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Baking Sweet Memories

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.

Pecan Pies

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.

Mini Pies

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
Yield: 3 pies or 32 mini pies

Mama's Pecan Pies

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 16 oz. pecans
  • 2 sticks margarine
  • 16 oz. package light brown sugar
  • 1 heaping tablespoon (serving tablespoon, not measuring spoon) self-rising flour
  • 16 oz. bottle Karo light corn syrup
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 6 eggs
  • 3 regular size (not deep dish) frozen pie crusts - or make your own (enough for 3)

Instructions

  1. Melt margarine in the microwave for about 2 minutes or until melted and set aside.
  2. Prepare your pecans. Remove any unwanted dark brown pieces from the pecan crevices and shake out pecan crumbs in a colander.
  3. Place brown sugar in a large bowl. Work out any lumps with the back of a spoon. If the brown sugar is too hard, you can loosen it up in the microwave. Heat it for a few seconds and it will be fine.
  4. Add a heaping serving tablespoon of self-rising flour and stir until the flour disappears into the brown sugar.
  5. Add the bottle of corn syrup. Then add 1 serving tablespoon of vanilla and stir until thoroughly combined.
  6. Add melted margarine. Fold carefully into the mixture so it doesn’t splatter. Fold until the margarine is thoroughly worked in and disappears.
    In a separate bowl, crack open six eggs. Remove the “roosters” and loosely beat the eggs with your spoon.
  7. Fold the eggs into the pie mixture until they disappear.
  8. Add pecans and stir until completely coated.
  9. Remove three pie shells from the freezer at this point and check for cracks. (If you do have a crack, thaw and knead the crack together and refreeze.)
  10. Pour the mixture evenly into the three shells. You’ll probably have a little bit leftover in the bowl. Tap tops with a spoon to check consistency and make sure there is the same amount in each pie. Redistribute pecans if necessary to make equal.
  11. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350. Cook pies until they swell and then fall. At that point they are done.
  12. Remove and cool for about three hours to set. Store on the counter or in the refrigerator depending on how you like your pie. Or eat right away and really warm - the pie just won't hold it's shape at this point but it will be amazing.
  13. For mini pies: chop pecans, use mini frozen pie shells, removing them from the freezer as needed and bake in three batches on a baking sheet for about 35 minutes each. I’m guesstimating the time. Watch them and make sure they are done.
Enjoy!

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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

  • 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!


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6,453 comments on “Baking Sweet Memories”

  1. My favorite memory is when I started making a “Happy Birthday” cake for baby Jesus with my grandbabies. We bake it and then decorate it together. Such a sweet time! Even sweeter is when we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. My sweet little granddaughter closed her eyes and folded her hands as if she was praying. Still makes me smile!

  2. When my mom comes to visit me, we usually bake up some croissants. Now I usually teach her baking tips instead of the other way around!

  3. I spent the night with my grandmother every Saturday night, and we spent all day Sunday baking.

  4. Getting up early to help my family cook Thanksgiving dinner. There’s nothing like stuffing a bird in your pj’s and robe while listening to Christmas music and having the Macy’s Day Parade on in the background!

  5. When I was maybe 5, I decided to make some cookies all by myself, with things that I loved. My grandmother came into the kitchen as I was about to put a cookie sheet with dollops of peanut butter with a carrot stick stuck in the top of each one in the oven. She stopped me and that was when I learned about essesntial ingredients in cookies, and following recipes and modifying them. :)

  6. Baking holiday cookies with my mother and aunt. We used to bake nonstop the first few weeks of december and then give out all the cookies. Such delicious cookiesn and fun memories. .

  7. Making Halloween sugar cookies with my best friend in high school. We made black bats that turned everybody’s mouth black when they ate them.

  8. Much like you, Bakerella, I have wonderful memories of baking with family members. My grandmother, who was a baker professionally, was never too tired for rambunctious little kids, and always had a place for me at her kitchen table, to help with her latest work. She instilled a love of baking and creating memories in me that has only gotten stronger with time, and with her loss. I can’t make much of anything in my kitchen, using her heirloom tools, that doesn’t make me think of my Nanny. I know everything she made tasted even better because of the love she put in, and I only hope I can be half as good as she was. That would still be fabulous!!

  9. When I was younger, my mom would always bake bread with us in the summer. I loved doing that, and now baking bread is one of my favorite things to do!

  10. Baking with my grandmother in her kitchen. She’d give me pie crust dough remnants to make jam tarts. Such a vivid, sweet memory.

  11. My mom teaching my sister and I how to make chocolate chip cookies. We didn’t have a ton of food in the house but we always had everything to make a batch of cookies. Sunday afternoons……ahhh memories.

  12. I love your website! My favorite baking experience will always be Christmas cookies at Christmas!!

  13. Baking an apple pie with my mother. She used to let me cut the apples and I just couldn’t believe that we could make something so good together. The pie was amazing but so was the time we spent making it.

  14. My favorite baking memory is going to spend an entire day with my grandmother to learn and record her recipes. Many are just passed down from generations, but are just stored in her head and would be lost someday. It was a really fun day, one of my favorite memories, and now I have the recipes to keep forever!

  15. My favorite memories are baking Christmas cookies with my Mom and little brother … I am looking forward to baking this year with our 4 year old son … he will be super excited to help decorate the cookies.

  16. My favorite baking memories are baking chocolate chip chip cookies with my parents and brother in my childhood home. Dad helped us mix the batter, mom helped us scoop the batter, while we sat on the counter and enjoyed measuring out the packed brown sugar in measuring spoons that looked like eggs! Can’t wait to do the same with my future kiddos some day!

  17. My favorite baking memory is baking with my daughter. Now that she is getting married, her soon-to-be husband enjoys our baked goods. Thanks !!!!!

  18. Looking back on old recipe cards and finding ones handwriten by my mother and grandmother. And then baking with those same recipe cards!

  19. My grandmother is who I think of when I bake during the holidays. We would make pretty pizzelle cookies every year and more. Now I make tons of sugar cookies every Christmas and invite my family and friend’s kids over for a huge cookie decorating party – I’ve been doing it about 12 years now and its gotten really big – but its my favorite thing to do every year!

  20. Baking with my parents in their in-home bakery. I thought it was a pain at the time, but now as an adult, its a useful skill and something I can share with my kids!

  21. My grandmother on my mom’s side was always baking something. I can’t even count the number of times I stood next to her KitchenAid mixer waiting to add the next ingredient.! My favorite recipe to make was her Chocolate Picnic Cake, now a favorite in my house!

  22. Making yeast rolls with my Grandma and my kids at Christmas. Grandma has passed on now, but I was smart enough to take pictures.

  23. My favorite memory is when I made my first carved cake for my son. That thing took two whole days to finish and it wasnt even huge. I had green frosting from one side of the kitchen to the other it definately looked like a tornado went thru but in the end everyone loved it and that begun my love of cake baking and decorating. This prize would definately make things easier.

  24. I love to bake and making treats for family and friends is so much fun! My husband’s Grandma Doodlebug makes the best mini whoopie pies every year at Christmas and they are sooo good! So many wonderful traditions that include baking :)

  25. Baking Christmas cookies with my kids when they were little. They had so much fun!

  26. My favorite memories are baking and decorating Christmas cookies and then, of course, eating said Christmas cookies.

  27. I remember baking and decorating Christmas cookies with my mom, sister, and grandma. It was a tradition we did every year. My mom and grandma would frost them and my sister and I would decorate them.

  28. Making all of our family recipes for the holidays, makes me think of my Grandmother and Mom.

  29. My favorite baking memory is with my grandma. She made the best Coconut Cakes! People actually paid her to make them a cake. When I got older she let me help her on occasion. I would use a old heavy spoon and scrape the coconut out of it’s shell. She never used store bought coconut, always a real, break it open with a hammer coconut. She loved to bake other goodies too. Sour Cream Pound Cake, Pinwheel candies, a Crazy Cake. Oh I miss her so much!

  30. My favorite memory is one I hope I’m also passing onto my daughter’s, helping my mom bake in the kitchen. It was always such a fun time.

  31. I learned to bake from my Great Grandma, she was so patient, gentle and kind. . .I remeber we were making something that needed to be rolled out with a rolling pin. Well I was about 8 and all of a sudden my rolling pin DIDN’T have a handle. We spend what seemed like an hour looking for that silly thing and ended up using the pin with out one of the handles and laughed the whole time. When we were done and hung our aprons mine was a little heavier and the handle had fallen into a smaller side pocket we hadn’t checked or felt.

  32. My grandmother’s Christmas cookies are the best and I always loved decorating them with her. After she passed, my aunt continued the tradition. Now I get to take my son over to sit around with the family and decorate “Grandma’s cookies” every year. :)

  33. I love making amos and andy candy with my paw paw each year.

  34. My favorite baking memory is making Christmas cookies with my mom who isn’t so great at cooking but likes to sit around and eat the cookie dough with me :)

  35. Baking Christmas cookies of course!

  36. Me and my best friend have a long standing tradition of making chocolate tarts together. It’s our thing :)

  37. My favorite baking memory is when I was a kid making fudge & Rice Krispie treats with my grandmother in her kitchen after school right during the holidays. I’d pull up the footstool to the counter and dump & mix all of the ingredients. She really made me feel a part of the baking, even though I really wasn’t doing much. It has become a tradition that I continue with my nephew now and hope to share with my kids when I have them.

  38. One of my earliest memories is making cookies with my Gram and cousins, we would usually make p.b. cookies and we would take turns criss crossing them with the fork, now when I make p.b. cookies with my kids that is their favorite part.

  39. Baking Christmas cookies with my girls when they were little.

  40. I actually have a lot of wonderful baking memories. But, one of my favorites happened every fall. My family and I would go peach and apple picking and then head home to make peach and apple pies for the High Holidays. Of course we’d also put a peach pie in the oven right away to make sure the peaches were good that year (that is of course after we’d eaten a few while we picked – quality control was very important ;)).

  41. My favorite baking memory is baking and decorating sugar cookies with my sister.

  42. I make a chocolate pie every thanksgiving and Christmas for my daughters. They spend the rest of the year trying to make up reasons for me to make It again. Last year I taught my oldest and she was so excited. They look forward to those holidays just for chocolate pie!

  43. My favorite baking memory is making cut-out cookies and then having my girls decorate them. The counters would be covered with cookies, colored frosting, decorating bags, spreaders, and every sprinkle sprinkle in the house! Many happy hours passed while decorating their masterpieces!

  44. We always baked on or around my November birthday – trying to get a jump on the holidays! My 9th birthday we baked all day long since we had a snowday. My mom ended up droppinga pile cookies into the oven and setting them ablaze … Sending all the kids onto the front porch while she panicked inside! Hilarious. She let us eat as many cookies as we wanted if we kept her secret from Dad.

  45. My favorite is baking pumpkin log rolls with just about anybody! I have made them with so many friends and family members, it is always a great time.

  46. My favorite memory was when my sister and I each got to invite a friend over and spend the Saturday baking Christmas shaped sugar cookies. We got to decorate and eat them, then sent some home with our friends.

  47. My favorite baking memory is last year…supervising my (at the time) 4th grade daughter and her science experiment on cupcakes…don’t forget, you have to repeat the procedure 5 times!!!! We had a TON of cupcakes left over…so we helped a friend’s homeless ministry by serving her delicious cupcakes! I think that’s a moment she will never forget!

  48. One of my favorite baking memories was when my 9 year old daughter decided to surprise us with muffins. We awoke to a wonderful smell and they looked absolutely beautiful. When I took that first bite, however, it had that baking powder taste. I thought I may have just gotten a piece of baking powder that didn’t get mixed in. The second bite had that same strange taste to it. When I asked her how much baking powder she had used, she showed me the recipe said 3 teaspoons. Then I asked her what teaspoon she had used. She pulled one out of the silverware drawer. We compared measurements and I showed her how the eating teaspoon equals 1 1/2 measuring teaspoons. A good lesson learned that still brings a smile to my face 20+ years later.

  49. My favorite baking memory is my grandmother teaching my sister and I how to make pies from scratch for a Girl Scout badge. We had so much fun and made such a great memory.

  50. The first time I tried making cake pops were for my friend’s bridal shower. I was afraid of how things would turn out, but I followed bakerella’s recipe and tips to a T and they were a hit! :)

  51. Baking with my preschoolers – so fun to see how much they enjoyed measuring, pouring, and watching the mixer stir up their favorite cookies!

  52. My favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my daughter cookie exchange parties & to give to all her wonderful friends & teachers.

    We work together in our matching Santa aprons with Christmas music in the background and completely trash the kitchen. But it’s all worth it for that special time with my daughter & all the yummy treats.

    I think we might even attempt baking our own Ginger bread house & gingerbread man cookies this year.

    Would love a great gingerbread recipe if anyone has one to share.

  53. My favorite baking memory is standing on a chair in my little apron “helping” her make cinnamon rolls.

  54. My mom, grandma, and aunt used to make so many different kinds of cookies and sweets every Christmas. I learned to make so many different yummy things! My favorites are peanut butter balls, spritz, and of course, cut-out cookies. I can’t wait for Christmas now!

  55. My sister and I started baking Christmas cookies together every year several years ago. Sadly, my husband and I moved away last year.

  56. My worst moment in baking turned into my best memory. I was making a pony shaped cake for a coworker’s child’s birthday. When trying to ice the carved cake, it ripped chunks out of the cake because I had not learned to crumb coat yet! I started bawling in frustration, but my dear husband came in, and using his engineering skills, pasted my poor broken cake together and helped me finish!

  57. I first got really into baking a few years ago when I was trying to get my friend to watch an episode of a show with me, and we decided to bake a snack to go along with it. Never ended up watching the show, but we made an absurd cake (chocolate cake, chocolate butter cream, chocolate ganache, and graham crack just stabbed all over the outside), that started off the Summer Time Cake Series, a few years of making cakes weekly for our friends. It was fabulous!

  58. When my parents had their kitchen redone, the few days after it was finished my mom and I had a non-stop baking marathon. We basically made anything and everything we could think of, it was glorious.

  59. Every year at Thanksgiving I make pumpkin cupcakes and apple pie for my family.

  60. Baking Christmas cookies with my mom. Picking out the recipes we would make, going shopping for ingredients and spending time together baking and delivering our delicious creations.

  61. I remember the first time my brother and I wanted to surprise my family with bread. We put so much yeast and used so much flour we ended up with a huge huge mess.

  62. Our families are originally from Canada, and as such, Christmas is just not the same without Nanaimo bars. We usually have to import one of the main ingredients…Bird’s custard powder, as it isn’t readily available at any grocery store I have been to. I generally find myself baking two large pans of bars in one day…one for us to eat from or freeze and one for adding pieces to gift trays.

  63. My first and favorite baking memory was with my grandmother. She was a wonderful cook and baker. She never measured anything and it always came out right. her apple pie was wonderful. To get her recipes my mother would have to measure every ingredient as my grandmother put it into the bowl. It was fun and it is one of my favorite memories of baking

  64. My favorite baking memory is when I was little my Mom and Dad worked late so my sister and I would bake Christmas cookies together and decorate them to have as a nice suprise for them! I was always in charge of selecting the shapes and cutting them out and my brother would tint the icing! My sister was the only one alowed to put them in the oven, now every winter I make a huge batch and take them to my sister’s house and some to my brother!

  65. It’s holiday baking with my mom for me as we’ll. all kinds of delicious treats from her childhood in Greece. Kouriambiethes, melomakarouna, mmmm ….

  66. I always love baking apple and peach pies with my mom. We would make batches of them to freeze so that no matter when we wanted pies, they would be ready. Now that I have children of my own, we have continued this tradition with their help.

  67. making and decorating gingerbread houses with my two girls – we’ve done it several times and it’s always a good time!

  68. One of my favorites is when my daughter made brownies all by herself. I taught her well.

  69. One of my favorites is when my daughter made brownies all by herself. I taught her well.

  70. during the holiday’s my mom and I would bake cookies for friends and family.I think it was about 20 or more kinds. It would take us weeks to finishe all the diffrent kinds of cookies but it was awesome to see the table filled with all the cookies and all the kinds. it was alot of fun. Something I hope to do with my two kids I have all her stained recipie cards. It’s wonderful!!

  71. I learned to bake at school in Scotland when I was 12. I still have wonderful memories of that school kitchen and can still recall how it smelled.

  72. I love baking, especially with the opportunity to make memories. A couple years ago my dad asked me to come over just before Christmas. When I got there he asked me if I would make Christmas cut-outs with him. I spent the whole day, enjoying my dad’s company and making delicious cookies. It was a very special day for me.

  73. You fondest baking memory is the first year I baked Christmas cookies with my Godchildren. Seeing their faces light up with joy at what they had just accomplished. Wonderful memories that I will cherish.

  74. My Mom has one old cookbook from her mother with an illustrated step-by-step cartoon demonstration of how to make gingerbread boys. Nothing says holiday baking to me quite like those images of their raisin eyes and white icing outlines. Love to bake and decorate gingerbread boys with my own children now!

  75. My fav baking memory was watching my mom and my then 5-year-old daughter making my great-grandma’s crackle-top molasses cookies. Usually I do most of the baking, but it was great to see my mother and my daughter making an old family recipe. I felt pride in knowing that the tradition lives on…as an added bonus, the crackle-top molasses cookies now happen to be my daughter’s favorite cookie (and mine as well)! The imaging of the 2 of them baking those cookies will be with me forever.

  76. Watching my grandmother bake pies with my son, definately the best baking memory ever.

  77. I’m currently making tons of favorite baking memories. My daughter is five and for over a year now her dream has been to own her own bakery. She and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen baking and experimenting. She finds new recipes or sees pictures and we try to recreate them. I’m trying to teach her all I know. It’s just a really fun and special time.

  78. My favorite baking memory is also one made during the holidays. I always thought my mom’s cut out sugar cookies with the different colored frostings were the coolest thing. And of course, getting to decorate then eat them. As an adult I’ve learned they were Pillsbury sugar cookies with just powdered sugar and food coloring…but they are still the best! (but only when mom makes them.)

  79. One of my favorite baking memories is not mine, but rather my daughter’s. When she was about 9 years old, she thought she would surprise us by baking muffins (all by herself). We awoke to the smell of them. They looked beautiful! When we bit into them, however, there was a taste of baking powder. I thought maybe I had just gotten a little pocket of powder that hadn’t gotten stirred in. But, sure enough, the second bite also had that same strange sensation. When I asked her how much baking powder she had used, she said she had put in what the recipe called for (3 teaspoons). When I asked her what teaspoon she had used, she pulled one of the teaspoons from the silverware drawer. I then showed her the comparison measurements of both teaspoons and the teaspoon used for eating equals about 1 1/2 measuring teaspoons. We had a good laugh, and she learned a great lesson in baking. It still brings a smile to my face when I think about it 20+ years later.

  80. My favorite baking memory began about 7 years ago. Around the time my daughter turned 1, she began helping with our Christmas cutouts. My six year old son also joins in the fun. Baking is just better when it’s done with the ones you love!

  81. My favorite baking memory is when my mom and I would bake for hours and listen to christmas,music. Especially johnny mathis, dolly parton and kenny rogers. And to this day we still listen to them.

  82. When I was a child, any time my mom was baking pies, I would get a ball of pie crust to work with, too. I would roll it out, just like she did, but then cut the dough into shapes, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and put on a cookie sheet to bake. Once baked, we all enjoyed “scraps”. To this day, any leftover pie crust gets made into scraps and is enjoyed just as much as the pie itself.

  83. Every year I would help my grandmother and mom bake cookies for Christmas. My grandma never had recipes written down. Everything was in her head and somehow them always came out great!
    Now I bake with my kids. They are always eager to help. My recipes are written down. Lol

  84. Those pecan pies look delicious!! I have to try making them. My favourite baking memories are making simple cakes with my mom. Licking the bowl was the part that keeps that memory alive! My most recent memories are making cake pops with my own children. They are fascinated at the whole process. They always have smiles on their faces when we bake and make diffrent things. These memories will live on for all of us for a long time!! You’re a great inspiration Bakerella!!

  85. Neither of parents or any of my grandparents baked…but we did make my late grandma’s anise seed Christmas cookies every year and that is a fond memory.

  86. I tried my hand at baking cake pops for the first time last Christmas. I didn’t realize the time it would take to make a batch and was up all night. But not alone! My sisters stayed up with me, making them looks pretty assembly-line style. It was great to be up, chatting, and sharing the moment while putting our creativity to use!

  87. My favorite baking memories revolve around baking my children, then my grandchildren. The tug of war over who gets to lick the spoon and the flour on the floor. Sweet memories.

  88. I treasure memories of time spent baking and decorating July 4th cookies – sometimes it’s just my three girls and sometimes the project includes nieces and nephews that are visiting. Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face!!

  89. I have so many amazing baking memories, but I have to say that the year our whole extended family made gingerbread houses together was the most fun. Everyone had such a great time that afternoon. At one point my nephew added something silly to his house and he started giggling. Well, that laughter was so contagious that before long everyone was in on it. Tears were streaming down faces and bathroom breaks were necessary. His house looked silly, but that’s what made it so delightful.

  90. My favorite baking memory is my first baking session with my little daughter. She was standing on the stool and helping me dump and mix. Precious moments together.

  91. My favorite baking memory was last year. My fiance and I decided to give out cookies as gifts but somehow he convinced me to bake EVERYTHING the night before. We started at 6 pm and baked almost 400 cookies (6 different kinds), we finished at 2 am.It was such a dumb idea to wait, but thankfully they were all delicious.

  92. Making cookies at Christmas.

  93. One Christmas i baked cupcakes and distributed them around town to the homeless children. their joy and smiles are forever etched into my memory :)

  94. My almost 2-year old daughter now loves to help me bake, so every time we make something together, it’s extra special.

  95. Several years ago, I heard of Cookie Swaps for the first time and immediately planned my first annual Christmas Cookie Swap for friends and neighbors. Great fun!
    One Christmas, my parents were visiting from out of state, and I brought out the cookies from the swap to show my mom. She looked at the plate for a moment and said, “I bet you those two are the ones you made.” She was right! How in the world did she know?? I had not used any of her old recipes, and she had not been there when I baked them. My mom was awesome!!!

  96. I loved making pralines at Christmas time using the pecans that I had picked from our trees.

  97. I remember making pitzelles with my grandma, aunt and cousins. It always made us feel special to be able to help them and even today baking with family is one of my favorite things. I can’t wait to be able to pass that tradition on to my children!

  98. My favorite baking memory was when my mother was visiting my family before the Christmas holidays about 5 years ago. She was baking a tray of her world-famous baklava (which she learned how to make from my father’s mother). She had great disdain for my electric oven, which just wasn’t the same as her gas oven at home. The pastry wasn’t browning properly on the top so she decided to briefly put the broiler on. Let’s just say, phyllo dough and lots of melted butter are highly combustible. Within about 30 seconds, we had a tray of baklava flambe!

  99. My favorite holiday baking memory is making chocolate peanut butter fudge with my grandfather. It was his special holiday treat. I never saw him cook any other time of the year but at Christmas time he would take out the candy thermometer and all the pots and pans and he would cook like a well seasoned chef. He has long since passed away but his fudge lives on in my heart and my tummy as truely the best holiday treat. it’s a tradition I will share with my kids and hopefully my grand kids one day!

  100. My favorite baking memory doesn’t have me baking at all but my mom! She used to bake all of the bread we ate, and I mean from scratch- mixing, rising, kneading, rolling and baking. And we went through a lot of bread being a family of seven. It was a labor of love and she has forever ruined me because I have the hardest time with store-bought bread!

  101. My great Grandma Keller made the most delicious raisin filled cookies. Unfortunately, I didn’t really appreciate the grown up flavor as a small child. I ate all the filling out of the cookie and then I threw the rest in the bushes near the kitchen door. Recently I found a hand written copy of her cookie recipe, a real treasure.

  102. So many memories! I love to bake. Seeing people’s faces light up when I give them a Christmas plate full of wonderful baked goodies.

  103. That is so adorable. We were a little more simple, but we could make some delicious chocolate chip cookies.

  104. It’s tradition in my family to bake a special kind of cookie. The dough mixed with some spices, shaped like a doughnut, and filled with dates.. It’s so yummy and part of my culture too :)

  105. My favorite baking memory is making chocolate chip cookies with my gram. She was so patient with me and allowed me to participate fully every time. She’s still alive but suffers from dementia now that has really changed her personality. I do miss my old gram very much.

  106. My mother used to bake us brownies once a week for an after school treat. She would always use the Jiffy Brownie Mix and would frost them with the Jiffy Chocolate Frosting mix. I don’t think they make either of those any more. I just remember those were the best brownies. My Mom is no longer with us. I miss her and those brownies. Thank you for the nice memory!

  107. Baking many different kinds of Christmas cookies with my Mom and sister in advance of my 3 brothers coming home for Christmas.

  108. Every year right before Christmas my mom & I would spend a whole day baking different types of Christmas cookies. I would always eat so much raw sugar cookie dough that I would get a tummyache, but it was always worth it! We have continued this tradition now (minus the tummyache), just switching back and forth between our houses.

  109. Christmas cookies with the kiddos. So much fun!

  110. My favorite memory was when I was about 16 or so when I fell in love with baking. My mom didn’t bake and I was learning how to cook. I decided I wanted to make some chocolate and raspberry eclairs…pretty ambitious…but I used a recipe I found in my betty Crocker cookbook and used berries from our garden….it came out great and all my family and friends just raved. I became the family dessert maker for all functions after that. Now I’m passing that love on to my 8yr old son, who loves to help me bake :-)

  111. my favorite baking memories is with my mom and my sister every december making cookies for my friends and family.

  112. my favorite baking memory is making breakfast cookies with my mother. there was something magical about cookies for breakfast and spending that rare time with my mom, just her and me

  113. My favorite baking memory is every Thanksgiving all the women in my family compete in pie making to see who can make the best pie. This brings all of us together & is something we have done for years. I look forward to it every Fall! :)

  114. I loved the older ladies at church during the Christmas season because they would bake hundreds of cookies each for the cookie bizarre. All the almond flavoring and sprinkles I could eat!! Yummm :)

  115. My favourite baking memory is when I used to make “Plätzchen” (Christmas biscuits) with my nan when I was a child! Always used to decorate them with a million sugarsprinkles :)

  116. Every year, growing up, my mom and I would bake and decorate sugar cookies using my great grandmother’s recipe. We’d make them pretty with icing and colored sugars. They never lasted long, though! Our house full of boys ate them as fast as we could decorate them … but it was fun to spend that time together. And its a tradition that I plan to pass on to my daughter this year, now that she’s old enough to help out in the kitchen [she’s three!]

  117. My favorite baking memory is when my Mama would bake her cakes, she’d let me bake along with her. I would make itty bitty cakes and then “decorate” them along side her. Ironically, baking a cake is my least favorite item to bake now.

  118. I remember the first time my mom ever let my sister and me make cookies all by ourselves (in *her* KitchenAid stand-mixer, no less!). We were making chocolate chip cookies, and when we added the dry ingredients- POOF! There was flour everywhere! Our hair, the cabinets, the outside of the mixer, the FLOOR! What a mess! She was mad at first, but we all laughed and cleaned it up together. Surprisingly, Mom still let us bake after that, and her confidence in us has translated into a love of baking. I still love me some chocolate chip cookies, but I love making candies, flourless chocolate tortes, puddings (from scratch!); I’ll try almost anything at least once! I only hope I can be as gracious with my daughter when she starts experimenting in the kitchen. (She’s 4 now, so I’m sure it won’t be long, LOL!) Thank you so much for this opportunity, and for letting us all share our fun memories!

  119. We would make 3 or 4 kinds of cookies each Christmas. Every Geary we had to come up with 1 variation on 1 of he recipes then make it also.

  120. I always loved her chocolate cake with the thick chocolate frosting layer she had on top, my sisters and I would fight over who gets to lick the bowl, it was so good.

  121. my mother used to make homemade pretzels on Saturday nights for me and my sisters

  122. Favorite memories are the goodies my Mom baked and still creates today…I learned to make wonderful homemade cinnamon rolls from her. Now my daughter has started making them too. The generations of baking continues!

  123. I have just began a baking tradition with my nice who lost her mother 4 years ago. Whenever I tell her that I’m baking cupcakes, she’s my handy assistant right there in the kitchen. The time we spend creating “handheld joy” are the most precious moments.

  124. My mother made plain biscotti called mandelbroit every time we went to visit my grandmother, and I remember begging her for some before we went but she would only let us eat the corners and they were DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!

  125. My Mom would make the best elephant ears at Christmas time. They were crispy and buttery. I make them but of course they don’t taste as good as Mom’s.

  126. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mom and I get up early to cook a ridiculously large meal for family. Inevitably, there are at least three pies, homemade rolls, one or more cakes…did I mention there are only four of us? We enjoy each other’s company, take our time, drink mimosas, and each put a lot of love into each dish.

  127. I always loved baking challah bread with my mother

  128. I always remember my mom, aunt, and grandmother (Nanny) coming together with cookie sheets, chocolate chips, and bags of sugar to bake Christmas cookies in Nanny’s kitchen. This was an annual tradition that everyone in the family looked forward to.

  129. I loved baking with my mom when I was little. It was always fun to have your own little pretzel or cookie to make.

  130. My sister is twelve years older than me, and every year when I was young we’d spend the day together making batches and batches of Christmas cookies. It wasn’t like we didn’t see each other often anyway, but there was something very special and lovely about baking hundreds of Christmas cookies for friends and family!

  131. On Christmas Eve, we would always go to my grandparents’ house for dinner. Grandma would have spent weeks baking different desserts, but I remember she made a shortbread bar with chocolate and nuts. Delicious!

  132. I just started this baking tradition within the last four years….I bake homemade gingerbread house for my kids and nieces to decorate in Nov. The smell throughout the house is amazing! I have enjoyed seeing their creativity blossom from year to year. They have so much fun eating candy and decorating the houses. I love the laughter that fills the house. Priceless moments.

  133. I remember my papa was the baker in the family growing up. He made the most amazing pies and mousse. The family pie favorite was apple pie. Since I was always eager to help, my papa bought an apple peeler so that my job was to peel and core apples for the pies. I was a happy little girl watching my papa work his magic on the pies and I had a very important job. I loved that he allowed me to work with him and to watch him do what he loved to do best. My papa has been gone for a decade now, but the one thing I’ll always remember about him are his pies and me being the apple peeler.

  134. One of my favorite memories is icing Christmas cutout cookies with my mom and older sister. My mom made all kinds of cookies, but my perennial favorite is her cutouts.

  135. We call it Plum Pudding but it is actually called Thanksgiving pudding. It is a real old recipe from my husband’s grandmother. Very traditional to have every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

  136. Maybe this isn’t my favorite memory but when I was about 14, I made a pound cake and walked into the living room to present it to my mother and brothers. I tripped and the loaf went flying. Everyone laughed and said it must weigh wayyyyyy more than a pound.

  137. What a beautiful story….My favorite baking memories happen every tiime I am in the kitchen with my mom

  138. My favorite is finally getting a grandson that loves to bake. I had visions of baking with my granddaughters but I only got grandsons. The first 1 had no interest at all in baking. The second one would have but he lived over a thousand miles away. But the third one came to us with the love of baking. We baked and baked. I even made him a ‘cooking’ stool. So he could reach the cabinet. He loves gadgets and has to try out all of mine.

  139. When my kids were in school, we would bake Lemon Poppyseed Bread for their teachers Christmas gifts. I started out with lots of help, but they always seemed to find something more fun to do and I would end up finishing by myself. But, I enjoyed every minute!

  140. My favorite memory is helping my Dad bake Snickerdoodle cookies. I loved rolling the dough in cinnamon & sugar!

  141. Hands down, me and my mother making sugar cookies for Christmas. I can still smell them baking, the rush of sweet sugar and vanilla slowly attacking my sense of smell with each breathe I would take. But not only the aroma of mom’s cookies, the happiness she gave me just being with her and learning how to bake. My mom was a wonderful baker and now she is in a nursing home, oh how I wish I could just be back in her kitchen with her just one more time. That favorite memory is the one I cherish the most. Paulette

  142. My favorite memory would most likely be making Christmas cookies with my grandmother. My sister and I would help her make the sugar cookie dough, roll it out, and cut it. I’ll never forget all the icing and sprinkles!! I think that is one of the things that helped my love for baking grow. <3

  143. My grandmother, mother, sister, and I would all make lady locks (otherwise known as lady fingers) every year. Obviously, we couldnt just make the regular ones. We had a relative forge us some metal tubes for MINI ones. It took the entire day, but we always made enough to last for a year and to give away.

  144. My parents didn’t cook or bake but my grandma sure did. I’d go stay with her during the summer and we would bake a cake every week.
    I loved how she taught me the basics of taking the cake out of the pan and spreading the icing so that each part gets some.
    Naturally my favorite part was eating the cake. ;)

  145. One of my favorite baking memories would include making the Chocolate Crackle Cookies from this website! As an attempt to help cheer her up, I made these cookies for the first time with my friend Gina who was going through a rough break up. I think we accidentally used a lot more sugar than intended (both in the cookie mix AND rolling the balls in a crap-ton of the powdered & regular sugar… hahaha). Having the ultra sweet tooth, I did not have any trouble devouring these chocolately cookies. Not being as an extreme sweets-lover, Gina took exactly half an hour to finish one cookie. :-D

  146. Christmas cookies. I have a large family and my daughters and I make cookies. But when it comes time to wrap the plates, the boys pitch in. We make set up tables to walk around and fill the plates. The plates last year came from Goodwill and Habitat. We spent the fall searching for Christmas theme china. Finally when it is all together, Dad and the kids deliver the cookies over a few nights. It is a happy, happy time!

  147. My favorite baking memories are baking Christmas cookies with my mom and then with my own children.

  148. A favorite baking memory of mine resulted in black biscuits. My grandmother wasn’t a huge baker but she would make biscuits–canned–for every family dinner to go with the Kraft Mac and cheese baked with slices of American cheese on top. But EVERY SINGLE TIME, she’d char the bottom of the biscuits until they were black. There was never a meal where you didn’t have to pull the top off the biscuits and leave the bottom! Luckily since they were canned the flaky layers helped separate edible from non edible!

  149. At Christmas every year I make batch after batch of cookies,candy,and cakes. I start making cookies in October . When my children were young we would make the cookies together. Now they are grow andI have four grandsons. My oldest ,Christopher has helped me make cookies. last year I made 38 different kinds of cookies and I send baskets full of cookies to my family and friends.I love making my holiday treats.It makes me feel so good to make them happy.

  150. Now that I have my own family, my favorite memories are with them. Both my 3.5 and 1.5 year old love to get in the kitchen with me. They have their little steps stools and must have their own aprons. I love having them in there with me.

  151. Baking Christmas Cookies with my mom, who at 81 is still baking cookies and cakes. Her baking collection is massive :) She is an awesome woman!

  152. For my birthday this summer, my son and I made a cake that looked like a giant peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He’s left for college now, but we’re still talking about that cake!!

  153. Making Christmas cookies with my mom was my favorite baking time. She still makes them every year!!

  154. My favorite baking memory is experimenting with pie crust techniques every year! I don’t bake pies often (only around thanksgiving) so when I do I like to try new methods for getting the perfect crust. I’ll never forget some of the “flops” which turned into great memories!

  155. My favorite baking memories have been made as an adult. I love baking Christmas cookies with my daughter every year. She has been decorating them since she was a one-year-old and we both look forward to this every year.

  156. I have alwyas made my daughter unusal birthday cakes and now I am just loving ceating birthday memeories for my grandchilren now too.

  157. I have so many favorites but I think I really started enjoying baking more when my kids started wanting to be involved in making their birthday cakes. The first time my daughter made her own birthday cake all by herself was awesome!

  158. Every fall I would make Derby pies and bourbon balls ith my mother. We would give them to all the nieghbors.

  159. i grew up with a jewish father and christmas celebrating mother. over the years, good old jewish dad became the best christmas cookie baker in town! i relish getting the e-mail for the year asking what cookies we want this year and any new recipes that he has found.

  160. One of my favorite baking memories was when I had my daughters help me make cakepops for the first time. It was a bit messy but the smiles on their face made up for all the cleanin up afterwards. I hope it’s something theyt oo cherish as a childhood memory. Thank you.

  161. My favorite baking memory was when me and my two year old daughter made owl cake pops and cookies for her second birthday. It was so much fun doing it that i plan on doing it every year. It was wonderful to see my baby enjoy baking and making a mess she was so proud of what we made. Thanks for giving us such wonderful ideas that we can share and make great memories of.

  162. My mom was a great cook, but never really enjoyed it. I’m guessing that was probably our fault – 5 kids and I’m sure we were all picky about something! But when the holiday season rolled around, she would bake cookies like there was no tomorrow!

  163. I spent many afternoons with my Grandmother and learned a great appreciation for Southern cooking and baking from her. When she died in 1989, I inherited her big cake mixing bowl and her hand-cranked flower sifter — white with tiny blue flowers. Both are still going strong today and I think of her every single time I used them.

  164. My favorite baking memory was with my 5 year old grandson making peanut butter cookies with Hersey’s Kisses. I left the room for a few minutes and came back to the kitchen to findquite a few cookies missing their ‘kisses’ and my grandson covered in chocolate. He so enjoyed those cookies!

  165. I always make frosted sugar cookies for Christmas-and the best was Martha Stewart inspired! VERY pretty cookies I must say!
    Thanks for the chance to win!

  166. Making christmas cookies, shortbreads and decorating them with tonnes of sprinkles. I also remember baking cakes with my mom and being able to lick the batter from the spatula.
    Those are great memories!!

  167. My favorite baking memory hasn’t happened yet lol, but it will on Oct 6th of this year! My niece is getting married & is having a pie bar instead of a wedding cake and your grandmothers pecan pie recipe will be a big part of her celebration! I started baking this recipe last year & it has become my family’s favorite! Thank you for sharing it, it is truly the BEST PECAN PIE!

  168. My favorite baking memory involves my dad who worked in a Kimberly CLark plant for many years and did shift work BUT he always made time to make these little cookies each topped with a pecan and for the life of him he cannot remember the recipe :( I loved them & would help him bake them but Im 40 and that was 30 years ago so I dont remember either but it was a fave memory of me and Daddy

  169. One of my favorite baking memories is watching my grandmother decorate her famous wedding cakes. She’d make all of her roses on waxed paper and Id be in charge of separating them for her. Of course I’d get to eat the ones that broke. When I as married she made my wedding cake…no frosting flowers, only fresh, but just as special!

  170. My favorite baking memory would be making gingerbread cookies and gingerbread houses with my family. Decorating then with mini M&M’s! Love mini M&M’s!

  171. Myfavorite memory is making cookies with my Dad. We would watvh college or pro football on the weekends. He would have his stainless steel bowl in his lap with the big wood spoon beating the butter and sugar. On commercials he would go out, add the eggs, come in for the next series of downs and beat the eggs in. It would continue until half time.

    I have never been able to recreate his cookies. He use the traditional Toll House recipe. I swear it’s the hand beating in his bowl with his cookie spoon and his cookie sheets. He still has those utensils and I know they will be mine eventually but those cookies will never be the same.

  172. My favorite baking memories are seeing the joy on my daughter’s face when I hand her the beater to lick. We sure have fun baking together!

  173. After completing three Wilton classes, surprising my daughter with cow print cake made from fondant for her 13th birthday. She loved it and was surprised.

  174. I learned a love for baking at a young age. The memory that sticks out the most is baking sugar cookies at Halloween.

  175. My favorite baking memory is my family’s wish cake. For 14 years, my daughters and I have baked a cake on January 1st and everyone gets to blow out a candle while making a wish for the new year. It started out as an impromptu activity on a day off but now is a much-anticipated holiday tradition.

  176. My favourite baking memory was decorating cakes at my grandma’s for my family birthday parties. Ever since I was 12 she would give me free reign and all the ingredients I needed to make and decorate the cakes. Then we would carefully drive them over to my house to be devoured by my large family.

  177. My favorite baking experience has been making cookies with my son! He’s 5 now and we’ve done it for a few years now. He loves decorating and eats more sprinkles than he puts on the cookies!

  178. My mom doesn’t bake much during the year, but at Christmas, look out. She bakes several types of cookies and bars. Each of my siblings (4 of us) and my dad have a favorite and my mom made sure the favorites were baked first. My sister and I would be in the kitchen helping and sampling. Now there are spouses and 7 grandchildren, each with a favorite, and my mom makes sure to bake all the favorites. Starting in October, my kids start talking about the holidays and constantly say “I can’t wait for Grammy’s cookie tray”. Homemade cookies, baked with love by the best mom in the world, are the absolute best!

  179. I would definitely have to say my favorite baking memories are from when I was a child, I loved baking cookies with my mom and I remember most of them were filled with some sort of jelly or jam, I loved them. I guess now that I am older I think alot about those times since I have not seen my mom in years, but having my own son now I am definitely going to spend baking time with him, he’s one year old now but as soon as he’s old enough we will be baking those jelly cookies, for sure.

  180. Fighting over who licks the bowl with my sister.

  181. my favorite had to be the first year my son was old enough to “crack the eggs” for fall baking, and the younger girls were old enough to mess around with powdered sugar and rolling brownie balls – the looks on their faces was “oh my gosh we are SO important to have SUCH big jobs”! precious :)

  182. My favorite baking memory would probably be when I earned to make bread with my uncleI was twelve but the aroma that filled the air that day is one I will never forget especially because he passed away soon after and now I wish I would have written down all the things he shared with me about baking it’s so important to lear from those that have experienc because they can also get passed down fron person to person, miss him butb ow baking is even more treasured and I can show my son how I do it.

  183. I grew up in a big Italian family and every year my grandparents would make homemade ravioli, chicken cutlets, marinara, antipasto, and Italian bread for Christmas dinner followed by a chocolate yule log cake for dessert. As we all got a bit older and my grandfather passed away some of those traditions were harder to maintain but one year my mom and I decided to try the yule log recipe. It was a bit of a disaster and didn’t much resemble the one my grammy used to make but we had a lot of good laughs making it together and reminiscing about my grandpa singing “I’ve God A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” to us while he cooked. :-)

  184. One of my favorite baking memories is from last summer. Every week I was giving my boys a little baking class for fun. One week my mom joined in and we all baked challah together.

  185. I loved baking Christmas cookies with my mom when I was little. She passed away, but I still make our favorite Russian teacakes in her memory.

  186. The first time my sisters and I tried baking around the age of 10 as a surprise. We filled the cupcake tin too full and opened the oven to a tray of cupcake-cake.good times.

  187. My favorite baking memory is baking something special to send with my children on the first day of school.

  188. Has to be baking with my G-Mom-B! Especially a jelly roll, she’d trim all 4 of the outer edges and they became the baker’s treats. A sweet memory indeed:@)

  189. Every year my grandma used to make a particular kind of fudge. It’s a chocolate fudge but has peanutbutter in it too. There’s nothing that tastes like it. As she got older she passed the recipe/method down to my dad. Some of my favorite memories are of us in the kitchen. I loved watching dad put the pre-fudge goodness in the bowl of water to see if it formed a ball. It was like this magic thing. One second batter, the next FUDGE! Of course being in the kitchen gave me the right to lick the beaters. We even had this one pot we used for fudge and no others. It was more chemistry than baking but it gave me some great times with my dad

  190. My favorite baking memory is making Christmas cookies with my mom when I was little

  191. My favorite baking memory is spending time with my mom, baking everything from cookies and cakes to caramel corn and cookies. Lots and lots of cookies! Good times!

  192. When my children were small, they helped me eveerytime I baked. Christmas was special because we did so many cookies. They are grown now and each enjoy baking and cooking because of special times spent together.

  193. When i was young every year when my mum made birthday cakes for myself and my 2 brothers, each of us would be holding her arm which was on the hand beater, just so we could each say we baked the cake. And trully being so young, each of us really believed we made the cake, our hands would be holding her arm down from cracking the eggs, sifting the flour, to holding the beater. And voillla we were master cake chefs from the age of 4.

  194. My grandmother made pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving and Christmas. I convinced her to measure everything before she mixed it, so I could recreate the recipe. It took more than one try since she would just pour milk in until it was the color she liked, and she added the spices until it tasted right.

  195. My favorite baking is the week before Xmas! A group of 6-10 of us ladies get together and bake cookies from sun up to sun down. Then we decorate and package and divide the cookie platters to give out as gifts… It’s girl time and so much fun… We made over 3,000 cookies one year!!!

  196. Making cookies with my granddaughters is so much fun. They all sit around my table and roll out the dough. Great experience

  197. I started a tradition with a couple girlfriends to do a cookie exchange. Each of us supplied a couple doz cookies/bar cookies baked ahead of time, a new recipe and a bottle of wine. We gathered at my home and began making each of the recipes one at a time. It has grown into 6 more girlfriends and we end up with a lot of cookies, a few bottles of wine, a lot of laughs and a lot of diff cookies to share! A tradition we now look forward to each year.

  198. My favorite memory has turned into a fabulous tradition. The day my mother and I realized just how much easier trying a new recipe is when someone reads the instructions to you. I will read the recipe step by step to my mom who will follow my instructions. It is so much easier to bake a ‘never tried’ recipe when you aren’t laboring over the cookbook.

  199. Baking cookies with my daughter Sarah for cookie trays I was making to sell to get extra Christmas money. We would bake into the night and have the very best talks.
    Last year she couldn’t help me because she had just had baby Braxton but we both missed it so much. It didn’t seem like the holidays with the tradition we didn’t know we had started

  200. I don’t have any baking memories, but would like to make some with a KitchenAid and gift card!

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