Throwback Thursday: Tell us about some of your family's baking traditions #TBT

[#1]

It's Thursday!

My mom used to make ginger bread houses around Christmas. I remember how fun that was. All the frosting and candy. The house was put together with melted sugar. Also remember my mom or dad burning themselves... (an experience I have since had myself as an adult). Here is a picture of me with one of these masterpieces.

So, tell us about some of your family's baking traditions :)

Let’s make it a great Thursday!
KGM

[Oliwia Poświat [Deviniti]]

I will never forget the taste of my grandmother's yeast rolls! A taste of childhood :)

[Andy Gladstone]

My mother was not a baker. So my family traditions start with my marriage and my wife's amazing baking skills. She makes fresh Challah each Thursday night for the Shabbos (Sabbath) meals. The smell of the fresh bread rising in the oven fills the house with an aroma that cannot be beat. When we refinanced our home in 2013 the broker said she should have the bread baking when the assessor came - and it worked in our favor!

This time of year she makes it with a sugar coated topping that turns the bread into a cake-like delicacy. People from the neighborhood know of her reputation and calls start coming in requesting a loaf or two so they too can have some of the Challah and a Sweet New Year.

No wonder I can't lose any weight...

[Jack Brickey]

My mom thought me to bake bread. The house always smelled of fresh baked bread. I love the aromas of fresh baked bread!

[Ali_Ghali]

I am not sure about the childhood memories anymore, I didn't see my family for 8 years, and didn't taste my mother special cake for at least 10 years, I thought always that it's the best edible thing on earth, but when taste it recently, I concluded that our memory could be deceives sometimes 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

My mother's side of the family can all cook.

Even me.  I protest that I can burn water and set fire to a salad, because I get it badly wrong sometimes.  But I can, and do, cook decent meals for my household, most days. 

My father's side of the family are more "meat and two veg".  Granny started boiling the Christmas sprouts on All Hallow's Eve.  His brother thinks McDonalds is a good meal.  (Dad is the exception, he's a terrible cook, but does appreciate good food)

But none of us can bake properly. 

I'm probably the worst at it - whatever I try to bake works in the sense that it tastes ok, but that assumes you can break off a lump and be able to chew it.  Paving slabs.  I bake paving slabs.

Except Grandma.  Grandma would not have won the Great British Bake Off because she couldn't be bothered with the presentation part of it.  But she'd win it if it were purely about cooking it right and having it a delight to eat.

My father often says he married mum just so her mother could keep cooking him apple pies.  And her breads.  And her battenburg.  And her eclairs.  Actually anything she did with flour.

When she died, we found her recipe notes.  We have a tradition now one of us follows one of her baking recipes to the letter whenever the family gets together.

[Summer Hogan]

Great topic @Kristján Geir Mathiesen 

My grandmother and mother were both great bakers! My mom used to make the most amazing cinnamon rolls and fresh donuts and my grandmother would make the best pies and cakes! My mom still bakes us fresh pies every year for Thanksgiving in memory of my grandmother! 

[Brant Schroeder]

Growing up my mother used to make bread instead of buying it. Having fresh baked homemade bread most of my life made it difficult when I moved out and made the transition to store-bought bread.  

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Thanks all for sharing. Love it!

All this talk about homemade bread has gotten me hungry for some...

[Fabio Racobaldo _Catworkx_]

Gnocchi on thursday :)

[Craig Nodwell]

Cookies at Christmas.
It is almost cookie season.

[Alex Koxaras -Relational-]

My family (mother) used to (and still is) bake all kind of pies! Not what most of you might be familiar with, but the way we make them in central Greece. So from spinach pie, to pumpkin pie with feta cheese, mushroom pie, meat pie, chicken pie, feta cheese pie etc, almost everything was on her menu! Yummy!

[vikram]

We have lot of options in my family we go with Idly, wada, dosa, Upma etc.. for weeks days making everyday special...

 

[Craig Nodwell]

Now I want cakes, and pies, and fresh bread.

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Totally @Craig Nodwell - me too! So I baked fresh soft bread rolls today. Very yummy, even though I say so myself...  :)

[Rilwan Ahmed]

Some of the special dishes you can find in my home town, Mangalore, India. 

[Valerie Knapp]

My parents always used to make lots of different types of Christmas cookies, which we then gave to everyone instead of a present, like aunts, uncles, teachers, neighbours. During Covid, they decided to stop making the cookies so instead last year I made a cookbook of all of their recipes to share. 

When I was younger, I was kind of embarassed to give these cookies to everyone but thinking back now, it was a way for them to show their gratitude that maybe now people would do like giving out Starbucks cards and things, which for them wouldn't have been a possibility financially.

I will put a screenshot of the cover of the cookbook, if anyone is interested in the recipes, I can share the book but it has lots of pictures of my family in it. The story of this picture is that we have like cookie cutters of different shapes but one is in the form of a candy cane and the dough got a little stuck so I made a snake and then the trousers, I don't remember, I think I just made some trousers with a knife, ha!