The kitchen is thick with the scent of roasting garbanzo flour and cardamom, making everything smell sweet and spicy. The sink fills with pans and the sound of sugar grinding rings throughout the house. It can only mean one thing – the Narayans are making ladoo.

9th grader Ananya Narayan and her grandmother have been making the Indian sweet since she was seven-years-old.

“Every time we make them it’s special. It’s kind of a long process,” Narayan said.

For other families, baking is hardly saved for special occasions. US math teacher Mickey Scott and 11th grader Jake Adams’s family both bake regularly. Adams’s great grandmother’s chocolate fudge brownie recipe is made at nearly every family gathering, and Scott says that she used to bake at least two pies per week.

“I always had pie on the counter when my boys were growing up,” Scott said.

After learning the recipe from her mother in law in 1976, pie became her favorite pastime.

“I’ve become known for making pies. It’s kind of my thing,” Scott said.

The only time her apple pie recipe has been written down is when her mother in law initially tried to teach her the recipe via letters while Scott was teaching in Australia. By contrast, it seems that Adams’s family has always kept their recipes in style. Their handwritten cookbook contains nearly 80 or 90 recipes.

“[The book] started with a couple of recipes, maybe 10 or 12. Then my grandmother added in a couple, and then my mom has added in a couple, so now it’sme and my brother’s job to add in a couple,” Adams said.

While Adams’s family recipes have remained the same throughout the years, the Narayan’s recipe for ladoo seems to have changed between generations.

“I know that my grandmother learned [the recipe] from her mother, but beyond that I’m not exactly sure… once [my mom] did try to make them.. and we were like, it doesn’t taste like what our grandma makes! And she was like, yeah, that’s what I used to tell my mom all the time, too,” said Narayan.