The Ding Dong Throw Down 2014!!!

Ding Dongs are a winter holiday tradition in my family. They are Rice Crispie coconut date balls that have been appearing at Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings for three generations. My Memere, my aunts Julie and Jeanine, (also famous for her elephant balls), and my Mom, have passed the recipe down. At my advanced age, and now with a family of my own, I decided to take on the tradition. I scrambled to throw these together and impress my family with them at "Second Thanksgiving", which took place at our house on Sunday. They came out great! But as I was blow drying my hair upstairs, drama was brewing in the dining room. My mother had arrived, arms overflowing with gifts for her grand kids, and with Ding Dongs! When we discovered that we had similar finger tip burns from trying to roll them while scorching hot, we threw our heads back and laughed at how adorable we were! Then the weight of the situation hit when someone said, "I wonder whose is better?" Thanks Bobby. My mother then shocked me with the following words, "Let's have a Ding Dong throw down." What, wait! I've only made them three times! She's been making them for decades! But I did have something working for me. Mom's failing memory. She lost the recipe and used brown sugar instead of white, the grocery store was out of the sugared, chopped dates that the recipe calls for, so she spent a long time chopping fresh dates. I'm not going to tell you who won the throw down because I don't want to embarrass anybody. I will say that my balls were visibly larger. If you would like to make Ding Dongs one of your family holiday traditions, here is the recipe. They are amazing!

And the student becomes the master.

Celeste