Anoushka’s Pie That Makes You Go Nuts!

Junior Anoushka Vyas (she/her) loves to bake pecan pie for her family during the fall. She said that pecans are one of her favorite seasonal treats because she is allergic to multiple other nuts such as cashews and pistachios.

“I love pecans so much, especially since I found out I wasn’t allergic to them,” she said. “So, I had pecan pie for the first time last year, and I started eating pecans like crazy.” 

Not only does she love the taste of pecans, Vyas also loves to bake with them.  

“I like to chop the pecans. It tends to be very relaxing, and it makes a very satisfying noise when cut. And it’s kind of like the beginning to the whole process.”

Additionally, Vyas said that the dish represents a lot of family history.

“The specific recipe that I use was either my grandma’s or my great grandma’s, but it has been in my family for very long,” Vyas said. “We make it every Thanksgiving.”

Vyas said that her great-grandmother most likely developed the recipe when she was a teenager. However, the recipe has been adjusted over the years. Vyas prefers not to share the full recipe, since it contains a secret ingredient.

“It adds richness, which I think is something store-bought pecan pie lacks,” Vyas said. “It’s very filling and stuff, but it doesn’t have that little bitter, nutty edge. It’s ironic, because it’s pecan pie. I feel like it just tends to be so sweet, and it’s just overwhelmingly sweet, and I don’t want my pecan pie to be like that. My secret ingredient takes that down.”

Despite keeping the recipe a secret, Vyas loves sharing its delicious outcome.

“It’s the fact that I’m able to create something that brings other people joy, even if I don’t bake something I necessarily like,” Vyas said. “Sharing it with my family — that really brings me joy.”

Ari’s Really Gourd Pumpkin Bread

During the fall, junior Ari Walker (he/him) enjoys baking because of the cozy feelings and the time he can share with his family. 

“Spending the afternoon hanging out with my family, making a big mess in the kitchen to make something, and then being able to enjoy it afterwards is a great highlight,” he said. “Having a day where I can just make cookies or bread or something is really, really fun because I do it with my siblings sometimes.” 

Walker also said that he finds joy in sharing the finished products with friends. 

“Because it feels like a part of me almost. That’s really cheesy, but something that I created with my own two hands and having it be appreciated — I like the joy it brings to people.”

Ever since Walker began baking his own pumpkin bread a few years ago, it has become a crucial part of the holidays for him. 

“Especially during Thanksgiving,” he said. “I’d say just the colder months, like early spring, winter, fall, because you want to eat it warm, and you want to have that experience.”

He said a few favorite aspects of the pumpkin bread process included the satisfaction of seeing the ingredients come together. 

“I like when everything comes together, and you can smell everything, like the batter. And also just mixing things is really fun, so that’s my favorite part. Plus adding the chocolate chips, because I always go crazy,” he joked.

Walker recalled one of the first moments he had with the dish back in elementary school. 

“My friend used to take me to Starbucks, and we would get pumpkin bread together. We would just sit in the shop. We would just sit there and talk for a really long time,” he said. “I didn’t go out to eat very often, and so that was a special memory for me.”

Zoe’s Uber Ube Cookies! 

Ube cookies are a fall and winter staple for senior Zoe Velasco (she/her). Velasco loves baking with ube — also known as purple yam — because of the vegetable’s roots in the Philippines, where her family is from. This purple tuber is mainly baked in desserts to add a nutty vanilla flavor.

“It makes me super connected to my own culture,” Velasco said. “It’s a super underappreciated flavor, because you don’t really see it in the U.S. My mom and my Lola — which means grandma — used to make ube halaya all the time for my birthday.” 

Ube halaya, also known as ube jam, is the base for many ube desserts.

Velasco first made the recipe for ube cookies with her mother in her sophomore year. 

“When I first made the dish, it was just a regular recipe I found online, but it felt super artificial because it just used ube flavoring,” Velasco said. “I thought that sucked because it didn’t have that ‘wow’ factor I wanted it to have. So me and my mom made some ube halaya jam, which is super interesting to make because it takes a while. We added it to make the ube flavoring more authentic, and I tweaked the recipe to make it my own.”

Besides exploring the recipe’s room for creativity, Velasco said she loves baking for its repetitive process.

“Rolling multiple times and covering cookies and powdered sugar, and then just repeatedly doing that because then I could watch TV while doing it,” Velasco said. “But I also really like just giving out baked goods to friends.” 

She added that, to her, baking is symbolic of life.

“You will make a lot of mistakes, and you will get frustrated a lot when you’re baking. You may accidentally slip and tumble and drop your cookies, but mistakes will happen; that’s jsut a part of life.”