I have fond childhood memories of baking chocolate chip cookies with my my mom and sister. When my sister and I saw our mom’s circa 1972 split pea green KitchenAid Stand Mixer come out, we knew we were in for a treat.
The process of helping my mom in the kitchen and being her little helper was almost as good as the cookies we’d bake together.
My dad always knew if my sister and I had been in the kitchen that day helping out as evidenced by the eggshells in his cookies, which we’d proudly present to him and that he’d never turn down. They simply added a delicious crunch.
As a helper, I learned early on not to crank the mixer to high speed immediately after adding the flour. A good way to make my mom mad was to spray her kitchen with flour.
The best part of cookie making came when adding the chocolate chips to the dough.
I’d always sneak a handful of chocolate chips that were supposed to make it into the cookie dough, but made it into my mouth instead.
With this cookie recipe, I wanted to embrace the classic chocolate chip cookie I grew up eating, but also incorporate everyone’s favorite fall ingredient: pumpkin.
Plenty of recipes exist for soft, cake-like, pumpkin whoopie pie cookies, but I wanted these cookies to have the traditional chewiness of a true chocolate chip cookie, but infused with pumpkin.
After testing and experimenting with so many recipes and creating everything from cakey, soft, pumpkin mounds to pumpkin-laced hockey pucks, I finally found the texture and flavor I was in search of with this recipe.
The resulting cookies are soft, tender, light and have just a touch of cakiness, but they are also chewy with some heartiness. Soft pumpkin cookie meets chewy chocolate chip cookie. The edges crisp up and the centers remain pillowy soft.
They’re packed with the warming flavors of fall, including cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, and a dash of molasses.
The chocolate chips pair nicely with the pumpkin and the flavors complement each other so well. Then again, chocolate pairs so well with most anything for me.
A few cook’s notes:
The dough is soft and a bit tacky to work with, courtesy of the pumpkin puree. Pumpkin does a beautiful job of tenderizing baked goods, but it makes the dough a bit sticky. Counteract the stickiness by chilling the dough before scooping it into balls. In my trials, I chilled the dough ranging from 90 minutes to 4 days. The longer the dough is chilled, the easier it is to work with.
Prior to baking, rolling a ball of dough through a cinnamon-sugar mixture not only creates a extra bonus of texture and flavor in the finished cookies, but it does double-duty by taking the edge off some of the dough’s stickiness.
I found the best cookies result from using 1 1/2 tablespoons of well-chilled dough, scooped using a cookie scoop, dredged through cinnamon-sugar, and flattened slightly before baking.
The cookies spread very little while baking and I recommend flattening the dough mounds slightly before baking otherwise the base will cook through and become too well done before the top sets.
The cookies keep beautifully, and paradoxically, get softer over time. The brown sugar and molasses attract moisture from the air so there’s little worry of them drying out.
Then again, I don’t think you’ll have too many extra cookies just lingering around.
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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen medium-sized cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 tablespoon unsulphered molasses (I use Grandma’s Original)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, ground ginger, salt – all optional and to taste
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups Nestle Tollhouse Semi-Sweet Morsels
Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture, for rolling
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, brown sugar, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and beat on medium-high to high speed for 3 to 4 minutes to cream ingredients; stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, and beat on high speed for 3 to 4 minutes until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin, unsulphered molasses (blackstrap molasses may be substituted but it’s bolder and more intense), 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, optional spices, salt, and mix until incorporated, about 1 minute. (All spices should be added to taste and use more or less, depending on how robustly-flavored you prefer your cookies. As written, the spices are nicely balanced and the cookies are of average intensity. Adding ginger, additional cinnamon or cloves, will give them a stronger punch and kick, rendering them more like a pumpkin-ginger-spice cookie)
Add the flour, baking soda, and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips by hand. Dough will be thick and dense yet soft, and must be refrigerated and chilled before it’s suitable for scooping out and baking off. Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap or transfer dough into an airtight container and refrigerate dough for at least 90 minutes, overnight, or up to four days.
Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare baking sheets by lining them with Silpat liners, parchment paper, or spray them with cooking spray; set aside. Make the Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture by combining 1/3 cup granulated sugar and 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl and stir to combine; set aside.
Form 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls of dough using a cookie scoop and dredge each ball through the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place balls on baking sheets; cookies spread very little and can be spaced about 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Flatten balls slightly before baking to ensure cookies cook through evenly. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until the edges near the bases of the cookies are golden and set, and tops have just set; cookies will continue to firm up as they cool. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before moving them. Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Cookies can be kept vegan by using vegan margarine such as Earth Balance and replacing the egg with a flax egg. Cookies can be made gluten-free by using a gluten-free flour blend such as Bob’s Red Mill.
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And now, onto the Giveaway portion of this post. You can enter to win:
a $200 gift card from Williams-Sonoma
and a KitchenAid Stand Mixer
Yes, one lucky person will win both.
The mixer is from the KitchenAid Custom Metallic® Series | Tilt-Head Stand Mixer | Flour Power™ Rating – 9 Cup
It’s a 5-Quart size with a 10-speed Solid State Control
It comes with a flat beater, wire whip, and dough hook
It retails for $649.95
I’m sure I don’t need to sell you on the benefits, workmanship, and high quality nature of a KitchenAid Stand Mixer or twist your arm to pick out $200 worth of items from Williams-Sonoma.
Although Tweets, Facebook mentions, or Pinterest Pins about this post are appreciated, they are not required for entry.
Simply answer the following question by leaving a comment below to enter the giveaway:
Please share a favorite baking memory. (Please be detailed and specific)
Contest ends Monday, October 8, 2012 and winner will be chosen randomly. Open to continental U.S. residents only. Complete contest rules can be found at the bottom of this page.
This post is sponsored by Nestlé® Toll House® Morsels, the perfect special ingredient for all of your family’s favorite treats!
I made these early this morning for part of our dessert table for Thanksgiving. They are heavenly! I made smaller versions of the cookies though. Soft, and not cakelike. Perfect flavors too. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Happy Thanksgiving!
They look absolutely delicious and full of so much goodness! I wish I could reach into my screen and swipe one for my mid-afternoon snack!
I love your recipes and I have been following you for weeks. I just came home for the weekend and baked these for my family. The cookie dough tasted amazing so I was sure the cookies would be great.
However, I kept having to reset the timer as they were no where near done in the allotted time given-and when they were finished they were incredibly cakey :/ Do you know what I could do in the future to fix this?
Thank you xx
Marie
I’d make sure your oven is 100% working correctly and calibrated (get an oven thermometer and check) and if it is, then…well…like I always say, bake until done and watch your item, not the clock, when evaluating doneness. These are cakey cookies, yes, but ‘incredibly’ cakey? I wouldn’t say that…sounds like you may have indeed overbaked them as that will cause things to dry out and taste cakier.
My memory is very similar to yours, except it was a navy blue Kitchen Aid. And we used these color-coded measuring spoons from a children’s cookbook :) Chocolate chip cookies were the first thing I mastered and had bake sales all the time on my street corner!
I think I might be the only baker in my family. I more or less look up recipes and tweak the ingredients to my liking, experiment here and there. I enjoy giving the gift of baked goods for birthdays and holidays and the recipients enjoy them too. I also like to leave some treats in my workplace’s break room from time to time; I smile at the excitement they bring.
My favorite memory would be entering a Chiquita Ultimate Banana Recipe contest. I had fun creating and submitting my banana sunshine cookie recipe and ba-nano bytes recipe. The bytes were a runner up and I won some neat Chiquita swag.
I love baking for my family when I go back home for the holidays. I made pumpkin bread at x-mas and even my traditional Taiwanese relatives loved it!
I have made these cookies both with chocolate chips and raisins and they turn out great either way.
The hint of molasses and spice blend is perfect. Thx for a great recipe.
Thanks, Jeanette, for the feedback on the cookies! So glad you like them and have made them two ways! I have a molasses version sort of based on these, coming out in the next week or so, which I’m currently in love with :)
I remember the first time I’ve ever baked – I was home alone for the first time and excitedly bought all the necessary ingredients for a basic chocolate chip cookie – flour, chocolate chips, butter, etc. Now, I come from an Asian family that never bakes, and I was in 8th grade. But somehow, something went horribly wrong, and I ended up with a soppy gooey mess – absolutely disgusting – and a kitchen filled with smoke. I have no idea what went wrong, but after that incident I didn’t bake until my second year in college when I had an oven. The first thing I baked? Chocolate chip cookies, beautiful and tasty! I’ve been baking constantly ever since because it’s a great stress reliever and I can make friends with food :)
My favorite baking memory is making and decorating sugar cookies with my kids every year over the holidays. Those cookies look so yummy! You can not go wrong with pumpkin and chocolate. :)
I love fall and pumpkin recipes. Those cookies look amazing! I remember making cookies often when I was a child. One time while reaching up to get something from the top shelf my long hair got tangled into the beaters of our old mixmaster. Pulled my head right to the bowl! It took my mom quite some time to get my hair and the beaters apart. Scary at the time but defiantly a funny memory now.
Not necessarily my favorite but definitely memorable. My first time baking a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving I was about 10. I had a little help from my mom and older sister but for the most part it was me. I ended up putting in a 1/2 tablespoon of salt instead of a 1/2 teaspoon into the crust and didn’t realize it. When it came time to eat the pie the crust was waaaay too salty. Everyone ended up scraping out the filling and eating that with whipped cream and leaving the crust behind! We all laughed and that it one mistake I will never make again.
My favorite baking memory was baking my brother’s birthday cake this past year. It was my first time making every party of a cake from scratch, so I had no idea what I was doing. The bavarian cream’s texture wasn’t right and the raspberry icing was too runny, but I was happy to be able to even create a cake for someone.
I would love to win! One of my favorite memories is baking anise cookies with my mom for Christmas. I still cherish those memories and now make cookies with my grand daughters.
I remember one Thanksgiving, my daughter, who was 13 at the time, decided to make Thanksgiving dinner all by herself. She made her first turkey, all of the sides, and a ton of gingerbread cookies. They were all very good, but she has decided never to do a turkey again because it took all day ;)
My son decided to intertwine string through every handle and draw throughout my kitchen. After we cut all the string down, my daughter and son decided to make gingerbread houses. The kids were very neat while decorating and even decided to clean up their messes when they were done. :)
Baking with my precious granddaughters every year.
My favorite baking memory was going over to my favorite Sunday School teachers’ house to bake chocolate chip cookies! She let me eat some of the chocolate chips, which I NEVER got to do at home…LOL Everytime I bake chocolate chip cookies, I think of her.
When I was a child my mother and I spent some evenings cracking various kinds of nuts (mostly walnuts) to use in her holiday baking. We would sit around the kitchen table drinking hot chocolate, singing Christmas carols, and cracking nuts. I miss those days!
As a kid, we never got Oreos or Chips Ahoy like the cool kids, but now I wouldn’t trade those memories of standing on a chair in the kitchen watching my mom make chocolate chip cookies. She always used the classic Toll House recipe and I would “help” by throwing the chocolate chips into the mixer and stealing a few for myself.
my best memory is making rum balls for the holidays–and then watching the family enjoy them. My grandmother always helped with them and since she pasted away in the 60’s they haven’t been the same –guess it was the grandma touch.
My best memory was eating chocolate chip cookie dough and baking cookies with my Mom
I loved baking cranberriy orange cookies during Thanksgiving and Christmas. The scent throughout the house was wonderful
My dad always made the best cranberry orange nut bread. He made it from scratch with fresh cranberries. Alas, I have lost his recipe. He passed away 32 years ago.
My favorite baking memory is baking classic Christmas cookies. It was a whole family affair. My parents, all my brothers, and I would spend hours baking and decorating cookies. As little kids, our treat for decorating all of the cookies was for each of us to then have one cookie that night to decorate for ourselves. We all tried to outdo each other with the most frosting and sprinkles we could fit! Now my favorite baking escapades are me and my mom experimenting with gluten-free and sugar-free brownies and other treats… so different from my childhood memories!
Yummy pumpkin CC cookies, I want to make them!!
My mom baked from scratch but unfortunately I did not pay attention. I bake from a box paying attention to the smallest detail.
As a wedding present, my Mom compiled a recipe book for me, filled with all of our family and friends’ “famous” recipes. Along with each recipe, she added special notes about when the dish was first served, what special memory it is associated with, who loves it the most, etc. It was such a special gift, and It makes cooking and baking so much more meaningful.
My mom never baked anything and I have to admit I do bake but it all comes from a box….kids like it though so that should count for something….lol
My favorite baking memory was when my grandmother finally gave me her top secret, super moist, chocolate decadance cake recipe and showed me how to make it. I was just 10 years old. We were standing in her kitchen and I had been begging her to teach me the recipe. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a warm summer day and you could smell the honeysuckle bushes right outside the window. She pulled out all of the regular ingredients, cake flour, cocoa powder, eggs, etc. Then she got onto a stepstool and reached into the very back of her cupboard and pulled out a small tin. She told me it was her special mix of ingredients. She told me what they were and told me how to make it. We finished up the cake and promptly sat down and ate some. I remember thinking that my grandmother was always going to be there because she was so young at heart. She died a few days later, but I always have that memory of her acting like a young girl while we were making her top secret, super moist, chocolate decadance cake.
I love making fresh rosemary bread with rosemary from my aunts garden. It goes so fast there are rarely leftovers for the week.
My favourite baking memory is entering the competitions at the A&P show in New Zealand as a child, which is I guess the equivalent of a state fair. I always loved beating people older than me!
Would love to win!!!
When I first married the only thing I could cook was chocolate chip cookies, It was also the only thing my mother could not turn out perfect. So I was thrilled when my brother was overseas and she would get the care packages ready and then ask me for a batch of chocolate chip cookies. they were his favorites 50 years later my brother is still eating my cookies and still loving them.
A specific baking memory I have is with my mother. I was home between graduating college and going to law school and it was a nerve racking time in my life because I was about to move from NC to Boston. My mom could tell I was stressed out and so we took to baking, something unusual since my father does ALL the cooking on a normal basis. But he went out of town for work so for our first try we set out to tackle a blueberry lemon pie. We even made our own crust! It took a little trial and error and almost an entire day but by the end we had a delicious crust, a lemon layer and a beautiful blueberry layer on top. I have never felt more accomplished and it was delicious! Now I continue the baking up here in New England as a way to relieve school stress, breaking out the start to it all, the famous lemon blueberry pie, only on special occasions. :-)
The first year I dated my now husband, I wanted to make his birthday dessert. I knew he liked chocolate cake and cheesecake, so I decided to combine the two into cupcake form. Mind you, I had NEVER baked anything before and did not even have all the right tools (not even a muffin pan). Instead I bought some “free standing” aluminum muffin wrappers, and found a recipe online, improvising with boxed cake mix and a tub of cream cheese. Long story short, the cupcakes came out mishapen, and kind of sunken in from my failed attempt to have a “cheesecake surprise” in the middle. They looked so ugly! But didn’t taste as bad. My husband ate one graciously and still remembers my first baking attempt for him. Now, 8 years later, I may try to recreate it – the right way – for his upcoming birthday.
My grandmother Tillie made the most wonderful pies, cakes and cookies from scratch. Made with very basic ingredients and lots of love.
My older brother and I spent one night trying to throw together our perfect biscuit recipe. We made about 4 batches of six at a time, and played with different ratios of shortening, butter, flour, and some secret ingredients! We love cooking together, and this spontaneous night was one of my favorite memories with my brother.
Back in high school I became good friends with an exchange student from France. We immediately bonded over food, having both been raised in families with long traditions of delicious cooking and regional recipes.
One weekend she and I decided to make gingerbread cookies. With some help from my mom to get us started, we took over the kitchen and spent several hours giggling and having a great time as we measured ingredients, stirred them together, and carefully cut out our cookie shapes.
What’s great is that I have a photo from then of the two of us in the kitchen, with big smiles, and flour all over our faces!
My favorite baking memory is baking in the kitchen with my MEMA! I would put my apron on just like her and I would grab a chair and stand right beside her. She would let me roll out the pastry for her Chicken N Pastry! (So Yummy!) We would make buttermilk biscuits and candied yams! My favorite was making Chcocolate Chip Cookies for dessert! We would make the biggest mess, but it was so much fun! I was always covered in flour from HEAD to TOE :-)
Mom would always make persimmon cookies around Christmas…..they’re still my favorite! It’s just not the holidays until I make up a batch…
I remember like it yesterday watching my mother bake Christmas cookies and decorate them beautifully. She then covered them in Saran Wrap and hung them on the Christmas tree. All of us kids would wait (not so patiently) until the tree would come down so we could have the cookies. We never cared how stale they were. My mother knew exactly how many cookies she hung on the tree and there better have been the same amount each day. She was a terrific baker and cook.
First of all, these look absolutely amazing. I love pumpkin cookies, and I’m excited to try out the recipe.
Second, my baking memory: When I was younger, my family really had a rough time. My parents divorced when I was 8, and it was nowhere close to a civil parting. There was, figuratively speaking, mud-flinging, scratching, and biting involved. That being said, I will always remember with fondness baking with my mom. She had this old recipe book that was covered in flour and stains from being used so much. It had TONS of recipes in it. We would always bake cookies and brownies, and it always brightened my day (despite all of the divorce drama). Later, we got an electric breadmaker, and I would make homemade cinnamon rolls all the time, and just thinking about it now, I can still smell them baking in the oven.
It’s amazing what a little time spent together baking can do.
Teaching my daughter how to bake is my most memorable experience
Such delicious looking cookies; makes me want to start baking right now.
My favorite baking memory was baking “Big Pancake” with my mom on Sunday mornings. We would mix the ingredients together and then put it in the hot oven and I would watch it rise and puff up so high it seemed like magic to me – then eat it with powdered sugar and strawberries! YUM!
I have so many wonderful memories but a favorite one is with my grandmother. My grandmother had ten children so when she baked, she baked a lot. We often made homemade donuts in the inter and she let my siblings and I roll the dough and then roll the finished donuts in cinnamon ans sugar, I miss her and I miss those days.
Have a great weekend, Elizabeth
The pumpkin cookie recipe looks good. I can’t wait to try it.
I love to bake at the start of fall, and straight through the Holidays. As soon as the colder days come, I take advantage of heating the house with the oven, and the great smells that fall baking brings.
When I was growing up, my favorite treat to bake with my mom was her special meringue cookie recipe. THey are soft, pillowy, and oozing with melted chocolate chips, and one million times better than the crunchy, artificial -tasting meringues that you can buy at the supermarket. My sister and I would always beg her to make them on special occasions!
My grandmother, my mother and I would bake Italian cookies for the holidays. It was lots of fun, then we would plate them and bring them to our family and friends.
Decades ago, my Brownie scout leader invited me to her home and helped me make a from-scratch cocoanut cake for my mother’s birthday. It was the best cake my family ever had, and nothing to date has matched the good taste and good feelings of that memory.
My Dad was famous for his fudge and I loved that he let me help him by handing him each ingredient.
My Mother loved baking pies and it was my job to crush all the chocolate cookies for the crust for her Black Bottom Pie which was always a favorite when we had company for dinner.
My mother wasn’t a cookie make, though I am, but her pies were fantastic. I’m told that she would help my gram on Saturdays make pies and they’d for sure have company that night.
I eat what my wife bakes. She is baking right now!
A favorite baking memory is me helping my mom in the kitchen when I was a kid. She was a great baker (and still is), who made everything from scratch and could just eye-ball the ingredients. I remember helping my mom make our family-favorite boston creme pie and she would let me lick the beaters. This is probably looked down upon nowadays because of the raw eggs, but who cares?! It was tasty!!
I wish I inherited my mother’s natural baking abilities…but I am working on it! Winning this mixer would sure help :)
Wow, those look amazing!
My favourite baking memories include those Nestle Toll House semi-sweet morsels you posted above, and a hand mixer. We almost always baked chocolate chip cookies together. My mom has always wanted a Kitchen-Aid, but never could justify to herself buying one because of the cost and storage space. I tried to help in the best way I could. I remember being so excited when I finally learned how to crack eggs without getting egg shells into the batter, and insisted that be my job from then on. I also remember that when I was little, she would always start the mixing process using the hand mixer, and as the dough came together, she would hand it off to me. This was my least favourite part, because I hated how my hand vibrated for a few minutes afterwards. However, after having to hand-whip whipped cream at work with a wire whisk, I’ve learned to appreciate my mom’s hand mixer. Maybe this comment will mark the end of the hand mixer with a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. :)
Baking cutout cookies with all different colors of icing and all types of decorations are the best!
My favorite baking memory is of my mom’s delicious butter/sugar cutout cookies that she made for holidays (Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas). As a child, I would “help” Mom with the selection of the cookie cutters, the cutting, and the frosting/decorating of these “masterpiece” cookies. Good times.
A favorite memory of baking came when I was first married and still trying to impress the Man, I made Chocolate chip bars. They were terrific. But he wanted them again and I had to send him to town for supplies so I had to confess that they started from the Choc. chip cookie mix and I had just adjusted it for the bars. He still loved me and the Bars!!!!
My favorite memory is when I baked pies and cookies with daughter. We baked and played at the same time. We threw dough, flour and chips!! Her dog was in heaven!!
Great recipes. Nice memories.
I remember on our visit to Hawaii many years ago, I purchased a cookbook. My favorite receipe was chocolate macadamia nut pie. It was close to pecan pie but substituted macadamia nuts for the pecans and added chocolate. Best pie ever!!!!
One of my favorite memories of baking is always during the holidays when we cook cookies for the kids to give Santa. The house always smells good and delicious!
One of my favorite baking memories was when my Mom who lives in Arizona and my sister who lives in Texas were able to come and visit. We baked for a week, each bringing our 7 favorite recipes. We baked enough for all of us to have a large variety of cookies to celebrate the holidays with.
My favorite baking experience was baking cookies with my children for the first time.
my most memorable baking memory has got to be during thanksgiving me and my mom bake a pumpkin pie cake semi homemade with toasted walnuts its absolutely delicious : )
I love cooking with my mom every Christmas. We both do the desserts and even if I do the same cake she always does, I always feel like hers is the best. No one can come close to my mom’s baking!
I love the holidays and being in the kitchen with my Mother. She always bakes from scratch and I am her helper. Licking the bowl after the batter is poured into the cake pan is still a treat aft many, many years. I do the same with my daughters now!
I can remember my first time using that little easy bake oven and my first cake I baked. I was so proud. Those little cakes were a work of art. I laugh now but back then it was a real accomplishment.
My grand daughter getting her hands gooey with cookie dough
My favorite baking memory is with my dear Aunt Joy, whom I was named after. From about the age of 6 we would make homemade white bread together. She taught me how to knead and wait patiently for the bread to rise twice. Lots of life lessons from just making bread. My Aunt Joy lived to be 93 and we cherished that memory.
My favorite baking memories is of making 7-layer cookies with my aunt, Pam. We would improvise, sometimes adding bits o’ brickle, sometimes leaving out the coconut. I spent a month with her one summer and we always had these cookies on hand. So fun and easy to make- both the cookies and the memories :)
My favorite baking memories are always from Christmas when Mom would spread a big bedsheet on the floor under the table and Daddy would mix up the Tarrelli dough and all six of us would stand around the table making shapes – until we filled up a cookie sheet and mom started having to bake the cookies. Then they let me make the glaze since I was the oldest and I’d glaze the cookies and we’d all sprinkle the colorful little balls on our own pans of cookies. Then Mom would get shoe boxes she had saved out and would line them with foil, then with waxed paper and we’d fill the boxes up to mail to our relatives across the country. Then on the few Christmases we were able to spend with the whole family we’d have a dozen or more people gathered around a big kitchen table in whoever’s house we had all gathered at. We’d make shapes, and braids, and laugh and tell stories of Christmases past and share family memories. It’s a tradition I’m continuing with my two little ones… and each year we do cookies by ourselves I get homesick for the rest of my big extended family.
My mom STILL has her ’70s split pea green kitchenaid mixer, and I still use it every Christmas with my niece ‘helping’ me mix dough. My parents allowed me free reign of the kitchen at a very young age (which horrifies me a bit now) and some of my best memories are making brownies, cakes and cookies with my friends who were sleeping over. One particular time I remember, my friend Em and I were trying to make a chocolate souffle from a box mix. I’m pretty sure neither of us even knew what a souffle was, but we thought we could follow the directions and make it with little difficulty. For some reason I had to leave the kitchen just before the final steps and when I came back Em already had it in the oven. When the timer went off, we pulled out a soupy mess and I noticed there was no extra pan for the “water bath” the recipe called for. When I asked Em, she told me she thought it meant to pour water directly on top of the souffle, and when I gave her a funny look she responded with “What? I’m ten! How am I supposed to know what a water bath is?” Thanks so much for the great blog and the wonderful fall recipes!
My granddaughter and I baked browies
This is such an amazing giveaway, and these cookies look so chewy and delicious!
I think one of my favorite baking memories was when I was younger and made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with my grandpa. That recipe was his specialty thing and I remember him telling me that we had to “test to see if the chocolate chips were still good” multiple times during the cookie prep period. And he would NEVER let you waste any batter; it all had to get out of the bowl and onto the cookie sheet. :)
Good lessons to live by, I think.
I’m PA Dutch and one of our traditions is to make and eat “Faustnacht” Doughnuts on the day before Ash Wednesday (meaning the night before the fast). It was a snowy winter day and I had to walk up a hill to school. I kept slipping backwards and could not make it up the hill ( I was 7 at the time), so I headed back to my Grandmothers. She was already working on the doughnuts since you need to start by boiling and mashing potatoes. There was no one to take me to school so I got to spend the day with her learning how dough rises and getting to help make the doughnuts. With the leftover she allowed me to make a “Donut man” like a gingerbread man but about 5 times the size. I can still smell the dough drying and see the fogged windows of that February morning in my mind’s eye more than 45 years later.
I have very, very fond memories of baking gingerbread cookies with my mom at Christmastime. We did this when I was still in grade school, so I’d have been between 5-9. We’d make the dough from scratch and then it had to refrigerate for a few hours. Waiting was TORTURE!!! Then we’d get her plastic mat out, sprinkle flour on it, and roll the dough out with her wooden rolling pin. After that task was completed, it was FINALLY time to cut out the cookies with her metal cookie cutters. My favorite cookies were the star-shaped ones, but it was also fun to make the gingerbread people.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!!!
Chocolate and pumpkin? How can you go wrong. A nice fall twist on chococlate chip cookies.
One of my favorite baking memories was recusing my mother’s butterscotch bundt cake. shortly after moving to a rural upstate NY community, her friends, “the girls” form New York city were coming to visit. They did ot think much of my mother’s move and were quite condescending. she prepated an elegant meal, including lobster mewburg and the aforementioned from scratch cake. although normally, she let me domost of the cake measuring and mixing and licking the bowls, this time, I got to watch and bring her ingredients. To her dismay, the cake crumbled. she was devestated until I suggested caling it pudding, whipping up some cream and a butterscotch sauce and topping it with a cherry. It was a hit and even years later, they still raved about it.
There are many, but one of my favorite baking memories was getting to make cupcakes with my grandma when I little. It was on one of our summer vacation trips to visit her and my grandpa. When she asked if I wanted to make them I was so excited and I was looking forward to it until the time came to start [which seemed like forever :) ]. It was a fun and special time with just her and me.
While growing up my mom had a tradition – when it rained she always made cookies. While most kids were upset about having “indoor recess”, I could hardly wait to come home to lingering scents of fresh baked cookies and a plate waiting just for us! My mom is no longer able to make cookies as often, so now when it rains, I always make cookies for her. Mom baked with love, and she passed that on to me. It was a big deal when mom got her Kitchen Aid mixer. Someday that mixer will be handed down to me, and I will bake with love…just like mom!
When I was younger, my mom never baked. However, my godmother did and it was always so fun to be in the kitchen while she did. The item that we loved making the most was chinese pineapple cakes. It’s a bit intense for a non-baker like myself, but with her by my side, it was possible. She had the most delicious recipe too, I think it’s because she made it with love. I tried making it myself last year, but it just didn’t taste the same!
My baking memory is of baking batches of brownies with my mother.
My goodness ! Can you believe how beautiful the hand painted KitchenAid is? I would be afraid to wash it fearing the paint would wash off (how do you care for it? ) I bet if I win the KitchenAid mixer and get it painted I would have many stories of my baking adventures and many people asking who painted my KitchenAid.
My mom always loved to bake on a whim, so my most exciting baking memories are of my mom popping into my bedroom when I was young to announce we were making cookies. I’d “help” as much as possible while sneaking dough. It wasn’t until I learned how to bake correctly that I learned that eating parts of the dough (like butter and sugar whipped together) before it was all combined totally threw off the recipe!
My husband make the choclate chip cookies in our family
I used to love cooking with my mom and eating the raw cookie dough when she wasn’t looking :)
My favorite baking moment… When my boy was barely 2 and will sit on the counter while we bake cookies… from frozen dough! He will everyone who will listen that his mom is the best baker ever. He knows the difference now that he is 8 but his little sister is now my helper as I move into making cakepops. Will still do frozen doughs and they still think I am the best in the kitchen.
my fave baking memories centered around winter. We lived “in town” so during the snowy times, we usually had other family members staying over so they could get to their jobs (think tiny, rural town in the midwest). My Aunt, a very accomplished baker, was usually one of the guests. She taught me nearly everything I know about baking. We always tried out new recipes and I learned a lot! The rest of the family was happy to have all these treats to eat as well! LOL
I have such fond memories of baking Christmas cookies with my mother when I was small. That’s how I developed a love of the kitchen, and got started on the path to doing what I do now!
My favorite Christmas cookies were always the Russian Tea Cakes. It was magical to experience the whole process. We’d mix the dough, then chill it. We’d form little balls and bake them, then toss them in powdered sugar while still warm. The thing that took them from good to amazing, though, was their second coating in powdered sugar once they had cooled.
Maybe the best thing was that because they were so delicate when warm, a few would break. I’d get to eat the broken ones!
I’ve seen similar recipes with different names – Russian Tea Cakes are just about the same as Mexican Wedding cookies. Simple balls of walnuts, flour, and butter, rolled in powdered sugar. Yum!
My favorite baking memory is making mincemeat pie with my grandmother. She made them for every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I was always so excited when I got to help her. I still use her lattice special top crust design when I make double crust pies!
Mixing and baking pumpkins, apples and lemons. I have never tried all three together.
Maybe I’ll try mixing and baking them when I get my new SUPER KITCHENAID.
Please let me give you my address, so that you can send it.
Pumpkins, apples or lemons! I love to bake with all of the, but I have never tried the three together.
Maybe I’ll try that when I get my new, SUPER KITCHENAID.
Please give me that opportunity.
I love pumpkin desserts! I am itching to start baking this fall! :) My favorite memories is spending time with my grandma baking cookies. She taught me so much. She also taught me how to bake pies, bread, etc. My grandfather especially loved eating the cookies after I and Grandma finished baking them. Every time I went over to their house to visit, we’d bake cookies or Grandma would pull out cookies she had frozen from our baking session, pour me a glass of milk and coffee for the adults and we’d just sit around the kitchen table. Now when I bake cookies with my kids or I have warm cookies ready (I make a huge batch of cookie dough, roll them in balls then freeze so I pop a couple in the oven right before they get off the bus) and I’d make myself green tea or coffee, sit at the table with the kids and my boyfriend and chat. These moments makes me feel very close to my grandparents. My grandma is more traditional. My mother is complete opposite and adventurous. She’d make a huge variety of food but my favorite memory is making baklavas with Mom. Now that was an interesting project but I LOVE baklava and I am proud to say that I KNOW how to make baklava. I think I’ll make a batch this fall. ;)
I have so many baking memories with my Nanny. But the one I remember the most was a project I had in elementary school. We were learning about yeast and how different ingredients responded in a recipe. We had to make something that used yeast and bring it to school and give a report. Which today, I’m sure would never happen, because of food guidelines and health regulations, but I made pretzels. The big ones like you get in the mall. My nanny and I rolled out the dough and I attempted to make them at least pretzel shaped. LOL. I didn’t do very well in that category, but my Nanny did. I thought her pretzels were the best looking pretzels ever made. Now whenever I go to the mall and see them twisting the dough with grace and ease I remember that special day in the kitchen with Nanny. Man I’m hungry!
My favorite baking memory has to be the first time I ever tried to bake something from scratch, which was the summer after my freshman year of college. I had lost a bet and was supposed to make sugar cookies for my roommate. I looked up a recipe from somewhere online and did my best to follow the instructions – but not knowing what the difference between a roll out dough versus drop dough and not understanding ANYTHING about dough texture at all….let’s just say the cookies turned out…uniquely. But my poor roommate said they were great and finished them all. Since that fateful attempt all those years ago, I have been hooked on baking and try to veganize every recipe I can find :)
I was actually drooling at the creamy cheese dip recipes on todays blog and ended up here to dream of making cookies. I am either hungry or just love good food. To help you make good food you need good kitchen tools. KitchenAid makes a very good mixer that would help you make your cookies faster so you would have enough time to make the cheesey dip or the spinach dip for that matter. I think I will go make some memories now and I’ll let you know how they turn out if it doesn’t get too late.
My sister Sharon was the best cook,at Christmas she would make at least 20 dozen cookies.Oh how I miss her.
I remember while baking with my mom, she would butter, cinnamon and sugar any extra dough then bake it to make a cinnamon treat. it was so good!
I don’t know if this is a “favorite” baking story, but I sure learned a lesson from it! I was newly married and trying to impress when I made my first batch of homemade runzas. (think homemade hot pockets) I made the dough, let it rise, then rolled it out and filled it with the meat mixture. Right then the hogs decided to escape from the lot, so my help was needed outside. By the time I returned, the runzas had tripled in size, and I had no choice but to bake them. Once baked, each one ended up being the size of a dinner plate with lots of dough, lots of air, and not much filling. We still laugh about that!
My two most favorite flavors are pumpkin and chocolate. I need to put them together more often.
My favorite memory was making snickerdoodles with my grandma when I was really little. My brother and I would go over to her house and we’d make the dough in her blue KitchenAid mixer (it was already 20+ years old at this point and I’m 25 now) and we’d get to pick a color to dye the dough. As a kid my favorite part of the process was rolling the dough into balls and then coating it in the cinnamon sugar. Then, once all of the cookies were baked we’d make vanilla frosting and my brother and I each got to pick a color to dye the frosting. After the exhausting process of choosing colors we’d make snickerdoodle cookie sandwiches then sit down at the table with a big glass of milk and enjoy the fruits of our labors.
When I was a little girl I would sleep over my grandmother’s house (Memere). While I was there I would help her make Pecan Pies and some White fudge, even my grandfather (Pepere) would get in on the act. When the fudge was ready he would sometimes sneak me a piece. I still make my Memere’s pecan pies. Now they are my specialties.
When my kids were little, one of their favorite things to do was help me bake. They would get a chair and stand on it beside me at the kitchen counter. It would be snowing outside, we would have the fire going and I would lite cinnamon apple candles. When my husband would come home, he walked into the delicious home cooking smells. Those are some of best memories that I have. Very warm and cozy!
One of my favorite cooking moments is when I would go to my grandmothers house and she would make me anything that I wanted it didn’t matter. Now mind you she had won many cooking awards for her wonderful cooking she was the best. She anything I wanted I always asked for a cheeseburger, french fries and a chocolate shake and sure enough she would whip it up for me with lot of love. I think this is where I received my love for cooking was from my grandmother she would patiently bake and cook with me everytime I would come to visit. So now that I have a granddaughter I am starting this tradition with her and have had many opportunities to bake with her the great thing is she is only 2 1/2 years old, but when she comes over she says Bubby (that’s what she calls me) can we make cookies or brownies. I always do I want her to have that love for baking that was instilled in me.
it has to be making christmas butter cookies..the whole family got involved each year and we created many fun memories
This is the finest mixer ever
Love Chocolate chip cookies!
My favorite baking memory actually happened last Christmas with my boyfriend and his mom. They had a family tradition of baking hundreds of Christmas cookies from an old German recipe. We spent hours baking, decorating, taking pictures, and talking. It was a great way to spend time together and get to know her better. I also felt really special being included in their family tradition.
I remember cooking with my gram because she said my mom just couldn’t “cook” and nobody would know how to make the Polish food everyone liked, but making cookies was mom’s favorite thing – still is today.
Christmas season was always so much fun for me as we took over the kitchen and kitchen table, so I could reach comfortably, to make what seemed like thousands of cookies. I remember always looking like the Pillsbury dough boy in my apron still covered in flour (yes in my hair too) as mom always let me stir, then as I got older add the flour to the mixing bowl (mixer made a mess – never me).
Cookies were always the gift from mom and me. Now my daughter is the baker (can’t cook much but perhaps its in her genes) so a lot of the tradition continues. Even though mom still brings a cookie tin of homemade cookies each Christmas for every family.
my favorite memory is making chocolate chip cookies with my 3 yr old granddaughter on a day she was not feeling good, hoping to bring a smile and help her feel better. and i turned my back and she had puked all in the cooking dough, crying saying she was sorry and than asking if she could lick the bowl when i was done after I cleaned her up.
My favorite baking recipe was actually pretty recent. I am in college and have been living on my own in an apartment with a kitchen for about a year. Up until then, I would always cook with my mother. She is an amazing cook and baker and I have always admired her ability to invent brand new recipes using only what she had on hand and never using a recipe. Her “experiments” would come out perfect every time. I always thought that I could only bake under her instruction and not on my own. When I started cooking and baking on my own, I discovered that I had actually absorbed more from her than I thought! So not too long ago I baked almond-cranberry brownies and brought some home to her – it was the first time she was blown away by my baking rather than the other way around! Now she can’t wait for me to bring home new goodies :)
My favorite baking memory is spending an entire weekend baking Christmas cookies with my aunt every year. We’d bake dozens of different kinds and by the time we were done I didn’t even want to look at all of those cookies on Christmas! I looked forward to it every year as a child, and now continue the tradition with my younger cousins!
I brag about Averie’s recipes and other tantalizing recipes on PInterest! I love looking for new recipes to try online.
Back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, I picked up a copy of the Fleischmann’s Yeast “Baked Easy Yeast Book.” It was about 60 pages with color photos throughout. Everything I made from this little book was fabulous. I tried bagels, challah, irish soda break, something like monkey bread and others. I also used it during college when I had roommates. Made the kitchen smell sooo marvelous. Nice memories.
My favorite baking memory was actually a mess up that ended up great. I was making Kentucky Pie for my husband and I over cooked it. It ended up being a dense brownie like thing inside of a pie crust. My husband loved the flavors so I made it again being very watchful of how done it was getting. I baked this one just right, but it turns out, my husband liked the over baked one better. He found the denseness of it after over baking t be quite appealing. The one I cooked properly, he said was too much like eating an under cooked brownie in a bad way, a little gummy and sticky. Now I only over bake Kentucky Pie. This story is not big or eventful, but it always reminds me that cooking is always up to the cook.. if you like it a little over done, that is your own special twist on the recipe.
Those look great…
My favorite memory of the kitchen is making cinnamon bread as a kid!
My mom always baked chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
Baking cakes and cookies is a BIG favorite of mine. I especially like anything w/ chocolate in it. When my kids come home, they always want chocolate chip cake. It is their fave.
I have my own recipe for pumpkin choc chip, a holiday fav for my husband. My best memories are the kids standing on chairs to decorate the christmas cookies. Colored sugar everywhere, the best cookies ever.
My father didn’t cook very often. He had three recipes in his rotation. Grilled cheese, potato latkes, and chocolate layer cake. I remember him pulling out all of the ingredients and bowls in preparation. Never a mixer – that wasn’t truly a *scratch* cake. It would take (seemingly) hours. I got to assist in small ways; throwing away egg shells, licking the bowl… And then it would be done. And it was delicious.
my mother made many different types of cookies during the winter months. warm cookies and milk on a Saturday morning are one of my fondest memories.
My kids and I love all things pumpkin so I am very excited to try this recipe Friday night. We are having a yard sale on Saturday and my daughter wanted to do a bake sale for kids with Autism (her brother is Autistic). This is the perfect recipe for her sale! Last year we made homemade pumpkin cheesecake – we made our regular recipe and incorporated pumpkin into the filling and it was delicious! I would like to make pumpkin scones if anyone has a great recipe please share with us! The pumpkin patch in our neighborhood just opened and I will be there tomorrow to get our pumpkin for our cookies! I look forward to reading all of these great posts!
My favorite baking memory was a total disaster! My best friend and I were trying to make Mountain Dew cupcakes. The cupcakes themselves were just not wanting to cook right in her oven (we still have no idea why/how) we kept them in the oven until the toothpick finally came out clean – and moved onto making the Mountain Dew flavored frosting – what we ended up with was frosting with a slight nasty after-taste of lime…yuck! So we reduced a can of Mountain Dew and mixed the syrup into the frosting – it was so sickeningly sweet we couldn’t even stomach it. To top it off, our cupcakes crumbled into pieces. LOL Total FAIL!! But we laughed the entire time and had lots of fun trying.
I made Christmas cookies at a friend’s house with my girls and we all had fun.
Cookies! Cookies! Cookies! During the past 25+ years my mother has taught me to make dozens of her favorite cookies. We have a large extended family of cookie bakers and my mother and I have created years of memories making her fantastic cookies.
My mother always baked the pies for Thanksgiving. She made the best apple and pumpkin pie. One year she let me help her and let me make a small apple pie for one. I will never forget that time.
My favorite backing memories are when my kids and I make cookies for the holiday! It makes the holidays more fun! :)
My favorite memory is being 10 years old and reading a recipe for an apple souffle in one of my mom’s cookbooks. I carefully gathered all the ingredients and set to work on making that dessert. When it came out of the oven it was beautiful! I was so proud.
I’ve gotta make those pumpkin choc chip cookies!
My favorite baking memory is every Christmas time I enjoy baking cookies with family and friends. Then I love sharing my results with neighbors and friends.
I really enjoyed spending time in the kitchen with my mother when she baked bread. She usually made homemade cinnamon rolls from part of the bread dough. They were so delicious the rest of us tried to duplicate them when she was no longer able – but we never made them taste so good
i remember when i was little and i would make cakes and cookies for the holidays.
At age 82 I don’t do as much baking as I used to but one of my daughters-in-law loves to bake and
this would be the perfect Christmas present from me to her. How surprized she would be!
I have always loved baking and grew up in a house where my mom never baked. My best memory was a few years ago during the holidays having my sister and my kids in the kitchen baking cookies for Christmas presents. We all got to pick recipes that we thought the family would like and each made batches and decided if they made the cut. It was a fun time and will become a tradition. We now get requests for cookies. Everyone has their favorites
Yummy!
I loved making sugar cookies with my mom when I was little. My favorite part was when we’d actually cut the shapes out with the cookie cutters and there would come that point where you had all these scrapes of dough once you eliminated the shapes. My mom would let me stockpile those little scraps and after two or three rounds of rolling and cutting, I had myself a pretty solid stack of sugar cookie dough. Sometimes I would be so full from eating the dough scraps that I wouldn’t even want a real cookie when they were done. Wait, who am I kidding, that never happened!
Helping my grandmother bake cookies at Christmas is my favorite baking memory. I can still smell the chocolate chip batter.
I always use ‘family recipes’ but i make them my own by adding and subtracting stuff. We love the holidays
Baking chocolate chip cookies with my Mom.
My favorite baking memory is Christmas baking from my childhood. My mom would make sugar cookies, and we’d cut them out with Christmas cookie cutters. Then, before they were baked, we’d paint them with egg yolk that my mom dyed with food coloring. They were so fun! She would also make spritz cookies and make Christmas shapes with her cookie press. She would flavor each color of dough according to color: green-mint, pink-peppermint, yellow-banana, and white(plain)-almond. She would save some of each color of dough, and then we’d create cookies of our own, using the dough like modeling clay. It was always so fun (yet sad!) to eat each of our own Christmas Cookie Creations. :)
I lived with my oldest sister and her family during my first two years of college. Each December after finals, we would dive into the cookie baking … peanut butter, ultimate chocolate chip, our Grandma Ruby’s no-bake cookies, puppy chow… Sometimes we’d get brave and try a new recipe. Sometimes it didn’t go so well. Now, we live 800 miles apart. It never fails that we call each other mid-December to talk about how we were making cookies and thinking of the other. It’s hard to describe in detail how special that time was. :)
I loved baking with my grandma! We always made strudel.
im a veggiealochic love all kinds and in many way they are prepared
Your recipes never cease to amaze me.
When I was younger, we had wild raspberries growing in our backyard. I remember the first time I ever decided to put them to good use (besides stuffing my face full of berry goodness before they even had a chance to make it inside the house!). I made “raw raspberry pie” which was more of a smash the raspberries in a bowl, mix with some sugar, and stick it in the freezer until firm enough to cut into slices for my family. Haha not really a recipe or anything too fancy, but I will never forget those good old days.
My favorite baking memories come from baking Christmas cookies with my mom growing up. She would start baking weeks before Christmas; dozens and dozens of cookies that would be given away, shared with friends who came over and put out on Christmas Eve and Day. Now that I am grown and have two daughters of my own I make the same cookies that my mom used to make; thumbprints, snowballs, almond cookies, and a few more. Making the same recipes reminds me of my childhood years with my mom and I hope that my daughters carry on the recipes and traditions as well!
my favorite memory is asking my son what kind of birthday cake he wanted his answer was he wanted a pumpkin pie so he had a pie with five candles that was over 50 years ago he still loves pumpkin pie.
my favorite memory is asking my son what kind of a birthday cake I should bake for him. his answer was he wanted a pumpkin pie. so he had a pie with candles that was over 50 years ago.
I love baking, especially with friends and family. My favorite memory is baking Martha Stewarts chocolate cake with 7 min frosting with my mom. It was so good a friend paid me to make one for her!
My dad and I used to make peanut butter fudge together. I would love this time because it was something we always did together and I am a huge fan of peanut butter so I always got to lick the spoon and bowl when we were done. Even now when I make peanut butter fudge it takes me back to when I was a kid again.
I love this recipe. I love pumpkin pie but these cookies look delish…I will try them !
Making apple dumplings with my girls Pat
Wow! That recipe sounds great and I can’t wait to try it out! Thank you for sharing.
A memorable baking experience for me is baking shortbread cookies with my grandmother every year for Christmas. We always made about 100 of them; they were rounded into balls and then pressed with our thumbs to create a little hole. She would set out toppings such as strawberry jam, apricot jam, sprinkles, cherries, chocolate chips and let me decide what went in. I was always a fan of the strawberry jam and the chocolate chips. To be honest, I am not a huge fan of the cookies, I would much rather have a chocolate chip cookie, but I cannot go without them around Christmas time!
Along with the usual Christmas goodies, our family would also make awesome popcorn balls. It would make quite a mess, but was well worth it.
My memories include a kitchen aid with my dad too. I would help him make and eat the cookie dough. Now I carry this on with my own sons.
My baking memories go back to my childhood in which my mother would make angel wings, that as an adult I have never tasted that bliss again. My wife and I enjoy baking together prior to our college students coming home for the holidays. We grow our own pumpkins which I get to help her cut up so we can steam them into a workable ingredient. We all love the Pumpkin pies that have been a family tradition for generations, but a splendid pumpkin cheesecake has found its way into our hearts recently. May we all find the time to slow down over a slice of pie and enjoy each others company.
I used to pick the apples from my grandma’s apple tree and we would make apple dumplings together . I wonderful memory
I have many baking memories, but one of my favorites is actually one that started my adulthood. My mother and 3 sisters and I all love to cook and bake, and for my 18th birthday I wanted to show off how much. I invited everyone I knew to my party, and then we had to prepare. We spend over a week baking amazing cakes. I think we made 6 different cakes, the kitchen was a disaster every night after school. My poor great grandmother’s Kitchen Aid (a pale yellow color) that my mother inherited held up like a champ for each one too. There were mounds of chocolate malt balls, melted chocolate splatters on the walls, pecans and spice cake with cream cheese icing… I can’t lie, the week of baking before the party was better than the party itself. We impressed ourselves with our attempts at decorating (lol it was our first time using wilton decorating tips), and I walked away know that baking would always be part of me.
Erin
I love being a mother. Every year the children have a party at my daughters school.
We all bake cookies and bring them to school for the party. Cookies are part of
a mothers love.
My mom use to make holiday cookies with my sister and I at a friend’s house. It was fun to get together and bake and decorate the cookies.
My favorite baking memory was winning my first blue ribbon in 4H when I was in elementary school for my apple pie.
Stealing dough from the cookies while my mom baked…
I have loved baking with all generations. First I started with my grandmother, then my mother, then myself, then my daughter, and now my granddaughter. It’s always so much fun, and what good things we make!
Thanks for such a great giveaway! I have so many favorite baking memories. My Mom was a baker – not a cook – so my sister and I would always beg her to make treats with her, no matter what the season. Whether we were whipping up a french toast creation in the early morning, or baking cookies when we got a school snow day, we always loved our time with Mom in the kitchen. Now it’s awesome to watch my daughter, Everly, enjoying baking with her Granny just like us girls. :)
As a child, I baked with my mom and my grandma. Now that I have kids of my own, I bake with them. I think it’s a great family tradition – sharing the kitchen, laughing, talking, and enjoying the warm, fresh cookies straight from the oven.
Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are delicious!
My favorite baking memory has to be the time my best friend and I made raspberry bars. We were 18 and about to move to different ends of our large state for college. It was so nice to have one last silly afternoon with amazing treats before moving away. We still get together at the holidays to repeat the fun, even though we’ve long since graduated from college and moved even farther apart.
My favorite baking memory was watching my grandma make puto, a Filipino bread, in the mornings before we went to school. The smell was unforgettable and the bread was buttery and fluffy. I never got the recipe before she passed away but I don’t think I’d ever be able to recreate it the same. I miss her and baking now always reminds me of her! Glad I was able to share those moments with her.
My favorite baking memory is in my mother’s kitchen, baking 1234 cake. It is still my favorite recipe for cake and the only recipe I know by heart. More so than the cake, my favorite memory is the kitchen. The kitchen has huge windows that look out into the back and side yards, so while baking or cooking dinner my mom could always see us crazy kids.
And now that I’m in college, I totally miss all the great kitchen tools my mom has. Not having a good food processor (and stand mixer) is worth crying about :)
I like this new, healthier take on chocolate chip cookies.
I’ve been baking the same chocolate chip cookie recipe with my mom since I was old enough to open the bag of chocolate chips. When I make them on my own they never taste as good as hers (she just puts so much love into them), but I look forward to baking the same recipe with my own kids one day!
My favorite baking memory is fairly recent. I agreed to bake 100 custom decorated cookies for a charity event without realizing what I was getting into. I stayed up all night the day before the event baking and decorating cookies and my wonderful fiance helped. There were cookies EVERYWHERE…on our counters, tables, couch, arm chairs, computer desk. But in the end we finished them all and everyone loved them so it was worth it haha.
My favorite baking memory is making Christmas cookies with my family – my mom has taught us to go all out with holiday baking so that we can take trays of cookies to the different dinners and parties that come up during the holidays. Ever since we were little, we would make at last 10 different kinds of cookies. They are always stored in Tupperware on top of anything in the garage (kept the cookies cold). Now at 27 – my sister and I make the list of cookies and have a baking marathon when I travel home for the holidays.
I have great memories of making nestle toll house cookies when I was a preteen. My kids and I made them together through their childhood and now that they are away at college I send them nestle toll house cookies in a care package. Nothing says I care like Nestle toll house cookies!
fond memory’s of making nestle toll house chocolate cookies
I used to bake chocolate chip cookies for my older brother. He passed away when I was 16, but some of my best memories are of him enjoying the cookies I baked for him.
I think that these just sound absolutely scrumptious…but, of course, it’s hard to go with “chocolate chip” and “cookie” in the same sentence!
These cookies sound amazing! They remind me of my mother-in-law’s famous pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Great giveaway Averie! As for a favorite baking memory, while my dad cooked dinner every single night from scratch we didn’t do much baking. So I started baking on my own in college and loved it. I remember one spring break junior year my roommate and I didn’t go away and instead hung out and baked. In particular I remember making a mixed berry pie, which has become a favorite of mine ever since.
Many memories are made in the kitchen… cooking, baking, chatting around a kitchen table. Generations repeat themselves. Thank goodness for the good times!
My mother was an excellent cook. I miss her so much and still have all her recipes and lots of great memories of us cooking together.
Holiday cookies are so much fun. I remember my mother’s Halloween cookies: The witches, the black cats, the pumpkins. I try, but Mamma was much better at decorating!
I’ll always remind my brother of the year we had family guests from Canada and I baked a 3 layer chocolate cake with choc. rum frosting. We hid it in the oven until dessert time, only to find my little brother (6yrs.)had decided to “help” serve.Hequietly opened the oven, set the cake on the open door, and began to cut the cake with a spatula(3 layer chunks destroyed 1/2 of my creation before I got him).I was mortified-all that work; but the humor took over, and it was delicious- just not perfect !Now I tell him he’s not only house-broken, but domesticated- and pretty good in the kitchen.
I have started the tradition with my daughter that we make cookies, bread and cupcakes for all family events. You’re never too young to learn to bake!
My grandmother taught me to bake and decorate cookies.
I remember when I was a young girl baking Christmas cookies with my mom.
Mistakenly adding cornstarch instead of baking soda to my chocolate chip cookies. I caught it when returning the cornstarch to the pantry. I added baking soda and the cookies didn’t taste bad.
My fontest memories were making Christmas Cut-out Sugar cookies and also making twisted red and white candy cane cookies out of the same batter.
Making Butter Pecan cookies with my daughter when she was four to send to Daddy who was in Korea. chedeb5353@hotmail.com
Baking Christmas cookies with Nana.
I remember my brother making homemade cookies once and the jelly he wanted to use was gone so he substituted grape. The cookies turned out purple but still tasted wonderful!
I remember when I was 4 or 5 years old, being allowed to help my mother bake a chocolate pie. The best part was being able to each the leftover baked pie dough with cinnamon & sugar on it!
I love baking with my two young children, just like I baked with my mom. It brings back wonderful memories.
This brings back memories of baking with my grandmother
My favorite baking memory was baking Christmas cookies with my 6-year old granddaughter. We had flour everywhere! (Have an old photo to prove it.)
My favorite baking memory was making a Cinderella cake for my daughter’s 5th birthday.
My first time with my daughter making chocolate chip cookies. We had the most delightful day mixing and baking,and, naturally, eating them. I do believe that that was that beginning of our “special” cooking relationshil.
Everytime my wife creates a new baked good becomes my favorite memory.
It was just the very best
I can’t wait to make thse pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I always love to make chocolate crackles
with my Nestle chocolate chips.
One of my favorite memories is baking chocolate chip cookies with my mother. (Toll House, of course) She would let us lick the beaters and bowl (wouldn’t do that now). Then we would get the first cookie warm from the oven. Mmmmm!
This brings up so many memories, but my favorite has to be the time my grandmother showed me how to make tiramisu from scratch. Like everything, she made it look so effortless, chatting about ingredients & measurements being very organic. I wish for recipe purposes that I had written it down, but I had such a nice time with her then, I can’t blame myself for just enjoying the moment :)
my favorite memory is actually a big baking screw up – i totally burned a batch of cookies and my husband tried to make me feel better by eating them – and we ended up laughing so much
My first cooking memory was from Girl Scouts – making dinner for my family earned me the Cooking badge.
Great fresh vegebles from garden, especially the okra and tomatoes!
These look sooo delicious! They’ve already been added to the “to-bake” list!
My favorite baking memory is actually an unfortunate one, but entertaining nonetheless.
I must have been about 9 or 10 years old and my dad had recently gotten a promotion at work. To celebrate, I decided I would bake him a cake and decorate it so nice for all of his hard work. Really, though, even then, it was just an excuse to bake! Anyway, I baked the cake. It was a boxed cake, lemon flavored and got set to decorate. Much to my disappointment, my piping bag had a hole in it! At the time, being so young I hadn’t yet picked up many tricks of the trade and didn’t realize I could have just used a ziploc bag in place. So instead, I set out to decorate the cake with words and flowers and designs with my little piping tip by pushing the frosting through with my finger! (don’t worry, my mother made me thoroughly wash my hands before doing so!)
After many, many painstaking hours, I was finally done with my beautiful cake and just in time for my dad to come home! Of course I wanted to remember all my hard work and capture it forever so I set out to take some pictures of it. I originally had it set on the counter but the counter was too high for my short self to get an aerial type picture of it so for some reason in my 10 year old mind I thought it was a great idea to set it on the floor to take a picture. Unfortunately in my excitement, I grabbed the cake and whipped it around to put it on the floor and the whole cake slide right off of its plate and went smash onto the floor! Needless to say I was very upset but my dad was very gracious in accepting his pile of smushed cake :P
Can’t wait to try all of these recipes.
From my mon to me to my daughter to my grandkids – generations of baking & love – sweet…
Great times cooking with family and friends
Christmas baking was the best for me!! Mom would let me stay home from school 1 day, and I was always up by 7am already mixing the ingredients for banana breads, pumpkin breads, chocolate chip cookies, spritz cookies, oatmeal cookies, and an occasional surprise here and there. I usually baked at least 4 loaves and over 10 dozen cookies in about 10 hours — still love to bake today (some 30+ years later)!!
Gobs….oh, those delicous gobs. In some areas they call them “whoopie pies”. My mom taught me the secret to making the creamy filling to put between those chocolate layers. My kids – all grown up – still love to come home to devour those chocolate goodies. Yum!!
fun baking with grandchildren
My Nanny hosts a very large gathering every Thanksgiving. We spend Christmas with our respective nuclear families all over the US, but for Thanksgiving we celebrate Christmas together in November. As she ages, she is less and less able to prepare the foods for 40+ people who stay in and around her home, and eat primarily all of the meals there. It is a blessing to begin preparing and freezing many of the baked holiday goodies she serves well in advance, so that she can better relax when the time comes to host. She absolutely delights in baking, making, and creating in the kitchen – and I’m honored to be able to spend time with her while doing so.
Love spending the holidays with family…I spend about 4 weeks baking cookies, then give them away to family an friends..They always taste so good especially the ones that are a family tradition. Passed down from mother an grandmother.
I am the only one in my family who loves zucchini and sweet potatoes. My family does love chocolate chip cookies so next batch I’ll slip in pumpkin. (I’m also the only one who does yoga –lol). Thanks for the great recipes!
All of my favorite memories of baking involve a holiday and my kids. When they were little every holiday, we would bake rolled out sugar cookies using my grandmothers recipe. The kids loved using different shapes and then decorating them to share with family and friends. Good quality time in the kitchen listening to the kids chat about all kinds of things.
Cherry pies, pumpkin bread, apple brown betty….. Need I say more??? Bake on!!!
I loved spending time in my moms small kitchen, with the smells of all the baked goods mixing together!
My favorite baking memory is spending the weekends leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas shelling sacks of pecans to add to her holiday baking that she gave every year to all the members of the family as well as neighbors and friends. One of her (and my) favorite recipes was Date Nut Roll ….we would make dozens of them and prepare tissue-lined boxes filled with thin slices of this delicious treat only ever made at the holidays in our family, to be distributed with love.
Every Valentines day, my mom would make us a heart shaped cake. She would bake a square cake and a round cake, cut the round cake in half, turn the square cake so it looked like a diamond and then placed the half circles for the top of the heart. I always thought this was the coolest thing ever!
My passion is baking and cooking. Growing up, I was alone a lot, so I thought it was always fun to “invent” something in the kitchen. Then when I started getting older, I started whipping up my tasty snacks for my friends. Everyone has always praised me for my baking and cooking and it the one thing that makes me feel like, well, ME! Lol. It lets me express who I am and my amazing talents :)
My best baking memory is when I made cookies for the first time from scratch. It was 7 years ago and I was in 7th grade. I wanted to bake cookies, but not the kind from the grocery store. I wanted to make oowie gooie cookies and stick them in tins and give them to my favorite teachers for Christmas. Kiss up much? Hahah. Well, I made homemade chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, and peanut butter kiss cookies.
It may sound like all I did was make some cookies and give them to my teachers, but what made this memory so great to me is that I did it all by myself and they were just as AMAZING as the other treats I’ve made.
Ever since then I’ve been doing just as much baking as I do cooking.
I’m addicted, and I hope I win this.
My favorite baking memory is from when I was in high school. My friends all knew how much I loved baking and requested cookies for Christmas gifts. I baked dozens upon dozens upon dozens of chocolate chip, peanut butter blossoms and oatmeal raisin. My younger sister still talks about that Christmas holiday and all the cookies we had in the house =).
Baking with my mother during Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite memories! This year, I won’t be able to be home for Thanksgiving because of school, but I will definetly be making that up by baking a ton with her during Christmas break! It’s always me and her baking and cooking in the kitchen with my dad and brother shuffling through every so often and grabing a cookie or something. The cookies and sweet potato pie are my favorites to make! I miss my mom SO much, and I get to see her in 85-ish days! If Air Force tech school was closer to home, I would go there much more often!
My favorite baking memory is from when I was around 8. My mom had decided we were doing all the Christmas baking in 1 day. We had puppy chow, sugar cookies, buttermilk cookies and banana nut bread all being made at once by me and her. The kitchen was a mess, and I remember being so proud that I melted the chocolate perfectly without burning it… Something my mom had done earlier in the morning. I don’t know how many times my dad came into the kitchen and just kinda shook his head and walked out.. It was great though. My mom trusted me with my great grandmothers recipes and trusted me to do some of the things on my own. That was the first and last year we would do all the Christmas baking on one day though… The mess afterwards??? “Chores do a body good, Jessica.” Yeah, thanks mom.
My favorite baking memory was when i finally got my bread to rise perfectly, perfect and round. I was so proud of myself because they day before, I failed horribly. :) Hope I win :)
My favorite baking memory is when my mom would make my 2 sisters and I pineapple upside down cake, being a single mom my mom always tried to teach us new things but also keeping it fun. We didn’t have much but we had each other. That cake was always one of my peaceful moments of my life. I’m pretty sure if I won this we could make plenty more pineapple upside down cakes together:)
My favorite baking memories are doing Christmas cut-out cookies every year with my mom when I was a kid. We always had so much fun listening to Christmas music and baking the cookies. The most fun was the decorating :)
I have to say the last two years have been rough, watching my father pass from a battle with cancer, and being diagnosed myself four days after I married the love of my life. I fought hard, and doctors didn’t think I would make it, said I wouldn’t walk. In July I was able (with Mom’s help) to fly to La and visit with my brother, sis-in-law, and my nephew and two nieces. We baked numerous times, peanut butter blossoms and chocolate chip cookies… Baking with those three and my mom will be a great memory forever.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Growing up my mom had help in the kitchen, however I could tell when my mom cooked. Even butter over toast would taste heavenly when she made it. My mom made the most delicious brownies … My brothers and sister could not get enough of them.
As a kid I loved to bake but was scared to take things out of the oven. I was baking cookies while my parents were outside doing things on the farm. My dad was working on a large mower and it fell off its blocks and onto him. He yelled to my mom for help and she quickly realized we needed an ambulance. She came in the house, but before she called for help, she took my cookies out of the oven because they were done. I got over my fear of the oven after that. And fortunately he healed up fairly quickly.
My favorite baking memory comes from baking with my grandma. She didn’t bake often, but when she did, everyone wanted some.
At this time of year, my mother would bake Jewish apple cake. I can’t tell you how much I loved that cake but hated having to peel those apples. Mom would not buy a peeler so I braved it would with a sharp steak knife. I never make that cake but I do love eating others.
One of my favorite baking memories is from a few years ago. I made roll out sugar cookies for Christmas and a friend of mine was over helping decorate. She decided the Santa Claus cutouts looked like snails and decorated them all as Christmas snails. :-)
Fond baking memories are of watching my daughter cook with my Mother. My daughter learned (much better than me) to make pie crust and can whip that out without even looking at a recipe! She also is carrying on the family tradition of homemade dumplings at every holiday. We bake together during the holidays and make such wonderful memories together!
My favorite baking memory is cutting out and decorating sugar cookies with my nephews!
I have so many good baking memories – from childhood to figuring it out on my own post-college to experimenting with gluten-free recipes as a newlywed. But my favorite one so far would be from this last weekend when my 2-year old insisted on helping bake a batch of cupcakes. Although it increased the mess and lengthened the process ten-fold, it was so wonderful to have him help. He dutifully stirred the buttermilk, measured ingredients, and of course licked spoons. It meant so much to him to be a part of the process and it reminded me that it truly is about the journey and not necessarily the outcome. The cupcakes were delicious and we all praised his hard work. marthalynn16 at gmail
I have many baking memories that are dear to me – some annual traditions, others just for fun – but the one that immediately comes to mind was with my sister, during a rough time in our lives. Almost 4 years ago, our uncle committed suicide due to depression. It was a sudden, week-long spiral that took him there. Neither my sister nor myself wanted to face regular work-day stresses after we found out, so the very next day, she came over to my tiny apartment and we made chocolate chip cookies in our pajamas. It was healing, even just temporarily, and it was wonderful. My aunt remarried a few months ago, and we’ve all moved on, but our memories are still there and still important! :)
I have been thinking for the last few days about what was memorable about my baking. As much as I have baked all these years with and without the kids I guess my fondest memory is eating the cookie dough. Yea, we used a mixer most of the time until we had a fire and had to go back to mixing by hand which actually made it easier to eat the dough. We were lucky if we would actually bake a full sheet full of cookies. We figured the calories were the same whether the dough was baked or not. If there is some difference, will you let us know?
Thank you
My favorite baking memory is when my girlfriend threw an almost-impromptu Halloween Baking contest…in the middle of August. Having NO experience, I searched for something easy. Ignoring this advice, I made baklava. Bloody, flesh looking baklava. I won the best tasting award!
Those cookies look scrumptious!
My favorite baking memory has to be baking with my mom the night before a class party in elementary school. I was always ambitious, she was never much of a baker, so we compromised with boxed cake mixes. Still, sitting on the kitchen floor with her and looking into through the oven’s clear window to watch batches of yellow cake cupcakes slowly rise out of their tins has to be one of my favorite memories in the kitchen.
Every year at Christmastime my mother and I make piles and piles of pizzelles using the pizzelle iron that belonged to my great-grandmother, who used to make HUNDREDS of them every year and give them away to friends and family. Her apartment was such a lovely place to be with the smell of anise in the warm kitchen, surrounded by piles of delicious cookies!
A favorite baking memory for me is baking with my grandma. Every Sayurday morning, we would make Betty Crocker blueberry muffins together. I loved eating those with her and miss those days dearly.
Favorite baking memory? That would be baking bread with my grandmother in the wood fired oven, the big one, so called “black oven”, you can often see though out the Europe. That was a whole process, when she started the dough on Friday to be baked on Saturday. As a little girl I was always helping, first with egg washing the bread, then as I became older, I was helping with the forming of the breads. I remember how the dough felt in my hands: soft, silky, warm… Years later, when I had my own family, I decided to bake my own bread. I didn’t know the recipe, I just started with five basic ingredients my grandmother used: flour, yeast, sugar, salt and water, and my hands did the rest. It was the most amazing moment in my life at that point: my hands re-created my grandmother’s recipe by memory of feeling. :)
Great cookies!
Fave baking memory: holiday baking parties with friends and family “back in the day.” Loved ones who I rarely see often now. There is nothing quite like those cookie swaps we used to thrown, with all the kitchen banter, messes, fun, and laughter.
When I was younger, on Saturdays I made pancakes for my brothers. They would eat them as fast as I could make them. That was a nicer, simpler time.
My dad was a big pie guy, so every Christmas my mum did it up: squash pie, pumpkin pie, mince meat pie, and, of course, apple pie. We’d spend the day before peeling potatoes and carrots for the dinner, and lots and lots of apples. We’d roll out little cinnamon sugar crisps from the leftover dough. She didn’t use recipes, and always waved away my requests that she write instructions for me. Her apple pie is my favorite pie in the world, and now that she’s gone, I follow her example and make it up as I go. I haven’t succeeded 100% yet, but every time I get a little closer.
Thanks for the chance to revisit the memory.
Last Thanksgiving, my close friend and I got together to make all sorts of yummy treats – pumpkin pie, blondies, cookies, etc. We had so much fun (making it and eating it too)! :)
My favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my parents and my two brothers. Now that we all live across the country, it is harder to do but we try to bake at least one batch together before Christmas when everyone comes home.
My mom has never been much of a cook or baker, but we did make green spritz trees for Christmas every year and we would decorate them with those red hard cinnamon candies and lots of sprinkles – the sugar kind and the jimmies/shots kind. Of course I have to make them myself now but my kid and husband never appreciate them as much as I wish they would. Alas!
When I was a teenager my grandfather lived with us for awhile. Every weekend we would bake brownies together. He would always tell me stories about him growing up and how he used to bake brownies with his dad. I haven’t forgot any of his stories or how good our brownies tasted.
First of all, these cookies look divine!! Next, thank you for hosting this awesome giveaway!
Favorite baking memory is definitely when I would spend the day with my nan baking cakes and making cookies. It was then that baking became my happy place and it still is :)
I remember when I was around 8 or 9 and it was winter time. My mother worked at the time and my sister, who was supposed to be watching me, was no where to be found. I loved to bake so I thought i would bake brownies for dessert. I thought I did a pretty good job with the mixing, putting the batter in the pan and putting them in the oven. Much to my dismay, when I took the pan out they were rock hard. I did’t want my mother to come home from work and find her good baking pan ruined. So, being the 8 year old I was, I took it outside and threw it in the bushes on the side of the house. No one noticed anything until springtime when my mother went to do her gardening. Lo and behold, there was the pan!!!. We had a good laugh over it and I promised never to throw her good pans in the bushes again.
I like reading cooking blogs/cookbooks and taking photos of food more than the actual cooking, but I have always loved baking. One lovely baking memory I have was from about 6 years ago, when my three sons were in grammar school. Before I wore it out, I made fresh bread in my dad’s old bread machine a couple times per week, and my boys loved taking fresh bread to school in their lunches! I made a lot of peanut butter, chocolate, and pumpkin breads, plus sandwiches made from fresh wheat bread. My eldest told me that he sometimes got just a few bites of his sandwiches because his friends were fascinated by the homemade things he brought to eat. I started packing him some extra goodies for his friends!
My favorite memory of baking was making cookies one night when my mom was out and my dad and I needed something sweet so we found a cherry nut cake mix that said it could be made into cookies. The box stated it made about 3 dozen but we actually only got about 10 pancake sized cookies because neither one of us are known for our patience so we decided to go big. Needless to say one cookie was about all it took to satisfy our sweet tooths.
I’ll never forget…I was about nine years old and was baking cookies for Thanksgiving. Since EVERYONE was in the kitchen, my mom and I forgot about the cookies in the oven and they overcooked. I was so disappointed, but my grandmother LOVED THEM! To this day I still remember how much my grandma loves “crispy” cookies :-)
sitting at the kitchen counter as a 5 year old, waiting for Santa’s cookies to be done. :) never loved baking so much! I can still remember the smell!
When I was younger I used to sleep over my Grandma’s house. One of the reasons I looked forward to going was because we would bake cookies together. Our favorite cookies to make were butter cookies and gingerbread men. My grandmother is a perfectionist when it comes to everything so the cookies she decorated were always beautiful, while the gingerbread men I decorated were almost unrecognizable. I used to think she would be upset with me about it but she used to just laugh and tell me the ones I did were the best ones. I remember feeling proud of myself and i still think of it to this day.
My favorite baking experience(s) would have to be any time I spent with in the kitchen with my Granny! Growing up, I spent the summer with her and my favorite thing to do was scour her old cook books and find yummy new things to bake!
What a great giveaway! One of my favorite baking memories is making my mom’s traditional Italian Prune cookies with her. She mixed everything on the countertop without a bowl or anything!
First, these cookies look incredible! I love the texture that you described! ONe of my first and favorite baking memories is wearing a teddy bear apron and standing on a chair so that I could reach the counter to help my mom make Christmas cookies!
Baking ‘spritz’ cookies with my mom & sister at Christmastime when we were younger.
Baking with my girlfriend. I didn’t know chocolate chip cookies had that many ingredients.
The holidays are my favorite baking time. Every year my mom and I scrap the trendy ingredients and complicated recipes toward which we usually gravitate, and spend the day baking classic winter treats. Sometimes we update certain batches with a fun, modern twist, but comforting shortbread cookies and truffles from old, vanilla-stained cookbooks and family recipes are still no-fail delicious every time.
I recently baked my babci’s recipe for banana cake for my Dad that I had gotten from my aunt. It was his favorite and I made it for his retirement party. I was so proud because it is truly an old school recipe that even uses sour milk!
When my husband and I were dating and he was stationed overseas, my friend and I baked every type of cookie we could think of and mailed them to him. We had made so many that they lasted almost until he came home, even though he shared them. For some reason he now gives approximate amounts when he asks for baked goods :)
One of my favorite baking memories is when I was middle school aged and younger. Every year for christmas my sister, my dad, my mom and I would spend a weekend making dozens of cut out sugar cookies, and then of course we would decorate them. We made over 100 every year and gave them out as present to neighborhood friends. I miss those weekends with my family!
Christmastime baking with my family is definitely my favorite baking memory. We especially looked forward to baking and building gingerbread houses, then loading them up with as much candy as they would hold! Every evening after dinner we had a huge platter of several different kinds of Christmas cookies. With five kids in the family, even double batches of cookies didn’t last very long. And since our mom didn’t bake very much when it wasn’t Christmastime, it was that much more special for us kids when we got to eat as much as we did!
My favorite baking memory happens every year around Christmas when my mom and I get together with my best friend and her mom to bake christmas cookies! We bake ALL day, from 10am to about 5 or 6pm. It is so much fun because we constantly play christmas movies and music in the background while we bake. We end up baking at least 15 different christmas cookies (double batches-one for my family and one for their family) including fudge, caramels, and mints. Our list keeps growing and growing. I look forward to it every year, it make me so happy! Only 90 days till christmas, but i’m not counting or anything :)
Hello Averie! A fov baking memory of mine is when I was very young, my big sister made something magical in our kitchen – rice crispies! It was one the first “American” treats I’ve tried and it created a lifelong love for rice crispies!
My great grandmother won a baking contest when she was young with something we call a twist in my family – basically a yeast bread rolling in sugar and formed into a twist. I remember rolling the twists standing on a chair with my great grandmother, grandmother, mom, several aunts, and several cousins. It is a happy memory and one I remember yearly at Christmas when I comes time to make the twists with my mom. Family, tradition, and yeasty holiday goodness all twisted in one. :)
Incredible giveaway! My favorite baking memory is from last holiday season. It was the most I’ve ever baked in a given season! One bit hit was your Mixed Berry Clafoutis! I LOVED it and so did everyone else. Thank you!
A pivotal point in my baking career came when I was only 9 years old. I had been taking cooking classes in 4-H and felt pretty confident in my new abilities. It was a Sunday afternoon and my mom was taking a nap. I decided to make brownies from scratch. As I began adding the ingredients, I came across one that was not familiar to me…..confectioner’s sugar. I struggled with whether to wake my mom and ask her but decided against it. I figured it was just a fancy name for sugar so I added regular granulated sugar. I baked the brownies and was so excited to take them out of the oven and share with my family. I knew my mom would be so proud when she woke up. The brownies were a little soupy upon taking them out of the oven but I figured they would set up as they cooled. They never did set up. My mom was not upset but what a huge lesson to me….at the ripe old age of 9, I still had a lot to learn. The upside was that my brother and I ate the soupy brownies with a spoon.
my favorite baking memory would have to be my weekly ritual with my boyfriend of making vegan chocolate chip cookies with my boyfriend. we’ve adjusted the recipe so many times to make it the absolute healthiest, yet still absolutely delicious as possible. and all organic ingredients!
I loved to bake with my mom when I was a kid. Licking the chocolate chip cookie batter off the beaters of her Kitchenaid was awesome. It was always a fight between me and my sister on who got the bowl too!
My favorite baking memory is learning to make an angel food cake from scratch with my grandma. I got to learn how to separate eggs (and it took a dozen, so I got lots of practice!) and also loved the sifting of the cake flour and other ingredients. I don’t remember how many times I had to sift, but it was more than a couple. Homemade angel food cakes are the best, too!
My favorite baking memory is actually a bittersweet one. The zucchini from my father’s garden grew in abundance. However, it had only one purpose, to be made into zucchini bread. My dad always grated the zucchini and not without reminding me several times that the zucchini came from his garden so he was entitled to a full loaf with extra chocolate chips and walnuts all to himself. I recalled how my dad could never wait for the zucchini bread to come out of the oven and would hang around the kitchen checking to see the progress of the bread. Once the bread would come out of the oven, he would cut through the hot bread and basically ruin one loaf by leaving it no hopes of retaining a bread like shape. That loaf was then labeled “For Dad Only” and remained in the loaf pan covered and not to be touched by anyone but my dad.
This past New Year’s Eve my father passed away unexpectedly, my family was heartbroken but no one was more upset than my mother. On Father’s Day, because I could not bear to go visit my mom who lives 600 miles away from me, I decided to send her a gift from my dad. I baked two loaves of zucchini bread (both with extra choco-chips and walnuts). As I baked the loaves and my house filled with the scent of cinnamon, I wept my heart out. I then put labels on both loaves with the caption, “For Mom Only, because dad would want you to have his share” and I overnighted those loaves to her. For days after baking the bread, the sweet smell lingered in my house. It was everywhere, my furniture, clothes, even on my dog. This was my best baking moment, a good cry, a lingering scented memory, and the best thank you call from my mother (who ate one loaf and froze the other one but never shared one crumb of either loaf). The best baking comes from the heart!
Will definitely have to try these! Two things I love all in one cookie :) Thanks for sharing!
At Christmas time my mom would break out her ‘spritz’ cookie press. It was like a gun with a hollow barrel that we would fill with dough. We would then fit the silver discs over the end of the barrel that had cut-outs of different shapes: trees, stars, crescents, Santa, etc. Mom would let me pull the trigger and the press would send the dough through the cut outs to make the different shaped cookies. I had to give the trigger the right amount of pressure and lift the press off of the cookie sheet at just the right moment in order for the cookies to actually look like trees or stars rather than a big blob of dough. Once decorated with loads of sprinkles and baked, they were a melt-in-your-mouth delight!
i have been vegan for about 2 years now and gluten-free for a long time (celiac disease). my amazing husband is so supportive (he is definitely a gluten-eating carnivore!) and tries (and succeeds!) so hard to make food that i can eat, especially baked goods… so i have many memories of us in the kitchen together trying to make gluten-free vegan desserts that taste amazing! maybe the best was the time we discovered soaking gluten-free cake in rum makes it much more moist :)
Every Thursday night after dinner growing up, my sister, my dad, and myself would bake chocolate chip cookies before watching The Cosby Show. We called it “cookies & Cosby”. Very good memories. :)
My favorite baking memory is making cupcakes from scratch for the first time. My roommate gave me mini cupcake pans for my Birthday, so I made a bajillion little cupcakes.
My favorite baking memory is baking cookies with my mom as a little girl. I used to pull up a chair to stand on (I was too short to see the counter!) and she would let me measure, mix and, of course, taste test. Now, 15 years later, I’m the one doing the baking for her :)
My favorite baking memory is when my mom and I tried to bake cheesecake for christmas eve when I was about ten. One of them puffed up over the sides of the pan and the other imploded! It was a mess but loads of fun, and although we had to scoop them onto plates rather than slice they were delicious.
I have always wanted a kitchen aid!! Probably several years away as I’m still accumulating university debt, but maybe I’ll get lucky!!
The first time I made an apple pie with my husband, it was perfect. Due to the fact that we had no money and very few kitchen pans, we used a disposable pie pan. It was beautiful, just as my husband went to put it into the oven, the pan gave way. The unbaked pie slid out of the pan and onto the oven door. We laughed and scooped it back into the pan, cooked it up and ate it anyway. I always love to think of the laughter we had that evening. 40 years later we are still baking together and laughing.
My favorite baking memories are from Christmas when I was younger. We would always make (what we called) chocolate bark, orange/nilla wafer balls, and cheese straws on Christmas Eve day. Then, my mother would make a big brunch with cinnamon rolls, grits, eggs, bacon, and other baked goods for our family on Christmas morning before we headed out of town to visit the rest of the family. We could always smell the cinnamon rolls and other baked goods in the oven while we opened presents. On Christmas night, I would always help my grandmother prepare the big Christmas dinner for the family. So many good memories :)
My favorite cooking memory is from a few years ago when I had my two best friends over and we baked 15 different kinds of cookies during the Holiday season. We sang Christmas songs and had lots of laughs! This reminds me, that I must have them over my house again this Christmas season when we are all home from college.
Thank you for sharing your amazing recipe and your lovely story! Keep coming with the pumpkin recipes! I am in love with everything pumpkin- pumpkin tea, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin oatmeal, pumpkin muffins- so now I must try your wonderful recipe!
Take care!!
My favorite baking memory is from just a few years ago. My paternal grandmother has always been known for her bread, buns, cinnamon rolls, whatever. I asked her one day if I could look at her recipe book. She laughed and said “Oh Krissy” (note – she is the ONLY one on the face of this earth who has ever gotten away with calling me that!:) … Back to the story … “Oh, Krissy. I don’t need a recipe book. I have all the recipes right here.” And she tapped her temple. We went on to make bread that day and I forgot completely about it. Grandma’s health started to fail about a year later and when I walked into her kitchen one day and saw her kneading bread dough in the old Melamine bowl, I knew what I had to do. I asked her to teach me. And teach me she did. She didn’t measure anything, so she’d “measure her way” into a seperate bowl, and I’d take it out and measure it and write it down. Sadly, Grandma is gone now, but everytime I bake I think of her and if I’m making her bread … there’s a special angel watching over me, saying “Oh, Krissy, it’s beautiful.”
My favorite memory is the year that my husband’s whole family got together to make pork pies. The little ones cut out decorations from pie crust with any mini cookie cutter that they wanted to use. My mother-in-law was in charge of making the pie crust, my father-in-law cooked and stirred the filling while two of the guys ‘taste tested’ to make sure the correct amount of sage and salt were added. My husband was the pie crust roller, one brother-in-law was the pie filler, I inserted the bottom crust, topped the pie, and crimped the edges, my sister-in-law helped the little ones with the decorating and placing. It was the most fabulous day spent with the entire family all baking, laughing, eating and having a grand time!! I still smile remembering it…our little ones are now 22, 17, & 17 and have 2 younger siblings who are each 12…but it was the best day EVER!!
My favorite baking memories are of my three children when they were little. As soon as they were able to crawl they figured out that if they came “running” to the kitchen when I got out the mixer they would get to help Mom with the baking. They were always rewarded with the job of taste tester. I remember those litlle ones crawling and toddling to the kitchen on their little legs! So cute! PS Now that they are teenagers they still love to taste test!
My favorite baking memory would have to be last Christmas. My baking memories don’t go too far back, as I only started really getting into it in the last couple of years. Last Christmas I decided to bake gifts for both my and my bf’s coworkers (total of something like 25 people). It was an all weekend affair and it was amazing. Music blaring, singing along, stirring things, baking things, dipping things in chocolate (not to mention tasting things!). :D
When I was a little girl, I used to always bake with my mom because she loved cookies as much as I did. One year for Mother’s Day, I decided that I wanted to bake cookies for her, and she was conveniently out of town right before Mother’s Day. My father I suppose was supervising, and I baked these terrible terrible tasting cookies. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong or what I left out. I had to start all over, and I got it right the second go around! I was SO excited 3 days later to give my mom the cookies (which were of course not exactly very fresh at that point!), and that’s when I realized that baking was something I could do to make other people happy.
thankx for the ricepe
My favorite baking memory is making Christmas cookies with my Mom when I was little. It was a basic spritz cookie dough, flavored with a little bit of almond extract. She had this ancient cookie press that was her Mom’s in the 50’s, and it could make a bunch of differently shaped cookies, but we always made Christmas trees. She would squeeze the dough out onto the pan, and I was in charge of sprinkles. We had every color sugar sprinkle imaginable, and I would always mix colors to make fun, funky cookies. We still do it every year, and it’s one of the reasons Christmas is still my favorite holiday!
My favorite baking memories are revolve around thanksigving because that is when my mom and I go ALL OUT baking/cooking up a storm – we always have a ton of people, usually 25+, so my mom and I spend the days before looking through cookbooks, magazines, and blogs and finding recipies and then the craziness begins! She usually makes 3 or 4 turkeys and we probably have more desserts than any other side dish so its a crazy few days in the kitchen but so much fun and I love that I get to spend the time with my mom:)
Cool Giveaway!
So my memory… When I was a child I lived on a very quiet dead end road. I was a couple years younger than all the neighbors so when it was time for softball my fi e year old self was never chosen. But I never minded I’d walk down to Tina rudolph’s house because she was ALWAYS cooking. I’d pop off my shoes and stand on her cold white tile floors until she lifted me onto a stool next to where she was cooking – Tina was from Italy so we would make goodies such as biscotti and marinara and home made pasta. And right about the 9th inning I’d walk back warm cookies in my belly and a lifetime of memories in my heart
When I was little, I use to spend the summers with my grandparents…they lived about 5 hours from us. My grandparents were amazing people! They had a huge garden and grew just about everything they consumed. They also had a compost bin, and this was back in the 70’s! One of my favorite baking memories was watching my grandmother bake candy. She used to make everything from scratch, Everything! One day she decided to bake up a few treats. I watched in awe, for the next 5-6 hours, as she made peanut brittle, salt water taffy and divinity… all from scratch! The house smelled so good, she was like Super Woman in the kitchen! She was the best cook and baker I have ever known. I aspire to be like her. <3
My little brother begged me to make cookies — he was 12 and I was 18. I mixed the dough and he promised to bake the cookies. Alas, instead of shaping round balls of dough — he spread all the dough on the cookie sheet for one BIG cookie. Smart Kid but bratty.
My Mom is a wonderful cook and baker. At Christmas time she really went over the top with 10 to 20 different kinds of cookies and breads. I remember the whole family rolling out the springerly dough and the cookies turning into the mosamazing shapes from the molds.
My favorite baking memory is from when I was just starting out baking in college. I decided I would try to make Orange Velvet Cake cupcakes to take to a tailgate for a Clemson game (Go Tigers!). I had to use my boyfriend’s apartment since I didn’t have an oven and I was trying to look like I knew exactly what I was doing. Unfortunately I burned the cupcakes to the point where they were barely edible, but I didn’t have the time or ingredients to make another batch. So I slapped some purple icing on top and took them anyway hoping that someone would eat them. My boyfriend, his roommates, and all my friends at the tailgate RAVED about how good they were. I was sooo happy that a little burned bottom didn’t keep my friends from showing their support for my baking efforts and I was reminded how much I love them and should cherish them :)
My favorite baking memory would be when my siblings and I would bake chocolate-chip cookies with my mom (it was best when my older sister was in school and just my mom and I would bake – my sister was never good at cracking eggs – shells every single time). I remember she didn’t care if we made a little bit of a mess & nothing had to be perfect. The best part was fighting over who got the lick of beater with the most dough. Then of course…sneaking spoonfuls of dough before the uncooked cookies went into the oven. I recently baked cookies with one of the kids I babysit & I asked him if he wanted to lick the beater with the delicious looking cookie dough. He replied “ohhh noo – it has raw egg in there that’s not good for you!” BLAHH BLAHH live a little kid!!!!
My favorite baking memory is with my grandmother. Every Christmas she’d make these italian lemon cookies that were dipped in icing then dipped in sprinkles. For as long as I can remember my sister and I were always involved in the process of balling up the cookies, baking, dipping and sprinkling the cookies with her. It was a really great time. And I think it’s why to this day I love anything with sprinkles on it.
My favorite baking memories come from baking with my mom at Christmas. We always made tons of different cookies and her favorite fudge recipe to leave out for Santa and to bring to friends and family. I loved baking, mostly because it meant sneaking chocolate chips and cookie dough while my mom wasn’t looking.
Every year, we made sugar cookies, and my brothers and I got to be in charge of decorating them. The sugar cookies weren’t my favorite to eat, but I always loved decorating them, and going overboard with frosting and sprinkles. One year, I begged my mom to let me make the sugar cookies by myself. I got through the recipe fine (with lots of help) and got the cookies in the oven. But, I forgot to turn the timer on! While the cookies, were in the oven, we all went outside to play in the snow. Everyone forgot about the cookies, until we heard the smoke detector going off! We ran inside and found my cookies in the oven, burnt to a dark brown crisp. Luckily, we had enough ingredients to make another batch, but it was a while until I wanted to bake cookies by myself again.
When I was 10 my mom and I decided to make her birthday cake together using an old, chocolate cake recipe from scratch. It was passed down from my grandmother, so we knew it was a winner. We did something wrong along the way, however, because it tasted absolutely awful. So we laughed all night and made chocolate chip cookies instead :)
katherinedibello (at) gmail (dot) com
What an amazing giveaway!!! I can’t get over it. One of my favorite baking memories is making Christmas cookies with my partner. We made sugar cookies and froze half of the batter so that we could make them down the line. One day I came home from work after a really rough day, and the house smelled incredible. He had baked the cookies, and we sat in front of the fire eating cookies. It was like Christmas in February, and it was wonderful. :)
Thinking about this question, i have different baking memories from various parts of my life, baking with my Gram, pre-Thanksgiving day baking with my mom and sisters and most recently, baking and sharing the love of it with my 5 and 6 y/o daughters.
My grandparents had once owned a bakery and made wedding cakes. Many moons ago when I was a little girl, my grandmother used to break out all her “stuff” and my sisters and I would stir, pour, mix, whatever it was this patient woman told us. Once the cakes were in the oven and the smell of delicious cake filled the air, we would turn our sites on frosting. The base of the frosting…crisco! (which makes me lol now) but she would sit there and try so hard to teach us how to make the little roses and flowers to decorate.
Glad she was able to do some baking with my girls and now I have her stuff to use with them. <3
A favorite cooking memory is baking a chocolate bundt cake with my grandmother. She is not known for being the best cook or baker, but one visit, we decided to make this cake together. The delicious smell wafted out of the oven as it baked and it came out gorgeous! We waited for it to cool a bit, cut into it, and tried it. It was HORRIBLE! It tasted incredibly salty. Turns out…we had mixed up the canisters of sugar and salt in the pantry. Even my dad, the man who hates to waste food and will eat any leftovers couldn’t stomach it :)
Not the most successful cake, but a funny story to look back on!
For Thanksgiving, freshman year of college, I traveled a few hours into the hills of central PA to visit my ailing great ant and uncle, who in their 80’s were living in the same house that my great uncle’s father built in 1913.
During my visit, my great aunt took the time and energy to patiently teach me one of our most difficult family baking recipes. It’s a variant on Croatian nut horns that has been passed down through the generations. As we pulled the last baking sheet out of the oven and sat down to get into a nut horn coma, she told me in the most genuine way that I did a good job making them. For a treasured family recipe, words like that always make a person proud.
One of my fondest baking memories was making my dad a birthday cake when I was around 9. It was such a big deal and I wanted it to be like a picture in the magazines…. it didn’t come close but he loved it so much and declared it the ‘best cake he’s ever had’…. true or not, it was the beginning of my love for cooking and showing my love through food.
My favorite baking memories don’t involve baking, but instead involved stealing bites of cookie dough when my mom was not looking. ;) All joking aside, some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around the smells of cinnamon, chocolate and warm melty cookies fresh from the oven. I believe that is what encouraged me to bake and to recreate those warm fuzzy feelings!
thank you for an amazing giveaway!!!
The most famous cooking memory is the year I was trying to eat healthy, and made the infamous tofu cheesecake. I tried to pass it off as real cheesecake and it did NOT go over well with the kids. They will never let me live it down! I am sure they will all have their own cooking disasters in the years to come. I sure would love to win that mixer and mix up some REAL cheesecake!
With all of the pumpkin recipes coming out of the bloggosphere, yours have been my fav. My ‘Yum’ board is going to be filled with your recipes…
My fondest memory of baking is also one of my earliest memories. It’s baking cookies with my mom from scratch. We had a set of colored measuring spoons and we got to use each spoon to measure an ingredient except for the largest yellow spoon, the tablespoon. The recipe didn’t call to use that spoon but I remember so badly wanting to get to scoop with the one unused, big spoon. It was just begging to be dipped in baking powder. Such a random memory but I guess it was an early sign that I was born to love baking!
Now that I’m beginning to cater treats at events, my 5qt mixer is too tiny for my production scale and I’ve been dreaming of having the beautiful machine in your contest.
my favorite baking moment was just a few months ago, when a few friends and i were trying to make gluten free cookies for our gluten free musician friend we were going to see on tour. we didn’t know what xanthan gum was. our mixer broke so we took turns whipping the dough with forks and woman muscles. everything kept going wrong. half of the cookies burned. we laughed the entire time, and it shouldn’t have been an amazing memory…but somehow it was. (by the end the cookies tasted damn good, might i add.)
My favorite baking memory was when I was 13. I was making these butter crunch cookies that my grandma makes a lot. It was my first time really baking even though I love sugar and anything including butter haha. I had never baked on my own before. I didn’t cream the butter and sugar together right and since the instructions were old and not detailed I ended up with terrible cookies. I remember practicing over and over to get it right. I constantly messed up the caramel bits and ended up with doughy cookies one day and tasteless ones the next. When I finally got the cookie recipe they were perfect, I remember being really excited about having finally done it right. They were chewy and sweet and salty and buttery.
So yeah that’s basically my favorite (:
My favorite memory is the sound of my mother’s rings tapping the sides of the pans as she floured them. I knew we were in for wonderful treats and cakes that would delight us all.
In middle school, I had the brilliant idea to bake cookies…ON A COOLING RACK! Nope, no cookie sheet. I was a smart kid and still have no idea why I thought this was a good idea. My mom wasn’t home at the time, but you can imagine the sight of my dad hurrying into the kitchen from the den upon smelling burning only to see cookie dough oozing, drooping, and hanging through each and every cooling-rack slat. Yikes! Thankfully, I’ve gotten past that major blooper and had all but forgotten about it until thinking about this question! Great giveaway.
Baking brownies from the recipe on the box of baker’s unsweetened chocolate with my brother as a child.
karenreichmann@hotmail.com
ALWAYS made Christmas cookies with mom and little sis. . . yearly tradition and many memories. But, the best was actually when I left for college and an old family friend bemoaned missing out on cookies (it was summertime!)
I can’t wait to try these cookies!
One of my favorite baking memories is from earlier this year. We were told my grandmother had a few weeks left, and as family and friends came to the house to visit her I made a lot of food. I cooked a chocolate coffee bundt cake made with Greek yogurt. It was the first time and it was delicious! My grandmother wasn’t eating anymore at the time, but 2 days later after hearing people talk about that cake she said she wanted a piece. It was the last thing she ate and she loved it.
Baking and building gingerbread houses with my daughter-in-law and her mom is my fondest baking memory. I have no daughters which makes this experience even more special.
I remember with greatness fondness when I would sit in my grandparent’s kitchen and watch my grandfather prepare the greatest coconut flour cream pies anyone will ever taste.
Thanks for the giveaway!
When I was 22 I took an entire year off to do day care for my baby brother (we have a 16 year age gap). He loved sweets and was so much fun in the kitchen it almost seemed like no work at all. I can still picture him at 6 years old helping me bake chocolate chip cookies wearing a “real” bakers hat I had fastened together with some plain white printing paper and staples in my parents cramped little kitchen. Anytime I smell chocolate chip cookies baking I think of him in that hat. He’s left home and started College this year, what I wouldn’t give to have those days back again.
Favorite baking memory:
I was in grade school and they taught a basic home ecomonics class. I worked so hard to make a beautiful (in my eyes at least)apple pie. I presented it my father (who never ate sweets) as if I were giving him a nobel peace prize. He ate all of it – told me how wonderful it was and I don’t think my feet ever touched the ground. Later that night – I realized I had forgot to add the sugar and I doubled the cinnamon. That had to have been the most awful pie ever eaten but my daddy said it was wonderful. He has been gone for many years now but I still laugh about it today.
One of my favorite baking memories was making my dad a cake for his birthday. I came up with the idea to make a pumpkin cake with gingerbread frosting. His birthday is in late October, so I figured it would be a great “seasonal” cake. I made the batter and frosting, and made him a layer cake, then decorated it myself. This was the first time I had ever tried cake decorating. I remember taking it over to my grandparents’ house for my dad’s birthday dinner and my grandma thinking I had bought the cake! :D My dad was so shocked when he tried it on how well it came out. The cake was a lot of work, but totally made it worth it when everyone (including my husband who doesn’t like sweet things) raved on how good this cake was!!!!
i have searched and searched my memory and i don’t have any baking memories to share as i came from a family that did not cook much together – nor really bake much at all. and wow that is making me really sad to reflect especially as i read about the wonderful memories that others have of their moms and childhoods.
After my mom taught me how to make cornbread, it became my nightly job to bake this bread for the family meal. Mom and I worked side by side creating the nightly meal. Good times, good memories
My mother is a great cook, but she is not into baking. But I do enjoy baking and I love to do it with my son. He is almost 4 years old and one day he asked me for a sandwich with homemade bread :)
It melted my heart and I treasure and know he will treasure this time we share in the kitchen forever.
My favorite baking memory was when I was a little kid and Mamaw (now deceased) and I made red velvet cake together. I remember I spilled the red food dye all over the place and completely ruined my grey shirt. Mamaw was rather irritated at first, but she soon got over it and chuckled. I ended up adding too much water to the icing so when we added more powdered sugar it ended up being very sweet. It was tasty a tasty treat.
I still need to get a hold of her recipe…
I cherish the memories of making cornbread from scratch, homemade sweet potatoe pies with mom, and pineapple coconut cake with my Auntie Ella.
My favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my mom. We would spend the whole day, starting with a great trip to KMart to get Outdoor decorations. Then we would get home and the table would be covered in flour and powdered sugar…it looked like snow. By the end, my face would be covered, the aroma would be amazing, and my heart was warmed with love! Thanks, mom!!!!
Living a life without taking risks is like being a vegetarian at a pig roast; boring and pointless. I’ve taken a fair share of risks in my life, however, none have been quite as frightening as making my older sister’s wedding cake. Birthdays, anniversaries, and nearly all holidays are events that I’m accustomed to making simple cakes for, but a wedding with hundreds of people with high expectations? That’s an entirely different story.
As if that wasn’t enough, I had just gotten out of a week-long stay at the hospital for brain surgery. My left arm and hand were still weak due to the surgery and I had constant migraines – the pink ice pack that my mom bought me became my best friend and barley left my head throughout the entire process. Despite these details, I felt that making a dream wedding cake was my duty as the Maid of Honor, as well as the cashless sister of the bride. I also needed to show those around me that my surgery wasn’t going to hold me back from the things I wanted to pursue in life, and that I didn’t need to be coddled constantly because of it. I was forced to put my life on the back burner while I dealt with this issue. While I was scared to begin my first wedding cake without any previous experience and a bad arm, I had made up my mind. I took the first bold step into the unknown; whisk in one hand, flowery ice pack in the other.
One thing that bothers me nowadays is that so many people think they can call themselves a baker when all they do to prepare a cake is add some oil, eggs, and water to a box of mix, and slop on some pre-made frosting with a spoon. No, when I make a cake, I actually make the cake. Thankfully, my mom agreed to buy the ingredients and supplies I needed for the preparation of all four tiers. She almost cried with tears of joy when I decided to take on this task; it was definitely a money-saver. With my own secret recipe for white wedding cake, I created nearly eight gallons of delicious cake batter. Gastroenterologists warn people to refrain from eating any type of batter or dough that contains uncooked egg as to prevent from salmonella poisoning. Either their studies are slightly askew, or I must have the strongest immune system known to man, because I consumed an ungodly amount of batter that week and didn’t get sick once!
With the fluffy, moist, vanilla-scented layers out of the oven, it was time for me to make the filling and frosting. Using my fool-proof chocolate ganache recipe, I finished the fudgy filling in no time. Now for the frosting. Never in my wildest nightmares did I think that I would get jaded with the creamiest and most flavorful vanilla-almond frosting known to man, although, after making what seemed like my weight in the stuff, it was inevitable. It had taken me five days to get this far, and with only two days until the wedding, I felt like I was on the home stretch. I layered the cake tiers, situating the plastic rounds and pipes in between to stabilize the mountain of goodness. I smoothed the frosting generously over each layer, and squeezed scalloped borders at the bases in the most craftsman-like way I could with one hand. With the help of the florist, I carefully garnished the cake with red roses and decorative pine.
I remember early that New Year’s morning not too long ago, the day of the wedding, I lectured my dad to “treat this cake like a dying child and carry it like it’s a motion sensor bomb.” He was probably terrified out of his mind as he drove and carried it into the reception hall. With all of the time and energy I put into making this work of art, I would have died a little inside if it hadn’t reached its final destination unscathed. Alas, when the church service was finished and we returned to the event hall, there my cake was; sitting atop a pedestal without a nick in the frosting or rose out of place. I took a long, deep breath of relief. I was finally done.
That evening, the cake got nothing but wonderful reviews. People oohed and aahed at the design and were astounded, foremost, at how well I was recovering from my surgery three weeks previous, but secondly, at how I single-handedly created such an ambrosial masterpiece. It may sound a bit strange, but the biggest compliment I received that night was when we ran out of forks, and people were so infatuated with my cake that they resorted to eating it with their bare hands! This adventure was certainly challenging, but the look on my sister’s face when she saw my special gift to her was priceless. Not only that, but through this test, I had demonstrated to everyone, especially my parents, that I was going to fight as hard as I could to overcome my medical problems. That was truly the icing on the cake.
my favorite memory in the kitchen is definitly has to be with my grandmother when i was younger, in my child days, im only 21 now but when my grandma was baby sitting us we would bake cookies all the time. we would even use the cookie cutter gun and she hated that thing but i used to love it. she would do anything for me.
love your blog by the way.
I wasn’t reall included on the baking when I was kid bc I would make a big mess. I was however on clean up duty and loved eating all the cookie dough and cake batter which is probably a bad idea nowadays but was great back then.
My favorite baking memory is making cookies for the first time with my daughter. She is 7 now but was 2 at the time. For awhile I didn’t think I would be able to have children and I was so sad that I wouldn’t be able to form the memories that I have with my ow mother with a child of my own. My mother and I always baked together so it was something I really wanted to experience with my own child. Thankfully, through adoption I finally had my very own child and baking that first time was so special and surreal to me!
When I was ten, my older cousin got married. My grandmother, aunts, great-aunts and cousins all got together and made cannoli for and entire day (and into the night!) We used forms brought along on “the boat” from Italy. The stories the women in my family told are so precious to me now, especially because decades later, many are no longer around. I feel so grateful to have been a part of that day. (And it was great eating any mistakes!!)
My favorite baking memory is from right before Christmas 1991 when I was just twenty one years old(I’m 41 now). My grandmother had passed away that year just a few days before mine and my sisters twenty first birthday after her battle with cancer. She had always made her special applesauce cake for Christmas. So my mother, twin sister and I decided that we would carry on the tradition and make it that year. I remember fondly going to the grocery store to buy all the ingredients for my grandmother’s special applesauce cake recipe with my mom and sister. We searched the aisles for baking soda, flour, applesauce, vanilla, walnuts etc., then we drove back home to start baking. We sifted, laughed, mixed, floured, remembered and cried. Of course it didn’t turn out exactly like grannys but it was a time we all needed together and despite all of our tears it was delicious and was enjoyed by our whole family.
My favorite baking memory would have to be with my Mom. The only times we made pie in our family was during Thanksgiving. My mom always insisted on trying to make her own crust. However, every year when we would do it and then bake the pie and crust it would come out of the oven and she would declare it the worst crust ever! Then we would eat the exposed crust! I don’t know why this memory still tickles me but it does. I just loved the look on everyones face when they would see a crustless pie…..pretty priceless.
My favorite baking memory would have to be making sugar cookies with my mom. I loved picking out the cookie cutters (I usually picked a rocking horse). I also loved mixing the food coloring to make pretty colors…and I can’t forget about licking the frosting that “fell” on my fingers. Makes me want to go and buy cookie cutters so I can make my own!
Definitely making gingerbread “chili peppers” one christmas with my mom. We made dozens of them by hand — mixing the dough, chilling it, rolling them out, baking them, then icing them. It took forever but it was so fun!
Growing up, I remember spending so much time in the kitchen with my mom — baking a storm. We never owned a fancy oven or kitchenware. Just the basic tools. But the time shared is cherished until this day. Thank you Mom, for sparking the foodie in me :)
My favorite baking memories are of baking chocolate chip cookies with my mom as a kid. I also fondly remember baking sugar cookies and decorating them for my class for special days.
My favorite memory baking with my grandmothers. They didn’t bake that much but when they did it was special. My sister and I used to love to help. We could get things messy and grandma would just smile. Thanks for making me think about a faded memory. :o)
I always loved baking with my daughter. We have had so much time to talk and laugh together because of our time in the kitchen.
My favorite memory is baking with my sister. She was always so awesome and let me help her bake the most delicious cookies.
I never really baked until the first time my wife asked me to help her bake a bunch of brownies for an event. Since then, I’ve helped her a lot, but it will always be my favorite memory.
My favorite memory is when I finally baked something from scratch besides cookies. I made brownies, and I was so excited that I had finally stepped away from the box mix! =)
My grandma would let me stand on a kitchen chair (which was a no-no at our house!) and let me pour the ingredients after she measured them.
The cookies look absolutely wonderful! One of my favorite baking memories is the first time I made blueberry pie from scratch and my dad said that it was the best pie he had ever had!
One of my favorite baking memories is making my first apple pie at my grandmother’s house. I don’t get to see her very often but now every time I bake an apple pie I think of that day up in her kitchen in Michigan where she showed me the tricks to making her homemade crust and how to slice the apples just right. It certainly wasn’t the prettiest pie I have ever made but it will always be the most memorable because she was there with me.
I love baking with my Nona, she makes scones and savory dishes that I love to help her with. I’m happy to be learning these treats so that I can pass them down to my daughets :)
Oh, I have so many found moments in the kitchen. When I got married and started having a family, my Mom would come over in Dec and we’d bake Christmas cookies together, for days on end. But we didn’t just bake cookies, we dressed in something Christmassy, put Christmas music on and bake and just have the best time. My kids would help us too! Even if it was crazy hot out, the air would be turned on just so we could have our wonderful time together. Perhaps the kitchen was a mess from all the sugar, and flour tossed about, but the mess never mattered while we were all together enjoying each other and then test tasting our yummy creations!
One of my favorite baking memories is when I was in 2nd grade and my best friend and I tried to make cookies for the first time. We wanted to make as many cookies (they were snickerdoodles) as we could so we crammed a whole bunch of little blobs on the cookie sheet. When we pulled it out of the oven, all the blobs had grown into 1 big cookie! Still have the picture of us with our goofy smiles and our huge cookie in my kitchen today. :)
They look so good!!!
My favourite baking memory is the first time I baked something that actually turned out really well – I made tollhouse chocolate chip cookies and everyone loved them! It was like somebody had flicked a switch, before then, everything I attempted was a disaster, and now (so far….) everything turns out perfectly!
I was a nanny for two little girls that lost their Father in a car accident. Their Mother could not even get out of bed for months. So every Friday after I would pick them up from school, they would have to come up with a special cookie to bake. These girls were unbelievably creative. I did not question their ideas. I wanted them to learn about trying new things. Most of our cookies turned out fantastic. Others (ketchup & white chocolate) ended up in the trash. But we had so much fun baking together.
My fave baking memory was with my mom and sister – as a kid every Christmas we made cut out sugar cookies with her super fab special recipe that has a hint of nutmeg in it. The best part? We risked salmonella each time by sampling some – and it was always so yummy! After baking, my mom made “homemade” icing by mixing powdered sugar with water and food coloring so Santa and his reindeer had cheery Christmas hues. My sis and I would paint each cookie and decorate with sprinkles. Although my mom is still alive and well, she gave me all the copper cookie cutters she used and now I’m going to start building those memories with my kids and that oh-so-special recipe. We may even sample the dough….luckily I have chickens so at least I know my egg source :).
My favorite baking memory is making cookies and cakes with my oldest nephew when he was a toddler. Due to family issues we’re not able to see him anymore, so I have to hold on to those memories I have of him since I can’t make any new ones.
My favorite baking memory is the day before Thanksgiving – that is when your kitchen looks like a tornado blitzed through it! The oven is on nonstop, and the entire house smells like pumpkin, pecan pie, apples, and of course, chocolate! While it does get hectic, it’s always a day I look forward to because I get to chit chat and laugh for hours with my mom and sister :)
My Mom has been trying to teach me how to bake and cook since I was very young. I have always enjoyed it but I seem to never fail at skipping a step. A few years ago, I was in charge of making the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I insisted that I did not need any help. I mixed everything together and poured it into the shell (more like plopped). I remember thinking how weird it was that it did not fill to the rim. My Mom looked over and said, “Sweetie did you add the milk?,” and of course I had forgotten. I scooped out the filling and mixed in the milk and finally my pie filled the crust beautifully and it was ready to bake. After dinner we had dessert and I was proud to served my homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream. My Dad kept asking for more whipped cream which was odd because usually he asks for more pie. Wouldn’t you know after the process of forgetting the milk, I forgot to add sugar!! Now I have a wonderful memory every Thanksgiving that makes us laugh!
My favorite time for baking is of course Christmas time!! There are so many traditional recipes that are a must to bake. Then I also like to try NEW recipes and I will add them to my list if they are a hit. So with Christmas baking also starts early in the month and can last up until Christmas eve makes the season seem to last longer.
Favorite baking memory — Making white chocolate snowmen on a stick with my childhood friend and her mom. We ate more than we made and got so sick from all the sugar!
One of my favorite memories is the first time my daughter called after leaving home, and asking me,” Mom I want to bake brownies from scratch, what all goes in them.” I knew then all those hours I had spent with her in the kitchen had paid off.
My Gramma Jones lives in Washington state and my family lives in Arizona. when i was growing up my grandparents would come down and visit once or twice a year. We always looked forward to the day they’d spend at or house. We’d play cards and my Gramma would bake chocolate chip cookies with my sister and I. That was our first experience with baking and to this day my sister and I will always fall back on chocolate chip cookies as our favorite thing to bake (especially when we can do so together!)
After many, many attempts at the perfect chocolate chip cookie, I finally found a recipe and procedure that produced cookies that my boyfriend promptly declared the best cookies ever. Given what a cookie monster he is and my love of baking, I was so happy to have finally found a recipe that he really loved.
These look delicious! One of my favorite baking recipes happened quite recently when I was visiting my cousins this past summer. The youngest is 12 and since I am a fair amount older than her and don’t see her that often, it can be a little difficult for us to bond. Anyway, it turns out that she is an avid baker, but only knows how to bake starting with boxed mixtures. It was a real treat to show her how simple (and fun!) it is to make blondies from scratch. I think the fact that when you work from scratch you can customize whatever you are making really appealed to her. Her mom tells me that she is now baking and decorating cupcakes from scratch and that she loves experimenting with different flavors of cake and frosting. She has also made friends with all her older brother’s friends who flock the kitchen for the tasting.
I don’t have a specific memory, but the whole experience is what I remember.
My mom was not a seasoned baker/chef. She liked making Christmas cookies and that’s about it.
What I loved was the experience watching/listening to her. Yes, this story has to do with complaining, but my mother was so hilarious when she did it that it became a treat! One Thanksgiving, she left the stuffing in the oven just a little too long and it was quite, shall we say, crisp. Before we ate, my uncle rode her about it and wouldn’t let it go. Don’t you know when it came time to eat dinner that stuffing was DELICIOUS!! Every year we’ve tried to replicate her delicious burnt stuffing to no avail. I tell you–that stuff was pure heaven!
When I was a little girl every Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas was for baking Christmas cookies at my grandmother’s house. My sister and I would each get an easy recipe to make, and my grandmother would make the more complicated ones. There would be music and laughing all day long. We would work from early in the morning until dinner time baking and putting them into containers to be frozen. Of course, we also got to be the taste testers!
My favorite baking memory is definitely baking Christmas cookies with my Grandmother when I was a little girl. I knew I was growing up once she invited me to help her because Christmas baking was fun for her but also definitely serious business. She owned a factory and worked long hours six days a week so baking time was precious. And she had a lot of cookies to bake. She took trays of cookies in to her employees. She made trays for her bowling league, for the family holiday gatherings and still more trays to take to friends.
Of course, she insisted on baking several different varieties so it was a lot of work. My personal favorites were her gingersnaps. They had a bit of crunch from the sanding sugar they were covered in but were also chewy. That was my job. Rolling the gingersnap dough into perfect little balls and then coating them with the sugar. And, she had to tell me more than once to speed it up.
I wish she was still with us.
As a young girl I liked to pretend that my Mom and I had a restaurant. I gave us fake names and deemed my father our restaurant handyman (who also ended up being our patron). I would make a construction paper menu for him but secretly tell him which items to pick as those were the items my Mom was making. I never remembered doing too much of the cooking, but I certainly remember mixing up a box a brownie mix and stealing batter whenever I could before it went into the oven. I could hardly wait for them to come out of the oven and never thought twice about inviting myself to our restaurant’s table for dessert.
Nowadays the only brownies I make are vegan, so I don’t even have to worry about eating the batter!
My backing memories are somewhat limited considering my mother is incapable of making anything from a box and my father is more the cooking type. I started baking my first summer out of college. Unfortunately I have a few of the same talents as my mother, such as the inability to follow a recipe. When she and my sister are together they are incredibly intimidating and in my attempt to impress them I ended up completely misreading the recipe and adding granulated sugar instead of confectioners to my Russian tea cakes. Not knowing how to fix the problem and not wanting to start over I added the nuts and a few extra things here and there… low and behold I created a nutty and delicious cookie that is my entire family’s favorite to this day! I love the look of these pumpkin cookies especially with the molasses… I would love a kitchen-aid mixer to continue to make delicious mistakes in the kitchen!
One of my fondest baking memories revolves around sprtiz cookies! Those delicate little buttery almond bites of pure heaven. I can’t remember how old I was maybe around 10 or 12, but ever since I’d been little we had always had these cookies as a part of my Christmas dessert spread. Usually I would just be in charge of adding the sprinkles to the tree shapes, or the red hots to the wreaths, but this specific time my dad had me get in and get my hands dirty, or should i say buttery. He had a ball of the dough already made and made me guess what was the main component, and it took me about 5 tries to guess butter! It was then I learned the art of the the lovely spritz cookie press and everything that went in to making that golden ball of dough…straight out of the Betty Crocker cookbook. Dad and I still make these every year for Christmas.
My favorite baking memory is baking banana bread with my dad when I was a kid. He’s actually a professionally trained chef, but my favorite foods of his are simple comfort foods. When I truly got into baking in college, I wooed a guys I had a crush on with my dad’s banana bread :) The relationship didn’t work out, but I still eat that bread all the time.
My favorite baking memory of all time has to be baking Christmas cookies with my Nana. Ever since I can remember, we always go to her house to bake our family’s secret recipes for different Christmas cookies. She would have some of the doughs already prepared and everything would be perfectly set out for us – she is a huge planner, so she was always ready for our baking day. As we grew older, I think she expected to not have our day anymore. Every year when I call her to schedule the date, I hear such joy in her voice, it truly is priceless. I wouldn’t trade our time with her for the world. It’s definitely the BEST baking memory I have!!!
around xmas time when my brother & i were little, we would always make gingerbread & sugar cookies with my grandparents. we would decorate the gingerbread people quite funny & the sugar cookies, well, those just looked a mess with tons of sparkle!
My favorite memory is making having a family party to decorate ginger bread cookies. A bunch of us got together and we created all these crazy gingerbread people. There were football players, ballerinas, teachers, nurses and one motorcycler. I’ve always wanted to recreate that memory with my (future) kids.
growing up, my grandma would have us help her bake anything and everything. her kitchen even had a counter that was about 6 inches shorter than a regular counter because she was so short, but i always thought it was so i could reach!
My favorite memory would have to be baking Christmas cookies. My mom would let my siblings and I decorate them when they were finished being baked. I’m sure that letting five kids decorate her cookies meant they they always turned out as beautiful as she always hoped.
My mom, sister and I use to bake all the time together. It was our bonding time when the fights between my sister and I would stop and the TV would be turned off. I learned how to bake during these sessions, a skill that I still carry proudly today. Unfortunately as my sister and I grew up we moved away from home and away from each other. Although I know that we each still bake in our own homes, the Christmas cookies, Sunday waffles and fresh biscuits aren’t exactly the same unless we are all together. This past year that’s exactly what happened. My sister and I were home at the same time and when I walked into my mom’s house there was already flour, sugar, eggs, and milk on the counter. My sister passed me a measuring cup as I put my bags down and almost without any words we were all baking together, bonding in our special way.
My favorite baking memory – when I was kindergarten, I would often annoy my mom into making butter cookies from a Sesame Street activity book. I’d try to roll them up and form letters. It’d always looked terrible but it always tasted delicious! (Too bad my family no longer has the recipe.)
I’m pretty sure my mom also had the split pea / avocado colored stand mixer. I think it must have been a popular wedding gift in the 70s.
My favorite baking memory is with my Grandma. Every year (and she started early) she would make spritz sugar cookies, peanut butter cups, chocolate covered cherries, and other treats that she would then put in metal Christmas tins and store in her freezer. She would then give them as gifts to her friends and neighbors for Christmas. Whenever my sister and I would arrive at her house in the fall we would immediately run to the basement freezer and scavenge. We assumed she didn’t know (smart kids that we were….). I remember the year she taught me how to make peanut butter cups. I felt that I had learned something special.
When she passed away 5 years ago, my mom and aunt gave me her all her candy molds so that I could carry on the tradition. Every time I use them, I think of her.
One of my favorite baking memories is making gingerbread cookies with my sister using a running gingerbread man cookie cutter. We made a cookie for each member of my younger sister’s soccer team complete with uniforms, numbers, and hair and face resembling each player. It became a tradition for the next couple of years as well.
The only thing my mom used to bake was chocolate chip cookies & banana cake.
Now, I bake with my kids & many other recipes as well. LOVE baking with my family.
One of my favorite baking memories must have been in the early 80s, because we had just moved from TX to NY. It was one of the first cold days of a long winter. My mom got everything we needed to make homemade cinnamon rolls with nuts. I can remember all of my brothers and sisters around the kitchen table. We were helping her roll out the dough and sprinkling cinnamon and raisins in the dough. I still love warm cinnamon rolls to this day and they bring back this memory.
All of my parents and siblings are still living, but I would love to have us all around the same table again!
10 years ago I nannied 3 kids. While the two older girls were at pre-school and kindergarten, the 3 year old little boy and I would often make treats. They had a mom who was sick so they were never lucky enough to have baked treats so I tried to make sure they did. One time after I put the flour in I accidently turned the mixer on too high and shot flour all over the kitchen and the little boy who was sitting on the counter next to the mixer. He thought it was hilarious. And to this day, even 10 years later, whenever I see them and we make cookies he always says, “remember that one time when you made the flour fly all over the kitchen?”. I will always treasure that memory every time I make a batch of cookies!
I love baking chocolate chip cheesecake for my son. He loved it as a young boy and I learned to bake it for him years ago. He’s 31 now but we still like to enjoy our cheesecake.
My favorite baking memory was in Jr. High School in Home Ec. We made tarts filled with jam and I was so proud of myself as I had never baked anything before. Unfortunately my Mom was not a patient teacher so I never really learned how to cook much at home. I then had Dad take me to the grocery store, we purchased the ingredients and I made it for my family. Everyone loved it and I could not be prouder.
Ever since then I love to bake and cook. Baking in itself creates warm memories for the kids. I think it’s something they will always remember.
Putting my grand daughter on the table to mix brownies, just like I did with her mother 30 yrs ago!
My mom once had to work late shift, so she asked me, a young teen, to make the cookies for my brother’s bake sale. I had to double the recipe, and somehow massively messed up on the salt measurements. I made all these peanut butter cookies, and went to bed. When my mom got home she tasted one (I hadn’t I guess!) and they were salt cookies. She had to re-do all of them, and still teases me about the salt dough I made.
I was so excited to find a recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Bread and I had all the ingredients on hand. I whipped up the dough, rolled it, and cut into three loaves. Then I remembered I only had two pans! So I grabbed a square casserole dish and bent the loaf a bit to fit. When it came out of the oven, it was heart shaped. I was so proud of my first successful Cinnamon Bread attempt and my heart shaped loaf that I took a picture of it! It still makes me smile when I run across that pic!
One of my favorite baking memories is baking cookies with my cousins on summer. I remember sitting on the counter while my older cousin was adding ingredients to the mixing bowl. We watched my aunt turn the mixer on and waited. We wanted to eat the batter off the beaters. We made large spoon sized cookie balls and put them on the baking sheet. I think we might have eaten a few spoonfuls as well. While we waited for the cookies to bake we played outside, and zoomed right back in when my aunt hollered that the cookies were done. I just love to bake and cook with my family and this is one of those times that I will always remember!
My favorite baking memory is of a long-ago “Cookie Day,” when my sister, my spouse, and I gathered in my cousin’s kitchen to bake as many cookies as we could for Christmas. We had two mixers, two ovens, and countless cookie pans and baking sheets, all in use. When my cousin’s husband got home, he was appointed the Official Taster. It was so much fun, and it will never happen again…..
My first attempt at baking, I was about 7. I had just read the Bobbsey Twins book about how they baked for their parents- so I thought I would do the same. I had no clue what the measurements meant. I just prepped the batter- I wasn’t allowed to touch the oven. It ended up being a “SALT” cake- I put in a cup of salt & then an entire 5lb bag of sugar to try to fix the salt taste. My mom , f course, was “so proud” and kept it around for my dad to try when he got home, then it went in the trash. I’ve learned a little since then, but this story came up every time after I baked something.
One of my favorite baking memories is baking with my mom. Every year, she goes all out to make Christmas cookies for the family. She makes at least 20 different kinds every year. Some she makes ahead of time and those are the memories that stick with me the most. Christmas time in our house last for months. Some of the best moments were when my sister and I would turn on Christmas music in early November and help my mom bake. The three of us baking in the kitchen together, singing Christmas songs will always be my favorite memory. :-)
Sadly, my mom did not bake much when I was growing up. Our neighbor did, though. She would occasionally invite my brother and I over to help bake chocolate chip cookies. I am glad we were able to spend that time together, as our neighbor tragically passed away while I was in high school. I have fond memories of baking with her and miss her.
this recipe looks fantastic! a favorite baking memory is from when i was a young girl baking in the kitchen with my mom. She is famous for her huge monster cookies. It was a long process and messy, too. Which is why i loved it. We would make dozens and dozens of these. We didnt have bowls large enough to mix all the dough together so we would use huge tupperware containers. Mom even let me use my hands to mix it all together. I was up to my elbows in dough. It would take all weekend to make these cookies. We would always deliver a bunch of the cookies around town to friends and strangers even!
My memory is of bakig with my daughter. Or, so I thought. I LOVE baking, so one winter day she said let’s make chocolate chip cookies. I looked at her, because she had never seemed interested before, and said you want to learn to make cookies? She said yes. Well, I was so excited and ran around the kitchen getting all the ingredients put out, when I realized she wasn’t there. I looked for her and she was in her room listening to music. I said, hey, I thought you wanted to learn how to bake? And, she goes–Oh, I just wanted to eat them!! When they were done she ate an entire pan at once saying how good they were! She didn’t take after me in loving to bake, but I still love it and bake for my family a lot. Really would love a mixer like that! It is beautiful!!!
My mom is not much of a cook, sad but turn. I was 10 and told my whole class that my mom was a great french pastry cheif and i would bring in chochalet eclaries in for the whole the class. We were having a class party the next day. I told my mom, she lectured, laughed and we went to the store. It took us what felt like 12 hrs to make thease homemade eclaries. I had given up, but my mom stayed up and after many many faliures. i woke up to 24 slightly messy not perfect eclaries for class. I learned alot from those eclaries. Mostly the value of telling truth, and my moms love and dertmination can accomplish anything.
My favorite baking memory….
I cant really pick one, but i know they are all centered around being in the kitchen with my mom. Whether it was that time we spilled boiling green bean casserole on the linolium and melted it…. or the millions of times we made cookies and Busy Day Pumpkin Dessert together. Now grown and on my own i miss fighting my mom for the clean whisk and bumpin each other out of the way :)
Baking with my mom– every year, we would take a weekend and bake all the Christmas cookies. Other siblings (I have 4) would come in and out to help, but it was really about my mom and me. My fondest baking memories are sitting around the island talking as cookies were baking. I live 10 hours from home, so now I continue the tradition with my husband!
My mom and I baked an erray of baked goods during every Christmas season. We’d make magic bars, divinity, all sorts of cookies, peanut brittle, kolaches, cinnamon rolls and more. My mom decorated our entire house for Christmas. When we spent most of our time baking the house just had to be the warmest house in the world. I am now obsessed with Christmas and all the baking that goes along with it. I’m gearing up now for Christmas 2012!
My favorite baking memories are baking cookies at Christmas time with my kids when they were younger. They are now teenagers. They loved to decorated the sugar cookies. Sometimes they would have a friend over and they would join in. We had a lot of fun.
Baking peanut butter cookies with my Mom. She never got me involved in the cooking, so it was a treat to learn how to bake cookies and spend time together.
My favorite baking memory; being so exicited to help my Mom bake, and eat the cookie dough. OMG, that was so lonf ago :).
For sure my fondest baking memories would be ones with my good ole’ Easy Bake Oven. I used to make layered cakes, cookies and brownies. One time I had the great idea to have my own bake sale (age 8). I made a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies, but somehow substituted salt for sugar. needless to say – I didn’t sell many cookies. Oh well!
Favorite baking memory: Sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table and watching her whip up her wonderful creations :)
When each of my children turned two, we made brownies together. I have pictures of those days with them licking the beaters and getting the batter all over themselves. It’s something I will always remember.
My favorite baking memory is making Greek Easter cookies with my paternal grandmother who passed away in 2005. We use to sing a song when making them, and I am sorry if it doesn’t make any sense in English, but in Greek it rhymes and we would sing. Koulourakia are a Greek Easter/Christmas cookie.
Koulourakia, Koulourakia me ta dio mas ta herakia. Which means Koulourakia, Koulourakia with are two little hands.
mmalavec(at)med(dot)umich(dot)edu
We were making cookies one day and i turned the mixer on high instead of low and the flour flew everywhere!! Then i had to clean it up:/
The ONLY thing my dad ever attempted to make in the kitchen were chocolate chip cookies. Growing up that was the biggest treat making those with him! I remember one night we had chocolate chip cookies and skittles for dinner (my mom must have been out of town!)
I fondly remember baking christmas cookies with my mom. Baking christmas cookies is still one of my favorite things to do even as an adult.
My fondest baking memory would have to be when my mom taught me how to make her homemade butter almond press cookies. It had a ridiculous amount of butter in the recipe, but that’s what made it so great. We would dye them different colors and the almond would make them smell amazing!! As a last touch, we would sprinkle them with different colored sprinkles and put them on old newspapers to cool. I still have my mom’s cookie press, and even though she’s passed on, I plan to carry on the tradition with my girls. Your recipes are delicious and my daughter and I are making the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies today. thanks!!!!
Baking Christmas cookies with my Gran.
My favorite baking memories are baking at Christmas with my children and husband. When my daughter was small (she is 21 now) I would bring her table and chair into the kitchen and we would make sugar cookies, it was so much fun, the sprinkles and flour was all over the place. When my son (17 now) was old enough he joined in, and between my kids and husband they started decorating some of the sugar cookies like aliens!! We still bake and yes I still have alien cookies that are put in a “special” tin! My daughter and I still bake chocolate chip cookies together, she is spoiled and because we baked so much together, store bought cookies just does not do it for her.
My favorite baking memory is making cookies almost every weekend with my daughter! Now that we are helping my dad out, he is loving them too
A favorite baking memory is decorating Christmas cut out sugar cookies with my 4 siblings…my mom was so patient with us as we were up to our elbows in frosting and sprinkles. The kitchen looked like a hurricane had come through, but we were all so happy. The cookies may not have looked the best, but my mom didn’t care!
Getting together with my mother inlaw,sister inlaw, our daughters and now my great nieces making Christmas cookies
One of my earliest memories of anything is when I was a wee tot and my two older sisters decided to make green taffy. Why green, I have no idea; maybe it was St. Patrick’s Day. I remember them messing around with the candy thermometer and over-shooting the required temperature, so what they got instead of taffy was this rock-hard, glass-like substance that stuck to everything like cement. I believe my mom had to throw out a pan, a spoon and a few other utensils because this stuff just wouldn’t come off. It sure was pretty, though.
My mom never did a lot of cooking/baking, so most of my baking memories are recent. I do, however, have 1 distinct childhood baking memory. Every Christmas my mom made a bunch of cookies and-of course-chocolate chip cookies were one of them. Her chocolate chip cookies were awful, did not taste good at all. However-the dough was delicious! She would usually be multi-tasking, and often leave the cookie dough in the refrigerator for awhile prior to baking, sometimes overnight (I know…I don’t know why they never tasted good. Must have been the recipe). She would always be very firm with my dad, brother, and I that we were not allowed to eat any dough (other than the beaters which she totally let my brother and I eat the dough off of-1 beater a piece). As soon as she was gone (downstairs, outside, etc.) my dad and I would sneak into the kitchen and steal little finger-fulls of dough as often as we could. It was so much fun. And the dough was so delicious :)
My favorite baking memory was around Christmas when I was 13-14 years old. My mom and I went to my Aunt’s to bake all kinds of goodies for the holidays (traditional sugar cookies, buckeyes, butterhorns, etc.) The memory stands out in my mind for some reason because I think it was the first time I felt “grown-up”. My family didn’t have me there to be a “little helper” they actually wanted me to do my own baking. It was great!
My favorite baking memory was always centered around Christmas and helping mom make m and m cookies for Santa. We would leave them by the front door because we lived in Florida and didn’t have a chimney. To this day, my sister and I still make them every Christmas for our dad. We are 47 and 49 years old.
One of the first times I made cookies with a friend (sans adult help,) we put them on the cookie sheet way to close together. A lot of them morphed together and caused a big U shape to form. It kind of looked like a pair of pants, so after this, whenever planning on having a sleepover, we’d say, “Let’s have a pants party!” We then would purposely put them close on the pan, in hopes to re-enact the pants shape. The first pair of pants was chocolate chip, but as we got older and more creative, there were many other flavors to follow.
Some favorite baking memories of mine were from when I was 10 years old and older, helping my mom bake cookies or bars. My grandfather lived just two houses down from us, and he and my dad both had a major sweet tooth. They loved and appreciated any homemade treat, so my mom would bake a few times a week.
Because even at that age I loved gathering recipes, I wrote all of the family favorites down and kept them bound in a red folder. I would go through all the recipes and ask her which one we were going to make, even if we had several versions of the same type of cookie or brownie. Then I would either help with the making of them, or eventually, I would make them on my own. She was a very patient teacher.
My favorite memory is baking a traditional Filipino dessert with my mom that she used to bake with her mother and grandmother called Brazo de Mercedes. We messed up quite a few times but it turned out delicious!
A bunch of us girlfriends joined together and proclaimed the weekend before christmas our “annual baking extravaganza” it is a GREAT time for fellowship, friendship, food and of course BAKING! we bake a variety of christmas goodies while listening to christmas music and chatting the day away. By the end of the day, each person goes home with a BOX filled with assorted goodies to give to our families for the holidays all made with love and FUN in the spirit of christmas. It is such a great way to get together and have awesome “girl” time together!
My Mom wanted to be alone when she baked. She’ll didn’t want 5 children in the kitchen bugging her. She said that she needed to concentrate on what she was doing. Lol. Whenever she baked a cake she had this tiny pan that would make 6 little cupcakes. Real tiny ones. We were not naughty b/c we wanted our cupcake when it came out of the oven. Lol. I have never seen one like it since. Now she doesn’t no where it is.
Now I love watching my parents making pizzeles together and my Mom scolding my Dad. He just laughs it off. They make a double batch or so every holiday, over 150 of those big cookies!
My favourite baking memory was with my mother, the first time we made ‘MishMash’. We had tweaked and mashed up 3 different recipes and come up with our own special. Our neighbour suggested the name and that stuck on! It included a vanilla cake and a chocolate cake layer, but with our creativity we ended up with 3 marble cakes that were gooey but not in a good way! That afternoon was fun and error filled. A few more tries resulted in our signature dessert. Following that day every family gathering, that is every other weekend, had to have our creation!
I grew up with a mom who was always baking in the kitchen. Between her having 5 kids, and being a professional cake decorator, there was something always going on in the mixer and the stove. My favorite memories would have to be, besides the Christmas baking, was when mom would make baby shower cakes. She would usually decorate sheet cakes with a baby quilt that included things like booties and rattles. When she would finish, she would always make me a pair of icing booties that I could lick off my hand.
My favorite baking memory is making whipped shortbread with my mom every Christmas. As simple as the recipe is, we would bake batches for friends and family. It was hard not to sneak a few as we filled the Christmas tins. Even after training as a pastry chef, I still make the shortbread every year to share and indulge myself.
My favorite baking memory would have to be my first time “baking”, the Christmas Santa brought me an easy bake oven. I loved that thing, and I thought those were the best sugar cookies and brownies ever!
Ohmigoodness the addition of cinnamon sugar is genius! I’ll have to try it!
Favorite baking memory… Perhaps it’s my favorite because I’ve made these cookies for years with my mom… My mom makes FANTASTIC Christmas cookies and an equally fantastic mess in the kitchen. How flour got in places around the kitchen, I will never know. :o) My first time helping was with mini nut roll like cookies, perhaps foldovers? I suppose now that I’m in my late 20’s I should know what they’re called, but to me they’re Jesus cookies. I started calling them Jesus cookies because you put the nut mixture in the middle then pinned up one corner over the other, making what looked like a swaddled Jesus (or at least to a 5 year old haha). Anyways, I remember the mess, the deliciousness, the laughs, and sitting at the table (which is now in my kitchen!) making dozens of them, so happy to get to help in the baking marathon. :o)
My favorite memory is being with my mom at the church kitchen. She would make the best peanut brittle and my job was to butter the pans and get all the ingredients ready. After that we would go sell it in front of the local grocery store. What a great time is was to be with my mom and help the church.
I think it’s so awesome they had kitchenaid mixers in 1972! And these cookies are absolutely heavenly! I love all the pumpkin recipes out on the blogs today! Great minds think alike :)
As for my most fondest baking memory – I wish I could say that I remember baking cookies or something with my mom but we never got to do that! We actually never even used the oven. My mom used the oven as storage for her pots and pans!
One of my favorite baking memories is with my friend Lorraine from 6th grade. We were always up to no good, and one day we decided bake a hodge-podge of ingredients we found in the kitchen (including hot sauce and soy sauce) into a “muffin.” We then took a bag of our creation to school to feed to any unsuspecting boys on the playground. Needless to say, these baked treats didn’t make us any new friends…but they sure did give us quite a few laughs!
Recently my friend came over and our sons played together while we baked ALLLL day long. It was so fun and we loved watching our boys play together. We both work together and had the day off on a weekday, so it was fun not working and getting to bake all day.
I used to love making this delish almond puff pastry (my grandmas recipe) with me mom. We used to make it every year for my dads birthday.
One of my favorite baking moments was a few weeks ago as I baked homemade biscotti with my kids. Coconut flour was flying everywhere and we were all giggling!
My aunt used to make plates of cookies as presents for Christmas. I remember being allowed to pull up a kitchen chair so I could stand on it and help. She had an avocado green Kitchen Aid mixer. My favorite thing to do – besides lick the beaters – was to put the sprinkles and red hots on the cookies as decorations. (Remember those little sprinkle jars with the pink tops?) The favorite cookies we would make were a mixture of peanut butter and corn flakes. Now we live hundreds of miles apart but I still call her each holiday season and we talk while baking cookies together even though we are apart. :)
for our first christmas together, i baked cinnamon buns from scratch for my family, and my now husbands family. since then, it’s become a christmas eve tradition. and a wonderful way to spend christmas morning!
My favorite baking memory is making homemade fried apple hand pies with my Nana.
My Grandfather was an accomplished chef so the only time my Grandma (who I called Sweetie) went in the kitchen was to bake. As a kid I spent a lot of weekends at Sweetie’s baking cookies and breads. Those are some of my best memories. My favorites were Pumpkin Bread and one we made with strawberry jam. The best memory of all was when I was about 7 and picked a bowl of huckleberries from her front yard. Even though there weren’t very many berries she helped me make a crust and a mini pie. It didn’t taste great but I was so proud of my little pie. :)
Baking my very first cheesecake in my new apartment after I was married. It was a vanilla cheesecake; the recipe came from a newlywed cookbook we got at our wedding and it turned out wonderfully!
A cooking memory I will never forget happened when I was about 12 years old. I was cooking lemon oatmeal cookies and it was the first time I had followed the recipe and baked cookies with no help from my mom. I was so excited and proud until the moment my mom took her first bite and promptly spit it back out. My cookies were so salty they were inedible. It turns out I had added about three times as much salt than the recipe called for. Oops!
baking on sundays at my grandmothers house with all the ladies in my family! baking fresh loaves of bread!
my fave baking memory is from when my aunt came to visit over the holidays (i was probably about 5 or 6) and taught me about snickerdoodles! i had never had one before that visit. i remember loving rolling the balls up and then rolling them in cinnamon-sugar. when they were finished and i tasted one, they became my new favorite cookie! :-)
I have very fond memories of making cut out sugar cookies with my aunt. I was the first niece born into our family so I was quite close to my mom’s little sister. I remember I loved eating the flour. My aunt passed away suddenly and tragically just under 2 years ago and I cherish the memories I have of her…cut out sugar cookies will forever be an aunt Holly thing!
My favorite baking memories are always from the Christmas season. I swear, my mom used to make 87 different types of baked goods, mostly cookies, her specialty. We make special sugar cookies in all sorts of holiday shapes — candy canes, Santas, stars, Christmas trees, etc. — and then everybody helps to decorate them. I inevitably end up thoughtfully designing 3 or 4 trays with colorful jimmies while the others splatter a handful of sprinkles on a few cookies and then stand around chatting until the first trays come out to sample…
My best friend from junior high and I, ever since becoming adults, have always baked Christmas cookies together. It’s just something we do. And since having kids, we have included them in our annual tradition. It’s been so much fun and something we can always count on being a part of our holidays. My friend recently moved 12 hours away and won’t be able to come home for the holidays this year, so I’m really sad that we won’t get to bake our cookies!
My favorite baking memory is probably baking banana bread with my grandma. We used to make it all the time. She has since passed but I still have her recipe and make it a lot with my mom and always think of her.
my favorite baking memories are when i come home from college for winter break and bake with my mom. i miss her and her cooking SO much when i’m away at school so this time is really special for me. she teaches me her recipes for “thing” cakes, 7-UP cakes, and sweet potato pies. the thing cakes are probably my favorite…we always have to make sure at least one pan does not include pecans since i HATE nuts! my mom knows all of the recipes by heart and i hope one day i will too!
I used to bake Christmas cookies with my mom all the time. Usually sugar cookies that you roll out and decorate.
When I was home from freshman year of college, she was dating the man who would become my stepdad. We decorated them together. We had such a blast decorating the UGLIEST cookies. Oh, we mixed all the frosting together to get weird brownish colors. We’d put hershey kisses on top and glob on frosting to stick it down. I still have pictures of those cookies in a photo album somewhere.
one of them would be baking pizza with my 85+ year old neighbor and then having her home made, secret, brownies!!!
I was baking Christmas cookies with my sister-in-law and nieces during our annual cookie baking day. My oldest niece was 13 and had been baking long enough that we let her mix up the dough herself for the next batch of cookies. She was done adding everything, but she said that the dough didn’t seem right. And nope, it DID NOT look right. We asked her what she added and she told us that she put in only what was on the recipe card. We couldnt figure out what happened so we asked her to show us exactly what she put in. It all made perfect sense when she pointed to powdered sugar container and said she added flour. Yep, the containers weren’t labeled an she had added cups and cups of powdered sugar to the dough. We nearly died laughing and fortunately we had enough butter to make another batch. Poor girl probably won’t live that one down for a long time!
My favorite baking memory is making chocolate chip cookies with my mom when I was little… and looking back thinking how much less messy it would have been with a stand mixer! (or, you know, a baker’s assistant more than 7 years old)
for years I longed for the time I would be able to bake with a child. Several years ago I adopted a son–he’s all boy, rough, and tumble and full of hugs and sloppy kisses. I started baking bread about a year ago and after the first time or two observing he seemed to think it was something messy enough he might enjoy. He now helps me measure and stir ingredients and he asks when he will be big enough to knead the dough. I’m a blessed woman.
My favorite baking memory is baking piroshki (a traditional russian food similar to polish pierogi). She would make the dough and I would anxiously wait all day until it rose twice. I would sneak bites of the filling she prepared (egg+cabbage was my favorite!). Finally, we would split the dough into many small pieces and work together to make pretty little piroshkis. Aww childhood :)
My best memory is my first memory of cooking. My dad was always really busy and travelling but whenever he was home he gave us his full undivided attention. I remember him coming home from a long trip and teaching me to make oatmeal raising chocolate chip cookies. I couldn’t have been more than 4 years old, we would snitch in the dough together and he would tell me his stories of growing up and working on their farm. While the cookies baked, I would run over to my mom in the living room and she would let me do her hair and put every clip and bow we owned in her hair. Such a small memory made me feel safe, loved and cared for, it taught me what family really meant and how to one day do the same for my own children.
My favorite baking memory is baking with my grandma. We used to always get together and bake up tons of pumpkin bread every Thanksgiving and Christmas! She’s no longer here, but when my daughter gets old enough I plan to carry on the tradition with her!
What an amazing recipe, and absolutely perfect for the fall! I can’t wait to try it!!
I love cooking, and I have definitely always been more of the ‘baker’ in our family. My mother, not so much. Once upon a time, she tried baking sugar cookies, a bit similar to this recipe listed above. I was in 5th grade, and I had to take them to school the next day for my whole class. After working all night, they were finally ready for me to take to school in multiple tupperware containers.
I got to school, so excited about having cookies for my classmates. I just knew they would be a hit. After handing them out, I was noticing that not too many kids were eating them. And, then I began to eat mine… only to be surprised that I didn’t break any of my teeth! They were so hard, that no one could eat them. So, my teacher had a better idea. He put all of the cookies in a blender to crumble them up to put as a topping on ice cream that we had. But, unfortunately (and embarrassingly) the cookies BROKE the blender!!!
Needless to say, it became a running joke with my teacher and I, and I was never asked to bring a baked good ever again. And, if I had to, I usually baked instead of my mother. Oy vey.
My favorite baking memory is making pumpkin pie with my Nana the day before Thanksgiving when I was 6 years old. I couldn’t even reach the stove, but I got to help stir and roll out the dough for the pie crust. I dropped the bowl with the filling, and we had to start all over! But Nana just smiled and hugged me and made a new batch.
My grandmother was a fabulous baker. My mother has never even baked using a box cake mix. I am not the baker my grandmother was but I have always loved to bake. A favorite memory
Is me at the age of ten. I decided I wanted to bake an angel food cake, my favorite. I found a recipe, dug out some money from my secret area of my dresser, walked to the store and bought the ingredients. I followed the recipe and that evening after dinner brought out my cake for my mom, dad and three brothers to enjoy. The entire cake was eaten in one sitting.
I have so many fond memories of baking with my mother when I was little. She still has her same KitchenAid mixer that she got 30 years ago, and it continues to work like a charm! I however, would love to have KitchenAid of my own :) I think my all-time favorite memory was when I was seven and my mom taught me how to make her famous banana bread for the first time. It came out perfect, and from then on I always wanted to be in the kitchen with her!
My favorite baking memories are of my French-Canadian grandmother, who had a strong background in traditional French cuisine. Her (technically difficult) eclairs and cream puffs were more of a watch and then devour type of participation, but Saturday morning crepes were hands on. We’d measure out the few required ingredients, then watch in awe as Mimi whipped and whipped the batter with her whisk, until it was as smooth as if it had been put in the blender. Although I didn’t realize it as a kid, I learned a lot about food and baking from my grandmother! I’m very grateful for the experiences and the memories :)
I have seen these painted by a company. Baking with pumpkin is a tribute to all pumpkins. Not just once a year but these look wonderful. Go to my pantry and there are 4 cans of it :) Look delicious!
one of my favorite baking memories was helping my grandma make peanut butter cookies.
Wow, what a giveaway! When I as little I used to bake with my grandma a lot. She made really tasty pineapple bars, pistachio cake, kugel… I was young enough that I didn’t realize she’s kind of crazy, hehe… oh how age changes our perspective!
For Christmas every year my mom would bake Christmas cookies, sometimes enlisting my help. Not just one or two kinds of cookies, mind you…more like 24 kinds; dozens and dozens; all kept in large tins in the cellar; then later divided into smaller tins for gifts or put out on trays for dessert every night. We had Mexican wedding cookies, Rum balls, Coconut Haystacks, Pecan Dreams, Lacy Oatmeal, Spritz Butter Cookies, Meringue Cookies, the list went on and on. Most of them melted in your mouth :). She doesn’t bake them any more, and it was sad for her to give this up, although I don’t know how much she remembers all that now.
*lady
My favorite baking memory is the first thing that I can remember baking all by myself. Or mostly by myself. I made peanut butter and jelly thumbprint cookies when I was in elementary school, probably to take in for my teacher or for a classroom snack. Anyway, I still have the recipe card that I wrote in my not so neat and very large handwriting for the cookies. I’ve been baking ever since.
A favorite baking memory:
A very sweet last at my boyfriend’s church always makes him these incredible chocolate chip cookies. She doesn’t use a recipe, though, so she couldn’t tell him how she makes them. So, we decided to try a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookie recipes and make our own changes to them to find the one most like the lady’s from church. One particular time, we were baking and my boyfriend was in charge of stirring in the chocolate chips. After he had mixed in the amount that the recipe called for, he apparently decided that it wasn’t enough chocolate chips so he “spilled” the rest of the bag into the dough and even said, “oops.” I remember laughing at the look on his face, and they were some of the best chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever made together. :)
My favorite baking memory is that my mother had memorized the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and I thought it was the coolest thing that she could just whip up a batch of cookies for my friends and I without looking at a recipe. As a mother now, and having made a few 100 chocolate chip cookies I understand how she did it and find it cute that my kids thinks it is “cool” too!
I also have one funny memory of wanting to make Divinity candy (which can be quite messy) so I was in the midst of making it by myself when a friend called to “play.” I decided that I would much rather play than mess around with this Divinity stuff any longer and left the mess in the kitchen and off I went to a friend house. Let’ s just say my mother was none to pleased and I will always remember my Divinity making experiment!
My mom used to make cakes for weddings and birthdays, so learning how to bake a decorate cakes was my favorite memory.
for my sister’s birthday this year, her two daughters (aged 4 & 6) and i made her favorite dessert – strawberry shortcake.
My favorite baking memory is baking carrot cake with my mom for Thanksgiving. We always have such a great time and I just love that cake. Plus, we would whip up cream cheese frosting and eat a ton of it along the way. I will always have a special place in my heart for carrot cake and thanksgiving :)
I would love love love these!!!
My mother always bakes with a kitchen aid mixer!! My favorite memories involve letting me lick off the mixers and the bowl. The first time she let me bake on my own in junior high was with her kitchen aid… I remember I kept running up and down the stairs asking her questions every step of the way. It was a lemon blueberry cake… In the end she ended up helping me because I was so nervous I was doing it wrong and got upset. I love all my memories of coming home to a delicious smelling house, all thanks to her kitchen aide!
When my husband and I were in college we barely had two cents to rub together. When it was time for Christmas we couldn’t afford to buy traditional gifts, so we cooked ours. We made infused olive oil, strawberry jam, and three different types of cookies. I remember staying up until the wee hours to finish all the cookies, there was cookies cooling all over the kitchen. I was a little bit nervous about giving food as a gift, but everyone loved them. And every Christmas that has passed people are still talking about those homemade gifts. So, last year we made them again and gave them right along side store bough gifts. Everyone let me know how much they loved our homemade goodness. It was heartwarming to know that those cookies ranked up there with the likes of Chanel perfume and the iPod.
My favorite baking memory was helping my grandma make apple pies and rolling out the dough for the crust!
First and foremost, I have to say I really enjoyed this post, and everyone’s comments about their memories.
My favorite memory was a little over a year ago. I didn’t have a mother to teach me how to cook, so no good childhood memories of it. However, I am making sure my daughter doesn’t miss out like I did! Last year we set out to make homemade gluten-free oreo’s because of her celiac diagnosis. There wasn’t as many packaged gluten-free foods a year ago as there is now. So we spent the day together creating them. I documented the experience here http://whatsfordinner-momwhatsfordinner.blogspot.com/2011/09/gluten-free-chocolate-sandwich-cookies.html It is one of my favorite memories that I will cherish forever. Baking with my daughter. <3
Growing up, my Mom, sister, and I would spend one entire weekend during the Christmas holidays baking cookies! We’d start early on Saturday making every kind of cookie dough imaginable and all day Sunday was reserved for the baking. Dozens upon dozens if cookies would fill our kitchen and that’s all we would eat the entire day! The last cookie was always the cut-out molasses cookies because they needed frosting and sprinkles, which was our favorite part!
My absolute favorite baking memories are the first baking memories I have: with my grandma. I even have a picture of the experience framed and on my dresser. I can’t be older than 3 or 4 in the photo. Grandma would mix up a batch of buttermilk biscuit dough from scratch, and we would make “biscuit cookies.” We would use her vintage cookie cutters (I loved the little rooster) and cut out all different shapes from the dough. I would love to roll mine in either cinnamon and sugar or rainbow sprinkles. Then we’d bake them up and enjoy our “biscuit cookies” all day long. Love it!
I loved baking with my mom when I was little. I think it was all the samples she gave out. And I love carrying that on with my daughter. She gets so excited to “cook cookies”!
I have so many, but I think one of my favorites is watching my teenage brothers in my aunt’s kitchen helping two of our good friends daughters (ages about 6 and 7 then) bake cookies, and them just being totally into what they were doing, unconcerned about anything else.
Wow! This is such a great opportunity! Thanks Averie!
Heading off to college next year, so this would definitely be well used!
My favorite baking memories were from when my brother (a year older than me) and I used to make chocolate chip cookies. The good, ol’ unhealthy ones with 2 sticks of butter and 1.5 cups of sugar…yum yum yum! haha…
It was lucky if a dozen cookies made it to the oven! We’d always have the worst stomach-aches from scarfing the cookie dough, but apparently it was good, because we did it many, many times :D
(of course, today the cookies would have to be gluten and dairy free for us….but that’s not an issue! They can still be tasty! (and stomach-ache inducing :) )
One of my favorite baking memories is the first time my niece made cookies with me. She wanted to taste every ingredient as we made cookies. Now when she comes to my house, her first question is “what are we making today?!?!”
I would die for this! I have three kids! It’s so awesome!
Those cookies look delicious!!
Last year with my Mom, we made three different kinds of cookies for x-mas. It was our first time baking that much together, so I was a little worried whether they were going to be good. They were delicious!!
My favorite baking memory was definitely teaching others how to make cake pops at a non-profit I volunteer at (I have semi-regular baking night as social activities with the residents). Halloween Cake Pop night was definitely my favorite. Two of the resident had their little boys there, so when the time to crumble the cake (one chocolate, and one vanilla flavored dyed green), the little boys volunteered to do it. I instructed them to crumble the cake–they looked at me, at the cake, and then at their moms with a Can-I-Really-Play-With-The-Food-Mom? expression on their faces. Once they got their hands in the cake, they were having so much fun. When I added the frosting, they said “Ewww, this is so weird!” as they eagerly continued to make the dough.
I had mummies and Frankensteins planned out as tutorials but everyone let their creative juices flow and had some cool looking cake pops!
My favorite baking memory was making meringue cookies for the first time. I think I was 12. I was so excited to make them all by myself while my parents were gone. I couldn’t wait to present them with the finished cookies.
I doubled the recipe and thought I had to double everything, from the time in the oven to the temperature. It was a failure in so many ways but I learned how to double a recipe!
Cooking and baking with my family has always been a big part of my life. I don’t think I will ever forget when my proper, conservative, southern Christian grandmother told my cousin to check “that bucking lid” on a pot of mashed potatoes. He thought she said “that **cking lid!” I have never seen someone so shocked or my parents laugh so hard!
My favorite cooking memory is baking chocolate chip cookies using the recipe from the Toll House bag with my mom. Mom like to tie a too large gingham apron around my waist that was long enough to tickle the tops of my toes. She would pick me up and set me on the yellow Formica counter top of our first home, most of which was a shade of canary, as well. In my lap Mom would place a stainless steel mixing bowl and hand me a wooden spoon to stir the ingredients as she added them. Inevitably, I would be covered in flour, but it never bothered her. As we spooned the chocolate chip cookie dough onto the sheet pans, Mom would pop a small bit of dough in my mouth and another in hers. We were fearless in the face of salmonella in our pursuit of chocolaty goodness . Finally she would set me on the cream colored tile in front of the oven and turn on the oven light. I would sit patiently waiting for the cookies to spread and brown so that she and I could get the first taste before anyone else.
Yummm I’m going to make those cookies tomorrow.
My best baking memory is when I taught myself how to make apple pie, and I did a class on it in 7th grade. I was known for my apple pie, and eventually I tuahgt my grandma how I made them :-) I’m sure looking back that it was to make me feel good about myself, but it still makes me happy.
My favorite baking memory is of watching my Grandma make pecan pies. She would use her butter knife to trim the pie crusts, then a fork to pinch the edges. I can still see her using her “shaker” to beat the eggs. She still makes the best pies! Lemon Meringue, Chocolate Cream, and Coconut Cream are my favorites.
My favorite baking memory was making a birthday cake for my 7th grade Language Arts teacher with my best-friend. Part of the cake caved-in and for some reason we thought sticking a Matchbox car on top (since the teacher was fond of hot-rods) would distract from the giant crack in the cake and frosting.. well it only made it worse. I grew-up baking, with grandparents that baked, with aunts and uncles that baked, but baking with my best-friend (whose parents weren’t from the US.. so she did not know much about baking or have the ingredients or mixer or even the utensils) was most memorable.
In three months this same best-friend is getting married, and I’ll be baking a lot of goodies for her wedding. Thankfully my baking-skills have progressed, and I do not plan to put a Matchbox car on any of the items. :o)
My mother never cooks unless it’s Christmas, and when she does she goes above and beyond. Baking christmas cookies and making candy with my mom and little sisters is something that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. We always made Santa peanut butter cookies (and it took me years to realize that we only made peanut butter because my dad was Santa) and used glasses instead of rolling pins to roll them out. A long afternoon covered in flour was always something I looked forward to during the Christmas season.
My favorite baking memory was helping my mom make Christmas cookies when I was younger. I would always help me roll out the sugar cookies, cut out the shapes, and put on the sprinkles to make them sparkle. We would always argue because I wanted to use some of our huge cookie cutters but she liked the small ones.
I make my own Christmas cookies now and don’t get home early enough before Christmas to help her anymore. But I know she still has my sister’s kids, who are 7 year old twins, over to decorate sugar cookies every year – and I’m sure they love it as much as I did.
Looks like another home run recipe from Averie Cooks. And your pumpkin chocolate chip cookies spin me back to memories of baking with my grandmother, Nona. Like you she packed wholesome goodness into each sweet including her buttery date nut cookies. Smelling the mounds of cookie dough as they transformed into mouthwatering bites of goodness was an almost transcendent experience!
My favorite baking memory is the first time my grandma taught me how to bake — I was probably about four or five, and the cookbook was her very first one (a child’s cookbook) from the 1930s. (I remember loving the illustrations, which was probably the start of my love for all things vintage!) I always hung out in the kitchen when we visited, because Grandma would give me “samples” of whatever she was making. Getting to actually make something was exciting!
I got to put on an apron that was much too big for me, and learned about how to read a recipe and measure out the ingredients. We made a “cinderella cake” — probably similar to a pound cake. 20 years later, I’m still cooking and baking. :)
One of my favorite memories is trying to make a pumpkin pie for the first time for my boyfriend. I made it so quickly and before it cooled, I topped it with whipped cream (bad idea!!) The whipped cream melted as I drove it over to my boyfriend’s house and by the time I showed up, my car seat was a mess and I tearfully presented my soupy pie. My boyfriend laughed and told me it was the best he’s had. (I ended up marrying that one)
My favorite baking memory is when my grandma and I baked cookies for my sister’s wedding. We accidentally quadrupled the butter for a recipe, so had to quadruple the rest of it, and ended up making more than 25 dozen cookies.. we ended up giving about 3 dozen to the birds! It was madness, but so much fun!
I have lots of baking memories, but the big one is probably my mom teaching me how to make her Famous German Apple Cake. It’s not a cake, kind of a pie, and totally terrified me. Mom instructed me in the fine art of crust combining -she let me make a little leaf (for thanksgiving) or mistletoe leaf (for christmas) for the top. She showed me that sticking my finger in the gooey guts of the thing was totally ok – but that it shouldn’t taste all cinnamon sugary – it should be sweet and tangy, because when those apples cook down, it WILL be exactly like i remember-cinnamon sugary.
I loved baking cinnamon rolls from scratch with my grandmother. My favorite part was rolling out the dough, buttering it and sprinkling it with cinnamon and sugar, and then rolling the dough up to cut into rolls!
I love apples. One of my favorite baking memories is from when I was a little girl (probably early elementary school age). My mom would make all kinds of apple desserts throughout the year, but most often in the fall. I would stand next to the kitchen counter and watch her peel apples – I would eat the strips of apple peels like candy!. Did I mention that I love apples? There were also tons of orchards in my home town, so we would stop quite often at the local farm stand to buy apples, apple cider, etc. Occasionally I would be treated to an apple cinnamon donut – yum! Back when I was young, apple-filled donuts were only available in the fall (not year-round, like today). My mom didn’t make home-made apple donuts, but occasionally we had them at fall festivals. And Mom’s home-made applesauce is divine – I’ve been trying to recreate it for years, but still working on the right recipe!
My favorite baking memories are during the holiday season. I have such a large family that every time we get together, we have massive amounts of food, especially dessert! I remember when I first started to learn how to bake, I would make cookies using refrigerated dough and/or rice krispy treats. Now after many years, our holiday desserts consist of pies, bars, cookies, brownies, jello, cupcakes, chocolate covered everything, fudge, cakes, etc, etc. I’m surprised and so thankful that none of us have diabetes! Although the food, the desserts, and the presents are fun, the time spent with family in the kitchen and out are priceless.
Actually, making chocolate chip cookies probably is what I have the most memories of. When I visit home at Christmas time, mixing up a batch together is something my dad always wants us to do. I don’t argue so long as we get to save some of the dough just to eat as dough.
I fondly remember baking with my Nana. I’d watch her make sugar cookies and sprinkle on sugar. I can still remember the taste! And I loved watching her make biscuits special for me for dinner. :)
i have had very few baking experiences, but my favorite so far, which was also one of my first, was when i baked a quiche for Christmas breakfast for myself, my friend Bethany and her dog Kita. Bethany and Kita stayed over on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas morning i put the quiche together and while it was baking we opened all our presents. I had never really cooked anything that wasn’t from a box on my own before, so the when the quiche came out super delicious it was extra satisfying for me. :D
My favorite baking memory is when I was little and helping my mom make an apple pie. I was so excited because she was showing me how to roll out the dough. I climbed up onto the counter to help, but kept banging my head on the cabinet doors. We finished the pie though, and later sat down and ate it while holding an ice pack to my poor bruised forehead :)
My favorite baking memory was when I first began baking with my aunt. She showed me how to measure ingredients, mix them together, bake it, and taste the heaven that we just created. Without her, I would not have loved baking as much as I do today.
My favorite baking memory is working with my grandma in the kitchen. Whenever i would go and visit we always made chocolate chip cookies. It was extra special because we never made them at my house. I remember being in her kitchen with her kitchen aid and sometimes turning it up to high and getting flour everywhere. No matter what messes we made it was always fun and full of love. I cherish those memories.
My favorite baking memory involves a Christmas tradition of making spritz cookies with my mom. My mom would mix up the dough and put it into the cookie press. Then, we picked our favorite spritz shapes and, once we were old enough, we helped turn the press and form the cookies on the cookie sheet. Once they were baked and cooled, we loved brushing the spritz cookies with corn syrup and dipping them in sprinkles. But of course our favorite part was eating them! To this day, I make spritz part of my Christmas cookie selection and I look forward to the day when my son is old enough to start helping me with them!
Baking Belgian Christmas cookies with my Mom. Great giveaway, good luck everyone!
One of my favorite baking memories is making springerle cookies with my grandmother. My grandfather is German and his mother used to make these anise flavored cookies for him. My grandmother got her mother in law’s recipe and has passed it, and the cookie press, down to my mother and, now, to me. When I was younger, I would spend a weekend with my grandparents and this would be a great weekend project. The dough has to sit overnight after pressing a design into each cookie. Then they can be baked and the smell is AMAZING! I can’t wait to have my own children and continue the tradition.
My favorite baking memory is of baking christmas cookies with my mom, I know this is a cliche’ memory that most people have, but I was always so grateful to have that tradition with her. I take time every year to make those cookies and appreciate the time I still have with my mom when so many others don’t.
My favorite baking memory so far is when I made a bunch of sugar cookie cut outs and icings and brought them with me to my dads for Christmas and then we all decorated the cookies together. It was a complete mess but SO FUN.
At Christmas, my mom and brother and I always baked cinnamon rolls in the shape of Christmas trees and frosted them with green frosting and delivered to neighbors. It was always so fun!
When I made my first baked item, cornbread, I was a little short of cornmeal, so I wasn’t sure how it would come out. But, happily, it turned out fine.
I remember how my mom would always make my sister and I a carmel cake with panoche frosting for the frist day of school. I don’t have kids yet, but I hope to carry on the tradition.
I baked my first chocolate layer cake, and one of the springform pans didn’t release. Needless to say, it was a miracle that I got the cake out!
First, I have to comment on the cookies you made — they look really chewy for pumpkin cookies! Something I’ve been trying to get for a couple years now, but every time I end up with soft cookies (I’m sure my excessive use of Greek yogurt doesn’t help that, ha!).
Baking memory… my mom was not (and still is not) a baker/cook, but I remember she used to bake us blueberry muffins from a box mix every so often when I was growing up. I’d wake up at 5am just so I could sit with her while she made them! Being the youngest, I probably was just paranoid my siblings would eat all the muffins before I got to them. :)
When I was much younger, I didn’t understand why cookie dough needed to be chilled before being baked. Needless to say, I impatiently popped some chocolate chip cookie dough I had whipped up in the oven, and ten minutes later I couldn’t understand why I had flat, lifeless cookies. I was studying abroad at the time in a place with no chocolate chip cookies, so my American friends and I enjoyed them anyway! They still tasted great and I learned an important life lesson about chilling dough.
One of my favorite memories is from college. I had a HUGE crush on a boy who was in the same Christian fellowship. I was picked to be his secret angel. I sent him daily notes of encouragement and/or small treats. I knew he liked brownies, so I baked brownies for him and cut them in the shape of the letters of his name. I heard him bragging to another friend that he had the best secret angel ever. I have no idea what’s happened to him now, but I’m glad I was able to provide some sweetness to a boy I thought was pretty sweet himself.
My favorite baking memory just happened last week, I am not a grams yet,however my nephew who I helped raise is the proud dad of 2 boys. I watch the boys often and like to make it special, Michael is 2 1/2 and we just had our FIRST baking class. Pumpkin choc chip muffins! He was such an attentive student and was all about “let me do it” , just to see the concentrating look on his face was priceless, I was hesitant to let him crack the eggs ,but i wanted him to try he did wonderful,no shells.Measuring,stirring he did it all.we waited anxiously turning on the oven light to see his recipe progress.Just so wonderful to see another generation of my family totally embrace the joy of baking! That mmmmm sound he made biting into something he made was special to me. My favorite little man made sure to tell mommy and daddy the next morning that Aunt Lynnie said he and his brother Mason could have his muffins for breakfast. That special first baking class is a memory I will treasure forever. I am already scouting the stores for a Michael cookbook and apron for Christmas,many more fun baking togetherness to come :) I would love the mixer for me and the Gift card to splurge on baking supplies for my favorite little boys.
These cookies look absolutely delicious! They are perfect for fall and I would agree that chocolate completes them! :)
I would say that my favorite baking memory is having my mom teach me to make bread pudding when I was little. It was a family favorite and everyone liked it a different way. My parents both liked it with coconut, pecans or walnuts, raisins, and bits of guava pasta. My brother liked it with coconut and guava, and I liked it with guava and nuts.
I was in charge of breaking up the bread pieces (we used Cuban bread, since it’s how it’s made in Cuba) and mixing once all ingredients were incorporated. Then the add-ins were mixed in to that catered to our taste buds. It was glorious!
My roommates and I had just finished college and moved into our first real apartment – if you can call three bedrooms around the smallest living room/ kitchen combination an apartment. The ceilings were super low and there was exactly one window in the kitchen area – all the other ventilation was in the bedrooms. So one roommate decides in a fit of youthful passion to bake her boyfriend the greatest birthday cake of all time, three layers, frosting, icing flowers, the works. We all got swept into the spirit of it and were having a spectacular time of it- we must have gotten distracted while the cakes were baking though, because of all of sudden the room was filled with smoke. The batter had run over and had started burning, and by sheer number of cakes in the oven, almost instantly the entire living space was filled with smoke. We couldn’t open windows quick enough and every alarm in the apartment was going off. Three minutes later, as we desperately waved towels and turned on fans, six firefighters stormed in our front door. I’m sure they were expecting drugs or worse, and to find three young women, trying to make birthday cakes and failing miserably- who knows what they thought. They laughed at us and encouraged us to find less flammable ways to spend the day. I don’t think the cake ever turned out, but the three of us never forgot the time the fire department showed up to extinguish our baking mistakes.
I have a very vivid memory of sitting on the kitchen floor, turning the handle of this 3 legged gadget my Mom had that peeled apples. My Mom would set up the apple on the spindle ( I was only 4 or 5 at the time) and then I was allowed to turn the handle which rotated the apple and took off the peel in these super thin strips. I would turn and turn while she rolled out the pie crusts on the counter. I started making a game of trying to get the whole apple done without breaking the peel strip. My Mom would get frustrated that I wasn’t getting more apples done more quickly but she never lost patience with me in the kitchen. Even better than the peels I ate up were the little bits of extra pie crust that she would form into a mini pie for me. Sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, holes poked all across it and browned in the oven along with the pie. YUM!!! We’ve spent hundreds of hours since those days together trying recipes and teaching me her family traditional favorites, how to make gravies, canning, breads. She’d say, ” put enough in until it’s the right color….” I suspect that Skylar will have many more memories with her Mom to cherish as well. Great Giveaway! Pinned and Tweeted.
My favorite baking memory was when my best friend and I decided to celebrate the spring equinox by making a plethora of cutout sugar cookies to hand out at school. We slaved away all day, cutting-out flowers and eggs, baking them, icing them beautifully, and placing them into spring-theme packaging. This was right around the time we were supposed to be working on our Senior Projects but we had no idea that this baking session was going to be soo much work. By the end we were completely exhausted.
The next day at school we started passing out our hard-work before our choir class. We walked up to our teacher, bag of cookies in hand, and he took one look at the gift, then at us, and then started to cry! As it turned out, his grandmother was having some health issues at the time and he thought we had made the cookies just for him in condolence. We couldn’t tell him otherwise since it had touched him so much, so we quickly hid the other bags of cookies and never passed out any more.
At the end of the day we had so many leftover cookies we didn’t know what to do with them. Our hard-work was not shared with others and we were so sick of these cookies by then, but we had made our teacher’s day in the end, and that was all that really mattered to us.