Amish Friendship Bread

Guess what we're making for the next 10 days...
I'd heard of this bread before but never had the chance to do it. The idea is that a starter is passed around to different people to keep it going on and on. I received this starter from a friend at work, along with a copy of the instructions. I'm honestly so excited about this. If I could reach my pale hand through the internet and give a starter to all of you I would, but I don't think Apple has come up with that one yet. So I've included a recipe to start one yourselves, and you can set in motion your own chain reaction! It's sort of a cool concept, really. And being that it's Spring, and Easter, and sunny these days, I thought it was totally appropriate. I must be feeling friendly.

I think this recipe is called a 'bread' because it has yeast in it, but it's really more of a pound cake. It's sweet and cinnamon-y, and I think you'll really like it. It's a perfect project to do with little kids. It teaches them about the process of baking and has lots of steps they can do on their own. I'm going to be posting my progress as I go along.

Some notes before you start:
*Do not use any type of metal spoon, bowl, or utensil during any part of the process.
*Do not refrigerate. It can mess up the yeast growing process.
*If air get's in to the bag, let it out.
*It's normal for the batter to rise, bubble, and ferment. It means the yeast is active.
*When the directions say "mush the bag", it means to squeeze and massage the mixture through the bag to, in essence, mix it up.



STARTER

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110°F)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.
2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.
3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.



INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING THE BREAD

Day 1 - receive (or make) the starter and do nothing. Place the bag in a room with moderate temperature, and where you will see it in the coming days.
Day 2 - Mush the bag.
Day 3 - Mush the bag.
Day 4 - Mush the bag.
Day 5 - Mush the bag.
Day 6 - Add to the bag 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk (it can be any kind of milk). Mush the bag.
Day 7 - Mush the bag.
Day 8 - Mush the bag.
Day 9 - Mush the bag.
Day 10 - Follow these instructions:

1. Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups milk. Stir.
3. Measure one cup batter into four 1-gallon Ziploc bags and give to friends along with a copy of the recipe. Write today's date on the bags so your friends will know what to designate as Day 1.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
5. Add to the remaining batter:

3 eggs
1 cup oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour
1 large box instant vanilla pudding (or any flavor)
1/2 tsp. salt

6. Grease 2 large loaf pans
7. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with 1/2 of this mixture.
8. Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top.
9. Bake 1 hour. Cool the bread until it loosens evenly from the pan (about 10 minutes). Serve warm or cold. YUMMERS

If you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking this every 10 days.


Yay! Wasn't that fun?! Now pass it along!