The flour on your apron, the warmth of the oven, the smell of flavours melting together to make something beautiful. Baking is one of my favourite things about the holidays. From shortbread to nanaimo bars, there is something I love about each and everyone of them. From buttery goodness to rich chocolate and cream. The experience of baking plus the delicious smells are only part of it. The best part about Holiday baking is the friends and family I share it with.
As a child I loved that my mom got me involved in the baking and let me be a part of making food for our family and friends. This year, now that my boys are almost 4 I knew that this was the year to start involving them in the baking too! I called my mom for our favourite sugar cookie recipe but she couldn’t find it. I was devastated. Luckily Gay Lea Foods have their sugar cookie recipe on their website and it is divine!
- 1 cup GAY LEA - Unsalted Butter, softened
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar
- ¼ cup Icing Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2½ cups All Purpose Flour
- ¾ tsp Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- With electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy then gradually beat in sugars, then egg and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Gradually stir flour into butter mixture and mix until combined.
- Transfer dough to work surface; knead lightly until dough forms a ball.
- Divide dough in half; shape each piece into disc.
- Wrap in plastic; refrigerate for at least 1 hour or for up to 2 days.
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- One disc at a time, roll out dough on lightly floured surface to ¼" (5 mm) thickness.
- Using cookie cutters, cut out shapes.
- Place shapes on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
- Sprinkle with candy sugars prior to baking (optional)
- Bake in centre of preheated oven for 5-7 minutes or until light golden on bottom and edges.
- Let cool for 3 minutes on baking sheets; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
The boys had a blast, stirring, mixing and measuring. It was so wonderful to see their eyes light up as they helped make the cookies. Check out my adorable little helpers making cookies for Santa.
It was a fun afternoon filled with laughter, memories and lots of flour clean ups. I can’t wait to keep track of pictures of my boys baking every year. Holiday memories last far after the season is over.
What are your favourite Holiday baking memories?
Disclosure: I am part of the Gay Lea Blogger Campaign with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
The recipe sounds great and I could really use a year of butter for all my baking :-)
I remember Christmas baking with my mom and grandma. But now my favourite memories are baking with my son!
Making Christmas cookies, fudge and other candies in my grandma’s kitchen with mom there, too! It was such a fun day of laughter, great memories that I miss so much!! My grandma and mom would use nothing except butter and I need to start using it more, too. Which, I definitely will if I win@@
This sugar cookie recipe sounds lovely with the added icing sugar. I love the pictures of your boys, so busy and so intent on their tasks at hand. Baking with children is a lot of fun. Lay out all the decorations, give them free reign and you never know what wonderful creations they will come up with. They are always so proud of their creations.
My favourite holiday baking memories are those I’ve been making since having grand-children and baking with and for them.
I remember baking Christmas cookies with my piano teacher when I was 6 or 7.
I remember my Dad teaching me to bake when I was little, and everytime I make cookies now, I think of him!
My best memory – my mother teaching me how to make pastry – I remember her tips to this day.
I love the new ones we make each year. I treasure them all, there is no favourite, as the years drift by and ppl drift on… they are all invaluable to me.
Making cookies with my Mom
Favourite holiday baking memory… sneaking candy off the gingerbread house after it was decorated!
My favourite holiday baking memory was of baking fruit cakes with my grandmother. I wish I could go back and do it again.
Baking cinnamon rolls with my mother.
My favourite memory is baking Christmas cookies with my Grandma.
My favourite memory is of me baking cookies with my mom and making a mess with the icing while decorating the cookies
One my favourite memories is making gingerbread cookies and houses with my nieces every Christmas when they were growing up.
Baking cookies at Christmas with my Mom & Grandmother
Baking cookies with my mom and grandma and then making a big mess in the kitchen with sprinkles.
I would have to say baking birthday cakes when we were little for other family member as we got to help decorate and then lick the spoon and bowl after lol
Definitely my famous banana bread
I just made my fave baking memory this week when my 3 yr old helped me decorate a bunch of sugar cookies. What fun that was, if a bit messy! ;)
I used to ‘help’ my Mum bake the pies when I was little. If there was extra crust she would let me make my own little jam tart.
My mom was a baker of all things – bread, pies, cookies, cakes – she used to come to my school and teach my class how to bake bread and make cheese.
baking and decorating cookies with my kids
My favourite holiday baking memory is making candy cane cookies with my mom and sister.
My best memory is making our families annual gingerbread house with my mom, no one ever ate it but we had to make one every year
I don’t have the best memory but I do remember making sugar cookies and loving that I was able to pick out which cookie cutters to use. But putting the sprinkles on was always the best part!
Actually just this year was my favorite. My kids are now old enough to help a bit and we made a whole bunch of cookies which are now frozen until Christmas.
Baking Gingerbread cookies with my grandma!
Making gingerbread men with my mom.
Licking the paddles after my dad finished making whipped cream for Christmas profiteroles.
Helping my mom add sugar slowly to egg whites to make meringues.
I loved coming home after school to the delicious aroma of chocolate chip cookies that my Grandma would bake. My fondest memories of my Granny are of her in the kitchen baking!
Baking with my mom
My favourite holiday baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my mom. She made such elaborate cookies and I remember helping dip cookies into chocolate.
I am entering your giveaway.
It would be great to win 12 MONTHS OF FREE BUTTER FROM GAY LEA FOODS.
In response to your question of What is your favourite holiday baking memory?
My favorite memory is baking cakes and cookies with my mother for Christmas.
We haven’t done that in years but she taught me how to cook.
Thank you for having this giveaway!!!!!!!!!!
Making shortbreads with my mom
Baking cookies with my small children.
I loved making Christmas deserts with my mom when I was younger. We would put on Christmas music and have so much fun.
The recipe looks delicious.
perfect recipe for us guys- simple, easy and oh, soooo tasty!
My daughter and I used to bake together. This year I will be taking all our favourite cookies when we visit her.
I remember putting on my own apron and baking with my grandmother. Grandmum would give us the bits cut off round the pie dish to make our own jam tarts. Now my grandchildren bake with me, in their own special aprons, eating the chocolate chips and the jam just like I used to do.
THE WONDERFUL SMELLS
As a kid, baking cookies with my mom
I’m making memories now, baking Christmas goodies with my boys. We just made sugar cookies to give away. I wrote down this new recipe to share with them-we will add another new memory trying it out tomorrow night. Thanks!
Playing in all the snow when I was little, building snow forts and skating in my backyard
Baking cokoies with my mom every year for Christmas.
It just isn’t Christmas without sugar cookies, baking and sharing is part of our tradition
One of my fave memories is bringing my mom’s home made Christmas cookies to our celebration at school and everyone thinking I had the BEST Mom because her cookies were fantastic!
WOW wee! nice prize! Merry Merry!
Baking shortbread cookies with my mom!
Baking with my grandma. She passed away last Christmas and I miss her so much still it hurts.
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we always use mom,s Perogy receipe for special occasions
My favorite memory is making butter cookies (my all time fav cookie) with my mom and rolling the little round balls of homemade cookie dough into crushed walnuts. Having to wait for the cookies to cool down before eating them was always a challenge as a kid!
Baking cookies to decorate with my mom. It seemed to be a full day event.
I remember making thumb print Christmas cookies with my mom. They were easy to make a head of time and everyone ate them up.
I love sugar cookies and these look awesome!
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Sharing fresh baked goodies with our neighbours and friends
I don’t remember specifics, but I remember cutting up the coloured green and red maraschino cherries to adorn the whipped shortbread cookies, which were a winter holiday only treat in my house growing up. Buttery cookies make me think of these whipped goodies and my mom fondly!
I would love to win Gay Lea butter for the year. I love to cook and am always baking as we have a lot of company dropping over. Your recipe sounds really easy and good. I will have to try it.
I LOVE this recipe! I’ve been looking for one to use tomorrow and this has the recipe list I’ve been wanting – thank you!!!!!
Danyelle recently posted..Fool Proof Ginger Bread Houses
So great! Such a fun and easy recipe.
baking my first batch of cookies in home ec
Trying to copy my grandmother cookies
baking cookies and decorating them with my mom
I love sugar cookies! I remember when I was a kids we would decorate sugar cookies every year they were so much fun.
Some of my fondest childhood memories involve baking cookies, and I think my kids feel the same. Your boys look so cute with their chefs’ toques!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I love baking with my daughter just like I did growing up with my mom.
Kelly R recently posted..WowWee – RoboMe #Holidaygiftguide
My granddaughter always helped me decorate the shortbread cookies. She called the other night to see if I would make some for her when we visit at Christmas. I have my butter out of the fridge and ready to make up a batch of whipped shortbreads. Christmas baking always brings back fond memories of when I was a child making cookies with my mother and then my granddaughter helping me.
Those cookies look so wonderful! I used to bake with my Mom a lot when I was a girl. Those are such great memories.
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My memories baking with my granny are my fave and I hope I am making the same great memories with my granddaughter.
Debbie Denny recently posted..Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival Set For March 5 – May 18!
My favorite holiday baking memory was helping my mom make Christmas Cake! I also miss helping my Vavo when she would make holiday sweets.
Amy Lynn Desrosiers recently posted..Sweet and Savory Slow Cooker Gluten Free Party Meatballs Recipe #CartonSmart
we always did tons of cookies. diff kinds every night in december. and my mom was a lawyer- working full time she still did at least 25 kinds. extras were done on weekends .and she wrapped. shopped. sugar cookies were always my fave. i used to not like the snowflake ones when i was litlte, not sure why, but i love them now!!
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Those cookies are so cute! There is nothing more fun then making cookies w/ kids (other than eating!)
I love sugar cookies! From the pictures, it looks like you had a lot of fun making them too!
Stacie @ The Divine Miss Mommy recently posted..The 12 Days of @Fiverr – Make Amazing Happen Starting with JUST $5
My favourite holiday baking memory is making Pulla, a braided Finnish bread, with my mom. It’s a Christmas tradition and now I make it with my boys!
Kat at Mommy Kat and Kids recently posted..Ring in the New Year with Parmesan Crab Stuffed Mushrooms #shop #cbias
Those cookies look delish. Question re: the recipe – is icing sugar the same thing as confectioners sugar?
Diane N – Philzendia recently posted..Host A White Elephant Ugly Gift Exchange Party
Yes it is – icing sugar and confectioners sugar are the same :)
My fav baking memory is waking up in the morning and smelling something wonderful in the air.
my fav baking memory is baking cookies with my granddaughters.
Those cookies are beautiful. It’s really fun to bake cookies together as a family.
Oh, that’s right. We need to put out cookies for Santa and this is perfect for the recipe. Thanks!
Deborah recently posted..#Santa Baby, I’ve Been So Good All Year Long
I like butter. I am learning to use it in moderation, but I know butter is something I never want to remove from my life.
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those turned out really nice. They look yummy! I cannot get my sugar cookies to look this nice!
my father is a baker, so every christmas we would help him bake cookies and goodies in his bakery .
Making sugar cookies with my son
I really miss Holiday Baking with my Mom since I moved out.
I remember making Sugar Cookies with my mom and sister. :-)
Discovering that I could actually bake and make really awesome tasting ginger snaps.
My mother made incredible butter cookies growing up and I want to continue the tradition with my family – all year!
We always had carrot pudding with butterscotch sauce. It didn’t matter how full you were, there was always room for pudding and sauce.
My favorite memory is the whole dining room table covered in gingerbread men just waiting for my sister and I to start decorating them all!
Making Pineapple Upside Down cake the very first time all by myself and it turned out perfect.
my favorite memory is making shortbread