Peppermint Ping-Pong Paddles

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is when my family gathers with good friends for the annual "Chez Zinn Ping-Pong Tournament." The competition is fierce. Seriously, some of these guys could play for the Chinese National Team. This year Charlie, the guy pictured on the right and one hell of a Ping-Pong player, decided to bake Peppermint Ping-Pong Paddle Cookies (note the mold he designed and built in the lower right corner) as a pre-tourney snack. They were delicious and, btw, he and his partner won the tourney--now I'm wondering what was in those cookies, hmmm. 

Great presentation. Check-out the homemade mold. 

Michael and Charlie enjoy the paddle cookies. 

Baking Oompa Loompa Cookies with "T"

Last week Catherine Peng and I assisted our friend, baker extraordinaire Teresa Howard, in making cookies for the concession stand for our school's production of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  T's son, Oscar, played Charlie. Catherine's son, Mason, played Mr. Buckett and Mr. TeeVee. And my son, George, was Mike TeeVee. Perfect casting!!!
Teresa owns her own catering business, Celestial Catering, and has the ability to feed large quanties of people really good food.  Below she shares her Oompa Loompa cookie recipe for 170.

Oompa Loompa Cookies for 170
Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Stir together in a large bowl:  13 1/4 cups of flour, 2Tb of baking soda, 1Tb salt
Cream together until light:  3lb butter, 4 1/2 cups of brown sugar, 4 1/2 cups of white sugar, 2Tb vanilla
Add 12 eggs to creamed mixture.  Slowly add flour.  Scoop into 2 oz cookies.  Decorate each cookie with
5-6 colorful M&M's.
Bake for 8 minutes.  Turn the oven off and let the cookies sit for 4 minutes

Guaranteed to please Oompa Loompas and all of their friends.
Well Done Sweet