Mom's best recipes as chosen by our own editors

The best apple pie

To preface, my mother is a brilliant and intuitive cook. At just over five feet, she shuffles around the kitchen in slippers, tasting dishes and julienning vegetables in an operatic flurry. Mommy Kim never used cookbooks. She lived under insufferable conditions with her mother-in-law and learned how to cook as per Korean tradition and became a purist. My childhood was filled with days of making our own kimchi, Korean miso and even drying our own fish and seaweed (how our poor neighbours suffered!). I didn't know it then but I was my mother's prep cook and sous chef.  

I remember my very first sincere baking experience. I was 15 and dead determined to make a classic apple pie from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I had never baked anything in my life, and I had a vision of the perfect pie from a legendary Toronto establishment called Just Desserts, and I could almost taste it. After 6 or 7 tries (and a bout of tears) I was nearly done for good. As I trudged on, my brother peeled endless bowls of apples and I experimented with every crust recipe, apple combination and oven temperature you can imagine. I didn’t know then but I had found my happy place, my own test kitchen. And I have been making a kick-ass apple pie ever since. Soo Kim, food director 

The best pasta sauce

My mom used to make pasta sauce every Sunday. It would cook in a large pot on the stove all day, making our house smell like a classic Italian restaurant. Although my mom has yet to share the recipe with me, she brings me a jar or two or it every other week. Renee Reardin, senior digital editor

A great kid-friendly dessert

For birthdays and specials occasion my mother has been making the same chocolate cake with white fluffy icing for as long as I can remember. We call it the princess cake. The actual cake is light and airy, and the icing has the perfect amount of sweetness and is fluffy like a cloud. As kids my sisters and I would have the job of adding some sprinkles to the top. Now that I am a mother, I make the same cake for my daughter’s birthdays and she adds the sprinkles. Ann-Marie Favot, home and style director

A traditional favourite

So many recipes! But my favourite is her apple tart. Being Dutch, you just can't avoid coffee and a slice of Dutch apple tart. The pie is made tall in a springform pan and the crust is cookie-like. The filling is dense with thick sliced apples. Yum! It almost serves as a meal, it is that filling. To this day when my Mom—who is 90—bakes something for my birthday it will always be this recipe, and it always make me smile—even when my son jokes to me "a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips." This one just might be worth it! Jacqueline Howe, publisher  

Korean classics

My mom has always been known as an excellent cook. She has actually ruined my ability to eat at Korean restaurants because her versions are usually better (in my totally unbiased, having-only-grown-up-on-it, opinion). She has an instinct for food that is truly impressive and something I believe she taught me without even knowing it. But try to get an actual recipe out of her? Impossible.

This guru in the kitchen doesn’t abide by standard recipe measurements and instructions. Oh, no. She cooks with those well-honed instincts that effortlessly know when a dish requires two palm sizes of beef and a tip-of-the-finger portion of salt. More specifically, her palm and her fingertip. Try adjusting those measurements. When a dish requires liquids, she will demonstrate how quickly your hand should move when you pour it, then says, "that’s how much you add". It is both mind-boggling and hilarious, but has taught me to focus on flavours and not be afraid to go rogue sometimes. And, most importantly, that learning how to cook her recipes is best accomplished together in the kitchen, side by side, palm measuring palm. Elaine Song, digital content director

Creamy chicken comfort

My mom's Chicken a la King was my favourite dish growing up, and I requested it every chance I got. Birthdays? Chicken a la King. Home from school for a visit? Chicken a la King. Milestone celebrations? Chicken a la King.

The handwritten recipe was in my mom’s carefully handwritten cookbook, which I would copy from time to time, and then quickly lose. One day I called her with a particularly strong craving and asked her to read it out to me—or tell me where to find it. And she finally confessed: What I thought has an old family recipe was actually from the old Milk Calendar! July 1995 to be exact. Sara Cation, senior features editor

The perfect chocolate cake

We have a go-to chocolate cake in our family which we call, Aunt Sybil's Chocolate Cake. My mom makes it for most family occasions, but it’s simple enough and so easy to make that it’s been known to show up as dessert for many regular family dinners too. We always joke that my mom could make this cake in her sleep! I probably could too at this point. The funniest part is that nowhere in my family do we have an Aunt Sybil—apparently this recipe was given to my mom from a friend many years ago, but even those friends didn’t have an Aunt Sybil. So whoever Aunt Sybil was, we really enjoy her chocolate cake! Morgan Lindsay, design editor

Potatoes, please!

There are two certainties in my family: One is that my mom is the ultimate holiday hostess, and the second is if there’s something to celebrate then potato croquettes will be on the menu. I’m not sure of their origin, but It’s basically a breaded and deep-fried roll of mashed potato. Sorry, healthy eating intentions.

While she hasn’t passed down the recipe yet, I’ve been counting down the days until the next holiday to learn how they’re made, and more importantly, to eat them. Sarah Dziedzic, editorial assistant

Apple pie, round 2

Around the time my sister and I both moved out of our parents’ home, my mom compiled all of her go-to recipes in a book for each of us. It’s one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received. The trouble is that my mom is a rogue cook—she’s never used a recipe in her life. The book sits on my shelf and serves as a heartfelt reminder of how much she cares. On occasion, I do make her version of apple pie from memory: Peel and dice as many apples as you can, load them up with sugar and simmer on the stove for a while, arrange on thawed store-bought puff pastry, pop in a 350-degree oven and—voila—a sweet, delicate treat. I eat most of it before it’s even cooled. Mary Levitski, features editor