This is what my neighbors are getting, how about yours?

White Wheat Bread

5 cups hot tap water

1/4 cup oil

3/4 cup honey

1 T salt

2 T instant yeast

10-12 cups flour (half wheat and half white)

In bread mixer put water, oil, and honey, (put honey in same cup as oil and it comes out a lot easier!), salt, and 1/2 the flour. Start to mix and then add yeast and enough flour until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. Let machine knead for 6 minutes. Let rise for 10 to 15 minutes (this step can be eliminated if you're in a hurry!). Put oil on counter and roll or pound into loaves. Put into greased pans and let rise 15 to 20 minutes on top of warm stove. Bake at 350 deg for 30 minutes. After putting bread on cooling racks, rub stick of butter all over the top (this makes your bread look pretty). Make 4 medium sized loaves.

Raspberry Butter

1/2 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the berries and powdered sugar until softened.

Remove from heat and let cool.

Add butter and mix until combined. This may take a few minutes, but it will come together.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Ding Dongs

Everything is always better homemade than store bought, right? Well, I decided I wanted to make ding dongs, and it turned out so easy and simple (best of all, the ingredients are always on hand at my house). So this is what I did:

Make cupcakes (I just use a box - sooo much easier!), but only fill them about half way (you don't want them to over flow out the top of the pan). Once cooled I "inject" the bottoms with this filling (see picture):

Filling:

1/4 cup all-purpous flour

1 cup milk
1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour and milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Set aside to cool completely.

Once cooled, beat the 1/2 cup shortening, butter, sugar and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the milk mixture and continue to beat for 4 more minutes.

You'll want to inject the cupcakes about 3 - 4 times to make sure you get a good amount of filling in there.

For the chocolate topping you can do a ganache (which is good just messier) or use a dipping chocolate (also good, but much prettier than the ganache - depends on what you want).

Dipping Chocolate:

Melt 12 oz chocolate

Add 2 teaspoons shortening, mix until smooth

Then dip the tops of the cupcakes into melted mixture. If serve cold I've found they taste better.