” the flour down on that table and would get busy making all kinds of dough, pie dough, cookie dough and her famous apple strudel. She made these little nut rolls and my job was to shell all the walnuts. (She didnt believe in buying them “pre shelled..those were no good! LOL) So she would give me a big paper back from the supermarket and a nut cracker and I would go to town. I was all of 5 years old, sitting in that big oversized kitchen chair with that paper bag between my legs, praying that I would not get any shells in that bag because I knew she would be inspecting it all. My reward was my grandmother would always save me a big ball of dough and then I got to play and make my own cookies and she would have all the sprinkles and dragees out and everything! It was a wonderland of fun to say the least. I loved her very very much and it is because of all the time I spent with her that I am who I am now and my love and passion for baking has carried all the way through! Thank you!
My mom ALWAYS had something freshly baked in out home. She is the only person I know that would bake a cake- just because. My favorite memory was when she baked dozens (and I mean A LOT) of sugar cookies for Christmas. There would always be bowls of various colors of frosting and of course, sprinkles of every shape and color. I would spend hours decorating cookies, outlasting my siblings and even my mom. Smiles will always come to my face with that memory!
My favorite memories of baking was at all the high holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter when my mom would bake just bfor the sheer enjoyment of it, listening to classical music, which at the time I hated but now love. I carried this tradition on with my recently passed daughter of 29. We’d make lots of cookies and gingerbread houses were our favorite.
Every year, while the guys go out deer hunting , me and my mom do our Christmas baking. The most difficult part…keeping the men out of it when they get home.
My favorite time of year is Christmas. From about Dec. 1 on, the smells of baklava has filled every house on my mom’s side. I learned from my great aunt the delicacy of making this Lebanese treat and it has continued through our family. Pans and pans and pans of this golden treat are made and shared with friends and family. It’s a labor-intensive love that I’ll always treasure and pass along to my girls.
My fondest memory is about 3 years before my mother passed away, she and my daddy taught my husband and I how to make sausage rolls from puff pastry. We carry on the tradition of passing out sausage rolls at Christmas just as my parents did.
My two favorite memories are from Christmas. When I was growing up my mom would make about 20 different kinds of Christmas goodies and make plates to take to family and friends. As I got older I got to help make some of the goodies with her.
As an adult I moved in to a house just s couple streets over from my little sister and we decided to revive my mom’s tradition. Now every Christmas we get together with a friend of ours and make Christmas goodies all day. It’s such a fun way to spend time together and feel the warmth of sharing an old tradition my
Mom started.
About 35 years ago, I started making chocolate covered buttercreams dipped in peanuts for Christmas. Everyone loved them and it became a tradition. My sons don’t think it’s Christmas without them. One son even makes them as gifts for his friends.
My favorite baking memory is baking cookies with my mom at Christmastime.
Every holiday season, my mom & i make homemade cinnamon rolls. They are delicious and i like to think this tradition trumps the time I tried helping her bake cookies when, in fact, i got my long hair stuck in the mixer (Please note, i was a five year old still insisting on sitting atop the counter to help). A baking memory nonetheless! :)
My favorite baking memory has to be of my great-grandmother making sweet potato pies. I never ever liked pie, its sad to say, but I loved making them with her. She is close to 90 and still likes to make them every now and then but I remember when I was the one to take them out of the oven every Thanksgiving.
My mom always made monster cookies every December. I remember my sister and I pulling chairs up to the counter to help pour in the ingredients and stir the dough!
One of my fondest memories was when my daughter asked me to make her her favourite cookies to take on her honeymoon. Also some of her favourite brown bread…..
I remember being an only child (until my siblings came along when i was older) making sugar cookies with my mom for Christmas and spending hours decorating each one individually and making each cookie unique.. until she said I had to go to bed. I seem to still do this in adulthood =) .. my mother must be a very patient woman
My favorite baking memories are with my great grandmother. Everyday after school I would stay with her until my parents got home, and everyday she would have something for us to bake. Gingerbread cookies, apple tarts, peppermint cakes. She started my love for cooking. She also taught me that you never have to follow a recipe, it’s food you do with it what you like. A principal that I’ve used in every aspect of my life. I miss her so much and I can’t wait to bring her to life again this year baking with my daughter!
My favorite memory is spending the weekend of Thanksgiving with girlfriends baking. We would start on Friday morning and didn’t stop until late Saturday, we baked right through the night, every cookie and bar imaginable!
My mom and I were left a rolling pin (among other things) when my grandmother died. It is a very nice solid wood pin and works well. We’ve deemed it the “magic rolling pin” since we used to mess up pie crusts all the time and since using the pin we’ve never had a bad one since. It’s like my grandma is there helping us in the kitchen. It’s wonderful around the holidays in our kitchen.
We blast Christmas music every year while rolling out butter cookies and then decorating them with painted-on icing and dragees. It is one of my favorite Christmas activities!
Baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with my dad, laying them out on paper towels to cool and the light ripping sound of pulling the cookies off the sheets to eat them still warm from the oven with a large glass of milk.
I’ve always loved family baking nights close to Christmas
My favorite baking memories are those I have of my young boys wearing over-sized aprons, with their faces smeared with flour! WE baked often. though it took nearly twice as long as baking by myself, it was completely worth it! I cherish those memories!
Baking Christmas cookies every year with my children. As the years progressed (they are young adults now) my annual cookie baking event included friends, neighbors and significant others helping. Every year, the week before Christmas you know where I’ll be!
My favorite memory is helping my mom knead bread – dough is such a wonderful plaything to a child!
Christmas baking with my Gram. Miss her every day!
My mother has been gone for 13 years now but I still carry on her tradition with my seven children. We bake sugar cookies every year using the cookie cutters she used growing up. The kitchen is a wonderful place to teach my children about their grandmother and the ways she showed her love through baked goodies
My first memories are baking cookies with my sisters and mom. I think it was from those times that began my love cooking but even more my love of baking and sweets. :)
My favorite memory is my Mama making me mini pies every time she made any type of pie dessert. I always had my own very special little pie while I was growing up, and she kept the tradition up until the time I left home. Thank you Mama. Another great memory is my Mama and one of my favorite Aunts getting together every Christmas season to bake. Lots of love and lots of good lessons.
My daughters, daughter-in-law and a niece get together and bake Christmas cookies for friends and neighbors.
One of my favorite baking memories is when I baked ice cream cone cupcakes with my younger cousin. He was probably only 4 years old or so, but he had such a great time. We had to beat up egg whites with the mixer and he thought it was ice cream! :) We also go flour all over ourselves. We had a great time and it’s something I’ll always remember. It’s part of why I love baking.
I remember my mother baking all the traditional Danish cookies for Christmas. We had to start early enough to make them all. She was such a good baker- she used egg yolks in one recipe and the whites in another- no such thing as waste in her kitchen! Now I am the baker in our family, although I haven’t made the cookies, yet, it is on my to-do-list…
My grandmother baked all her own bread up until the 1980s. There were always wonderful smells in her kitchen.
My favorite baking memories are making sugar cookies with my 3 daughters for every holiday! Of course there was about 5 pounds of sugar on the floor by the time we were done, but they just loved decorating them. Somehow they could remember which ones they decorated. Oh how I wish they were still little! Such pleasant memories!
One of my best baking memories was helping my mom make popcorn balls for Halloween treats. We would have huge pots & bowls of popcorn everywhere, and my mother made the hot gooey white corn syrup creation to bind everything together. I remember her actually buttering her hands to help keep the sticky stuff off her hands and on the popcorn balls. I’d help her put the treats into plastic treat baggies, and eat any leftovers of course! These treats were a huge hit with the neighborhood kids back then!
My late husband loved spice cake, every year for his Dec. 5th birthday I made it and I still make it every year even though he has been gone 8 years. I have precious memories of baking his cake while he lurked around the kitchen fetching ingredients from the fridge,tasting the batter, licking the beaters and watching me with loving eyes as I frosted the cake with his grandma’s special recipe caramel cream frosting. He always took pieces to work for his friends and I usually ended up making one for the Office Christmas party. :)
I love making treats with my young godchild Erin. Time with her in the kitchen is one part teaching baking basics and one part just plain fun. She loves sweets and often requests something that will need to be frosted.
My grandmother, like yours, would bake something special each year for Christmas. Only my grandmother would make coffeecakes. She’d give them to neighbors and friends, but she’d always bring one to our house to have on Christmas morning. Grandma stopped making them now since she’s in a retirement community and has less kitchen space, and I’ve taken over for making the one(s) for our family for Christmas morning.
Almost my whole family works in retail and, as a result, we don’t have time to prep for a good holiday meal. One Christmas, I decided to surprise my mother and bake her favorite pie, pecan. I waited until everyone was asleep and set to work. It was my first time to make the pie (I don’t care for it) so I was taking my time. I finally put the pie in the oven around 2 AM and went to rest while it cooked. About 5 minutes into baking, I started to smell something burning. I ran into the kitchen and opened the oven to see the pie filling completely overflowing and I had not put anything down to catch the overflow. The pie filling was burning onto the bottom of the oven. I had to just turn the oven off and leave it there until it cooled and I could clean it. Needless to say, we didn’t have pecan pie that year.
I don’t have one favorite memory but I will share my favorite baking tradition which is making homemade cookies to leave out for Santa… Amazingly his preferences ran right alongside my dad’s… Go figure!
My grandmother used to make these mouth-watering coconut cream pies and everyone would beg for them around the holidays. I’ve had fun trying to recreate her recipe that was lost when she passed away. It’s not quite there, but I’m having fun trying!
When I was a little girl I would help my granny make bread pudding and pies. My granny had cherry trees and her cherry pie is my favorite. Her chocolate pie is a close second! My love of cooking, baking and canning comes from the times spent in the kitchen with granny.
making sponge cake with my grandmother for passover
My favorite memory is of my Nana. She used to spend hours teaching my sister and I her favorite holiday recipes. It was so much fun learning some great recipes – my favoirte, Mexican Wedding Cakes! I still make them every year even though she is no longer with us!
My last birthday cake. It was snowing outside and it was a perfect afternoon to make a Chocolate Layer cake with Peppermint frosting and Ganache.
I have been making wedding and special occasion cakes for over 20 years. When my children were little, I’d make them their own personal mini cake when I’d have a little leftover batter. When I finished decorating my cake, I’d give them all of the pastry bags filled with various colors of icing and various tips and let them go to town decorating their own cake. I can’t wait to do this when my granddaughter is old enough!
My baking memory involves a lovely loaf of bread that my sister came up with when she first got married. She passed it on to me and my husband when we first were married too. I love all the time we spent together tweaking the recipe till it was our own. We are famous for it now!
Thanks for the lovely giveaway! I agree…it’s time for baking again!
My favorite memory is decorating sugar cookies on Christmas Eve with my mom and sister. Then we would choose our favorites to leave out for Santa. I am continuing this tradition with my sons :)
Baking a pecan shortbread cookie dipped in powdered sugar with my mom is my best baking memory. I would help mix all the ingredients and then it was my job to roll the little balls into a “snake” and form them in the shape of a moon. when they came out and were still warm we covered them in powdered sugar. So YUMMY!!!
Making Christmas cookies with my family when I was small.
My favorite memory from when I was a kid is baking Christmas cookies with my mom. She’d get out the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (old school… it’s a binder and I still have it, even though half the pages fall out every time I open it!) and we’d make dozens of cookies. Chocolate crinkles, butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, all of them. Now I bake with my kids. They’re only 5, but they’re old enough to help me mix and decorate. :)
Every holiday season, my mom, brother and I form a cookie assembly line, making at least 5 or 6 different kinds. My dad always acts as the official taster :)
My mom made all of our birthday cakes. We would watch her mix, bake and best of all decorate the cake. Now that I am older my favorite thing to do in the kitchen is baking.
Like your grandmother, my mom always baked for Christmas, giving friends and neighbor the Danish wienerbrod, which was a wonderful flaky pastry that she would fill with cooked apricots or prunes. My mom is not Danish, but my dad is, so she kept this tradition from my dad’s side of the family going. She recently taught me to make wienerbrod, so now I will keep the tradition going!
My favorite baking memory is learning to bake Toll House Cookies and teaching my daughter and granddaughter to bake them. A life time favorite cookie for my family and a major hit anywhere I take them whether a church dinner or a Red Hat Tea. Standing a child on a stool wearing an apron and combining the ingredients then dropping by the spoon onto the cookie sheet. The aroma sneaking from the oven and finally tasting the finished product after eating half of the dough before baking. Trying not to eat all of the cookies before Daddy gets home from work and proudly sharing with him. GREAT memories!
I remember baking peanut butter cookies with my grandma. My jobs would always be to measure the ingredients and put the hash marks on the cookies :)
My favorite baking memory is frosting Christmas cookies with my Grandma – my little sister and I used to over her house every year to do it!
I used to go to my Grandmother’s house and bake with her, she was an amazing cook / baker. At Christmas she used to make tree shaped cookies with green frosting and sprinkles, I loved making them with her. Cooking with her are some of my greatest me.mories
Favorite moment is when I spend late nights baking with my friend Emma until its 3 in the morning. While we joke, laugh and even when we mess up our recipes its always a good time. The mutts like it to since they are apart of the “quality control” tasting :)
My favorite memory was baking Christmas cookies with my mom and sister. We would always do it a few days before Christmas and bake about 20 kinds of cookies. Now it’s grown to include my sister-in-law and nieces and nephews doing the sprinkles. It’s one of my favorite parts of the holidays!
Making sticking buns with my grandma! We always had them at all of the major holidays. They were always a family secret, and she has only recently written down the recipe for the first time. Sooo delicious.
My 2 sisters and I gather every year to make Christmas goodies for family and friends. We usually set up 3 8 foot tables and fill each one at 3 times times before we are done for the day!!! Homemade gifts sometimes are th best, especially when you spend the time making them with your best friends!
My favorite baking memory would definitely have to be with my Grandma learning how to make homemade bread. She made the best wheat bread. It was all done by memory. No recipe for any of her breads. She would just grab a handful of this and that and we would knead until our arms were sore. I loved listening to all her childhood stories while we baked. While we were waiting for the dough to rise, she would use any leftover dough to fry into honey drenched flapjacks.
My favorite baking memory is baking cookies with my daughter.
I remember learning to cook some with my favorite Grandma. My parents were divorced when I was young and my mother made me afraid of this Grandma. I learn she was very wrong and I learned all I know about canning and many more things. She was an amazing woman and I think that is why her lessons were always so much sweeter and memorable.
When I was a teenager, my dad and I made a cookie Christmas tree with lots of star shaped cookies, royal icing, and candies. We had a lot of fun but the entire kitchen was covered in flour when we were done :)
My favorite memory would have to be the first year after I moved out of my house at Christmas… my mom came up to my apartment and taught me how to make all the cookies she has made. It felt like a passing of the torch and is a super special moment for us.
My grandmother’s Thanksgiving and/or Christmases. If we ate everything, she’d fret that she didn’t make enough food. If we had leftovers, then she’d fret that we didn’t like it. We couldn’t win. :)
And her coconut cake. Oh, it is soooo good. I’d stand in the kitchen and watch her make that, but it was so hard because you couldn’t eat it until the next day.
Baking and decorating sugar cookies at Christmas with my mom & sister! Still miss that so much!
Baking Christmas cookies with my grandmother and then my sweet grandfather would clean up our whole mess!!
Wow those pies look lovely. One of my favorite baking moments is with my grandmother making ginger bread cookies at cristmas. I would help mix, roll, cut and decorate. All this kid cousins together. I hope to pass on the tradicional with my kids and thier cousins. Thanks for the chance to win!!
OH MY GOODNESS! We certainly could use this mixer! My fav baking memory is my mom baking my most favourite pie of all… pumpkin. Thanksgiving day she would get up early, put the t urkey in the oven, several hours later she would take it out and put it in the snow out in the back yard all covered up and then head to the kitchen to make the pies! Intot he oven would go many many pumpkin pies and the smell could make you drool! even better than the turkey! when the pies were done they went intot he snow and the turkey would go back into the oven to finish cooking… later on it was a wonderful meal complete with cooled off pies with homemade whipped cream. Thanks mom for all you gave us! xoxoxo Deborah
Growing up in the South, we didn’t see snow very often. When we did, it would shut down everything. When we got tired from playing in the 1/2 inch of snow on the ground, my sister and I would be allowed to walk on the icy roads to the grocery store down the street to buy chocolate chips for chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were always amazing, but they were especially good after that long walk!
My mom and I used to team up with my godmother and her daughter to bake a zillion Christmas cookies. We’d take one entire (precious!) day out of the craziness that is Christmastime and bake nonstop for hours. We’d take a quick dinner break an then we’d package all of our goodies on Christmas plates we’d collected throughout the year. At the end of that very long day we were always 100% wiped out (and the kitchen was always 100% a disaster zone), but those adorable plates filled with homemade treats made great, heartfelt gifts, and the time spent in the kitchen with those wonderful women is something I’ll always cherish.
I love baking at the holidays with my grandkids and great grandkids… they love to learn a new recipe and the little ones just want to taste!!!
Baking is one of the ways I show my love for my family. And at Christmas/Yule, I also love making candy. I remember cartying a pan of out-of-the-oven turtles to cool on the table, which happened to be in the carpeted dining room, and yep, they tipped. My husband,very lovingly and without any mumbling or grumbling, spent a loooong time cleaning the caramel out of the carpet!
I love baking challah with my dad – he is the dough maker, I’m the braider. I haven’t lived at home for over 10 years, but he still sends me pictures when he bakes challah.
I do a lot of baking and enjoy it immensely. I enjoy the time spent when baking with family and love sharing the baked goods with others. One of my most memorable baking experiences was when my son (who is almost 18 now) was in 1st grade. I volunteered to provide the ingredients and help each student make a pumpkin pie for their family for Thanksgiving. I took 2-3 children at a time and helped them mix and prepare their pie for baking. As I worked with one group we got ready to crack the eggs. One of the little girls said “I’ve never cracked an egg before”. This made me sad because I had baked with my children since they were toddlers. I was so glad I had made time to give these children this experience. They had a great time and I felt very blessed to share this time with them.
Biscotti with my great aunt
My favorite baking memory is with my Mom on Christmas Eve. During the day, we would bake chocolate chip cookies and butterscotch haystacks. I am sure that we baked other things that day as well, but that is what I remember. Now, I bake the same haystacks and other candies/cookies with my kids during the week of Christmas and deliver them to family friends. I LOVE baking!!
my favorite memory is baking christmas cookies with my girls for our yearly cookie exchange every year
I can’t pick just one, but practically every Christmas there has been a special time shared in the kitchen with family members, and the really neat thing is that there is at least one memory with each family member.
My mother and I would make Christmas cookie gift baskets for all my father’s clients and co-workers at Christmas time. We made so many kinds each year and loved pouring over the cookbooks and magazines to determine what we were going to make!
Mom used to bake sugar cookies for my sisters and I. We would cut them out for the holiday at hand and frost them. Many good sister/mom moments spent frosting and decorating. My daugther and I continue this tradition. I hope she remembers these times as fondly as I do.
My favorite memory is the first Christmas that I made Christmas tree cake pops and gingerbread men sugar cookies. The gingerbread men came out looking like obese blobs but the treats were a hit. That’s where I got my start decorating sweets.
My Mom wasn’t a baker…but when we had a little extra money should would treat us to a roll of Nestles chocolate chip cookie dough. My sister and I usually ate half of it before it made it to the oven :) I smile every time I pass that at the grocery store!
Fall does it to me! First I would go to a local craft store to get all psyched up looking at the fall decorations and then I’d be more than in the mood to start baking. I was the official pumpkin roll maker in our family. Something about the smell of those spices and pumpkin. Yummmm!
My favorite baking memories are with my Mom who passed away in 2010……..baking pies is one that stands out……..she taught me to sprinkle strips of the pie crust scraps with cinnamon & sugar, roll them up, and bake them so we could enjoy a treat while waiting for the real dessert. I still do this to this day!
learning to make sugar cookies with my grandma :)
My father was an avid baker. As you know, baking is a science of precise measurements and timing. Well, he is a baking genius because he never used recipes and made all of his own bread doughs and cake and cookie batters. I could never dream up of a baking recipes like he did, but he has inspired me since I was little to try to be original and to not always follow the recipe to make it my own.
Whenever my mom made bread (which wasn’t often), she got the biggest bowl imaginable, and when it was time to punch it down, it was the kids’ job. We had a great time popping the bubbles and getting out our aggression on the dough, rather than our siblings!
My favorite baking memory as a child the day after Thanksgiving is when all the holiday baking of cookies would start.
My mom is usually the baker in our family but not at the holidays. My dad always makes the desserts: pecan and mincemeat pies. He even makes the crust from scratch! I remember making pies the day before Thanksgiving every year growing up. It’s a special memory I keep in my heart!
Every year my sisters-in-laws and my mother in-law get together for cookie exchange. We each bring a dozen for everyone, then we bake mini pecan pies on the day of the exchange. We order chinese food and enjoy spending time together not so rushed!!
One of my favorite baking memories is when I was in high school, my Aunt showed me how to make her apple pie. I still use her recipe to this day.
Living in Northeast PA, when Christmas rolls around the outside becomes the perfect freezer and cooler for baking. Every year my mom would gather all the kids, cousins and neighbors together in our tiny kitchen and makes dozens and dozens of cookies. We would make chocolate chip, peanut butter, pumpkin rolls, sugar cookies and more. As each batch would come out of the oven we would take them outside to cool and by the end of the night the yard would be full of tables of cookies :)
The best part is that they were always hard and needed a good glass of milk to help them go down, but the memories I have are delicious.
My favorite baking memory is fairly recent – I spent time with my granddaughter and we shared baking skills, recipes and a lot of laughter – just the best time together!
My favorite bakimg memory is last Christmas making cookies with 4 generations of women. Such fun..and good treats!
When we were little, my mom would make a HUGE batch of sugar cookie dough. She would cover the dining room table with waxed paper and help us roll out the dough, cut it out with lots of Christmas shapes and then bake them. After they had cooled, we got to frost them ourselves. She made lots of bowls of diferent colored frosting and had lots of sprinkles, etc. to put on them. When we were done, the dining room was covered in frosting and so were we, but we got to eat some not so pretty but really tasty Christmas cookies.
My favorite memory occurs at Christmas when my grandmother and mother showed me how to make HOUSKA!
Definitely days of my youth, growing up and learning to bake with my mom.
Baking Christmas cookies and making Buckeyes every Christmas with my mom and sisters! Thanks!
My favorite memories are of my grandmother’s cookies. She loved baking cookies and would make a bunch every Holiday. I try to make cookies and baked things for loved ones every year.
Thanks for the chance!
Bobbie
My mom and I used to make our own homemade sugar cookie dough. We would make them as cut out cookies and every year I got to decorate them however I wanted using colored icing and lots of fun sprinkles. I am carrying this tradition on with my two beautiful kids and putting my own touch on them as well. I’m adding lollipop sticks to the cookies and they’re becoming cookie pops. The kids love eating them like lollipops.
My Mom never liked my sister, brother, or me in the kitchen while she was cooking or baking, so I had to make my OWN baking memories. I now LOVE to bake, and I have my special recipes that I make every Christmas as gifts….everyone looks forward to them. They are the ones that are too special to make any other time of the year, no matter how delicious they are…you know the ones!!!
My mom’s domain was not the kitchen! My grandmother was a great cook and I was lucky to grow up near her. My sisters and I would always bake and decorate Christmas cookies with her. She let us decorate however we liked.
Today, my two teenagers love to bake! In the summer they are always finding recipes to try. In fact, my daughter is baking more bread when she gets home from school today. One day, I hope that they have fond memories of our family time in the kitchen.
Every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, my grandpa would come over and bake Christmas cookies with me, my sister, and my mom. My mom would handle the dough and my grandpa would help my sister and I decorate. Great days!
Years ago my son, his wife and baby lived with us for about a year. Every evening she and I went out to the kitchen to see what sort of dessert we could whip up. No advance planning, no advance purchasing.
There was an apple tree in the yard that mostly fed the birds, but one evening we gathered enough apples to make an apple pie. With home made pie crust . We made it, it was delicious and we have never made another!
Making shortbread cookies with my grandma..
Like many people, my best baking memories are from the Christmas season. As a kid, one of our favorite days each year was when we decorated gingerbread men. Now I do it each year with my own children. It’s such a special time!
My grandma and I would bake apple pies and she had the cutest mini pie tins that she would give me scraps of dough to roll and make my own pies with. I cherish that memory every time I bake!
My favorite holiday memories are baking Christmas cookies with my Nana every year. They head to Arizona in October now, so my mom and I have carried on the tradition.
One of my favorite baking memories is when I made lemon sugar cookies with royal icing with my little brother (He’s ten) They tasted out of this world amazing (Better than the cookies of the tin they were placed in!) in the shape of little ducks and stars…. :)
My favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my mom, sister-in-law, and now our girls every year. We make enough for everyone to share.
Growing up in a Chinese family, we didn’t bake a ton or have a lot of sweets. That is until I started baking and learned to love and depend on butter. But my mom would always make the lightest, fluffiest and best chiffon cakes for potlucks.
When I was little, I always tried to spend as much time as possible at my Aunt Marty’s house. We would make tacos and she’d let me drink Pepsi – which I never got at home? We always baked something, usually chocolate chip or sugar cookies. I remember asking her once if I was making the cookies the right size. Her perfect response? “They’re your cookies, baby. Whatever size you make them is the right size.”
My favorite baking memory is of my husband baking me a gluten free milk free birthday cake! My husband does not cook or bake and to see him standing in the kitchen – measuring and mixing just for me was the sweetest thing a girl could ask for. :)
My mom and I used to bake dozens of cookies every Christmas when I was little. I also would go over to my Nana’s house and help her. My job was to dip the Italian cookies into the glaze. :)
Baking Christmas cookies with my Mom every year….a full 2 day event! We would make probably 10 different recipes, with the favorite being the sugar cookie Christmas cutouts, frosted and decorated!
my favorite baking memory is of my mom and sisters making x-mas cookies. my dad would make the best homemade hot cocoa.
I always helped my dad make pralines for Christmas gifts. After college, I decided to try them myself. Big fail. Apparently Dad knows the perfect way to make them. :)
We didn’t bake much in our house growing up, but in the past few years pumpkin whoopie pies have become a cherished favorite! We love to make them while a Christmas movie is playing on our little kitchen TV :)
When I was a little girl my grandmother lived with us. In fact she shared a room with me. We were very close. The two of us would sit together and bake all sorts of things from sweet to savory. Those were my favorite days and I’m quite certain it’s where my passion for cooking came from.
I cook with my children and teach others now just as my grandmother taught me. I look forward to the day that I can sit down with my grandchildren at the kitchen table and spend quality time with them while baking up delicious treats together.
You specifically mention using margarine. Have you ever tried making them using butter? Just wonder if it negativey affects it? Growing up, we always looked forward to making sprtiz cookes with my mom. Thanks!
I just love that moment when you first flip over an upside down cake. No matter how many times I make my favorite pear-rosemary-butter-rum upside down cake I never cease to be surprised by how beautiful it looks when I flip it over on to a plate.
I love creating new recipes and it always makes me happy when my friends think they’ve turned out well.
My dad has a few specialties and I especially remember making pizzas with him decades ago before there was a pizza place on every corner. Good times!
My Bohemian grandmother was a baker and her favorite recipe was kolaches. She made a point to teach her children and grandchildren how to make these delicious little pastries and did so with patience for the little ones. However once you were older she expected a bit more precision and often would have you reroll the dough balls if you started to get sloppy. It taught us pride in our baking and prevented any of us from being slim. Fat and happy to the last.
Each year instead of a Thanksgiving dinner, I have a Sunday After Thanksgiving Pie Party. I bake about a dozen different varieties of pies, savory and sweet, about 20 pies in all. Each year I look forward t choosing the pies, and then to the week of baking, and finally the relaxed Sunday with friends and family. So, it’s not one moment in baking that is my favorite, but this on-going and yet ever-changing tradition that is centered around pie.
Terry at http://www.HenCam.com (where you can see menus and photos from pie parties from years past)
My grandmother would always take her pie dough scraps, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar and bake them for me…loved finding them when I came home from school.
My mom is an amazing baker, cook, heck she is just plain amazing! I can remember her teaching me how to make apple crisp for my dad, as it was his favorite, just like it was yesterday. Quite possibly, I might have used apple crisp as a way to convice my dad to let me do something when I was a teenager.
plastic wrap and the little bow, my mom always did that!
I remember every Christmas these wonderful little sugar cookie people that my best friend’s mom used to make. She made a special cookie for each person and piped their name on the front. I always looked forward to getting those cookies. :)
My grandma and I used to make fudge every winter….now I continue the tradition and mail Carr packages to all our friends!
When we were able to host Thanksgiving for the first time in our big new house, all the family came to town. We stayed up late Wed. night baking pumpkin pies, apple cranberry pie and apple cake. When we were finished we laid them all out on the dining room table and took way too many pictures. No family gathering is complete without a picture of the food:)
All my most special baking memories took place with my grandmother. She basically taught me how to cook when I was very young. It started with the perfect pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches! Bu my most favorite memory is when I graduated from high school my grandma finally walked me step by step through my family’s favorite recipe, pepper soup (think stuffed pepper in soup form, but more awesome). It was one of those dishes that everyone in my family loves and is the definition of comfort food for all of us. But the only catch, only my grandmother knew how to make it because there was no recipe. Until I graduated from high school and my grandma walked me through the dish, step by step and I wrote every little movement she made down. Best (cooking) memory EVER!! (Sorry, I went for cooking instead of baking…but I learned to cook first, then I learned to bake!)
A few years ago I started a small cookie business from my home. That Christmas, a company asked if I would do their corporate Christmas gifts, they would be ordering 200 dozen cookies. I agreed and somehow the order turned into 500 DOZEN! All of my family and friends pulled together to help out. We were baking for days on end, but it was so fun (and exhausting)! I still cannot believe we cranked out 6,000 cookies out of my little apartment oven! Definitely my favorite baking memory because it made me realize how much baking truly is my passion.
Baking cookies with my children
Just after I started dating my now husband in college, the baking bug hit me. He bought me a starter set of decorating bags and tips, and we made Halloween cupcakes together. He would never be interested in helping with that kind of thing now, but I still use some of the pieces of that original decorating set!
I have always loved to bake with my mom. Now I treasure the times I am baking with my daughter. She is simply the best assistant ever! Now at 5 she is able to read the measurements needed and is by far the best self proclaimed “egg cracker”…She has her own apron and mixing utensils! One day while baking recently she said…”Mom I LOVE baking with you.” Best memory ever :)
I remember the women in my office and I would gather just before Christmas. The hostess would roll out the sugar cookie dough and the rest of us would paint cookies. Some were pretty scary looking, but we alwayshad a good time! We’re all working in different places now and the hostess has moved to another city. We fondly remember those memories.
My favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve with my Mom. We took “gift plates” of cookies to all of our neighbors. I loved it so much that I’ve started the tradition with my 2 children.
Holiday baking with my mom, she makes over a dozen kinds and doubles or triples each kind!! Friends and family LOVE getting her cookie trays around the holidays. Now my 7year old daughter helps and it’s extra special :)
I always love baking with my mom at Christmas. She’s the queen of the cutout cookie and every surface would be covered in some kind of baked good!
loved making cutout cookies with my mom at christmas!
I am the pie maker for Thanksgiving and I have always enjoyed making them with my mother when I was little. :) that and Christmas cookies were always a favorite time also
My favorite baking memories are the ones I have and the ones I make when baking with my mom and grandmother.
I remember baking during the holidays with my Mom. Looking back, we don’t know how she found the time given everything else going on. Special memories that I will always remember!
I love baking cookies with my three kids. It is so fun to have them help measure ingredients and make the batter then watch the cookies bake. Of course the best part is getting to taste the finished product!
I was thinking about this baking with my mom as a kid we would make pumpkin and apple pies at both thanksgiving and Christmas then take the scraps of cookie dough and make cookies and all of us kids would get to decorate them with any candies we found in the cupboard. this was are favorite part we would wait and hope there was enough for cookies and there always was. Now my kids do that as well if I can keep them from eating it raw. lol. I do wish my mom lived closer so we could all do this but with hubby in the military its just important to keep up traditions.
I’m fortunate to have so many baking memories:-) My mom and aunt would both take off a day of work to bake all of my grandma’s famous recipes, cardomon braid, Danish pastry, spritz, krumkakke, marzipan strawberries. I would always say I wasn’t feeling well on that day so my mom would keep me home from school because I wanted to help bake all the treasured treats.
Now the tradition has changed to my mom, brother and I have our rockstar baking day… I’m looking forward to having my son be apart of our family tradition with our family trade recipes.
Every year for Christmas , my mom and all of us kids would bake and decorate about 36 dozen cookies to give as gifts. We always did the family butter cookie recipe and the gingerbread men… but we always had a couple of new cookies each year. My mom died 6 yrs ago and baking is not quite the same without her.
I try to keep the tradition alive by baking with my kids and all of our friends and family. We don’t make quite as many cookies as we did with my mom, but we add our own new twist by making candies as well now.
My mother isn’t much of a baker so my sister and I are trying to make some family traditions. We bake together every Friday the month of December and exchange cookies. It has been so nice to spend quality time together during such a busy time of year.
Any baking or cooking with my kids is my favorite time in the kitchen. My daughter and I made Reese’s pieces cookies together on Saturday, and I just love teaching her and just being with her. And my son is so busy with football and school, any time I get to spend with him is fabulous!
Baking Christmas cookies with my oldest granddaughter.
Every year I design a new gingerbread house and my granddaughters help me construct it. On New Years day they get to eat whatever is not rock hard.
I loved watching my mom roll out the cookie dough and cut shapes with the cutters, and I always wanted to help.
My favorite memories of baking would definitely be around Christmas time when I can remember baking with my children. Now I bake with my grandchildren and it is a very exciting time for all.
My favorite baking memories come from spending time in the kitchen with my mom – baking and frosting Christmas cookies, and making other special holiday treats for family and close friends.
My Mom was a wonderful pie baker! Her apple pie was the best I’ve ever eaten and was enjoyed regularly by family and friends for many years. She taught my sister and I her ‘secrets’ and now we are both known far and wide for our pies too. Prizes have been won over the years and every kind of pie has graced our tables, both sweet and savory. Such a legacy!
I loved making Christmas cookies with my grandmother every year! :-)
My sister and I always baked cookies at Christmas with our mom when we were munchkins, now we have continued that with our own kids. We have added cake pops to our cookie trays that we give out, everyone loves them!
The best memory I have is my Grandmothers kitchen, making coffee cake with butter icing.
Learning the tricks of the trade and getting to lick the bowl is something I will hold dear forever.
And when ever I am feeling down it is still my go to comfort recipe!
Picking one favorite baking memory is akin to picking my favorite child. Some of this family’s best times have been while making sugar cookies, gingerbread houses, and other assorted holiday treats :)
my favorite baking memory is~and will always be of the day before Thanksgiving….. the day we call “pie day”. Thanksiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it’s not a gift-exchanging holiday, but it’s about everyone simply enjoying the gift of being surrounded by family and friends.
I host Thanksgiving dinner each year for anywhere between 15 and 25 people, and the day before all of the ‘girls’ come over and we make all of the desserts for the following day. It started with my own three daughters when they were very small, and each year someone else wanted to be involved–a girlfriend, a cousin, an aunt-a sister, and it got to the point where it became a tradition. We order pizza and spend the day in the kitchen singing, dancing, laughing and recalling memories that we have all shared together. And we officially open the holiday season that day, too, so there is always lots of holiday music playing.
We get a lot accomplished as far as preparing for the big meal the next day, but we also have that opportunity to bond and to just have fun in the ktchen together laughing and enjoying one anothers company.
I am SO happy that it’s become a tradition that these women look forward too! I have a 5-year old granddaughter now, and she has been involved in “pie day” right from the start~~sitting on the table in her baby seat, and she looks forward to this day, too. I appreciate that my daughters continue to make these memories with me-and with my granddaughter….it lets me know that these times ARE special!
My favorite baking memory was when I was baking with my mentor and we made a lot of cookies…. too many to eat before they went stale, in fact! And too many to decorate… Oh well. (:
WOW, what a great giveaway… thanks! When I was little, I used to help make pies with my nana. She always used to slice the crust scraps into strips, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, then bake them for me. So yummy! She is no longer with us, but I now do that for my son and he loves it!
This time of year is my favorite time for baking. My best memories are made each year after my entire family goes apple picking. We pick bushels of apples and from then on have a baking frenzy. Apple dumplings, apple turnovers, apple pies, apple cake. You name it, we’re baking it. And it rolls right on over to Thanksgiving and Christmas. The feeling I get from the smells in my home from baking can always take me back to another memory.
My favorite baking memory is our annual baking marathon to make loads of cookies and package them to give to friends and family sy Christmas Time.
Trying to make our own pie crusts. My mom and aunt and I had a ball. We made a lot of pie crusts but only a few could be used :D
My grandparents made all sorts of candy very Christmas. I loved it! Everything from orange slice candy to peanut brittle. Good memories!
I have so many wonderful memories of baking during the holidays with my grandmother, but my favorite one is very recent. I baked all our special family treats standing in my kitchen with my 80 yr old grandmother and my 8 yr old daughter. My mother took pictures so I had four generations of family women together, nothing better than that.