About 10 days ago I was with my parents in Florida and enjoyed some homemade Amish Friendship Bread. Never heard of it? You begin with a "starter" that's just one cup of slime in a ziplock baggie, most likely given to you by a friend, neighbor or family member. It was sooooooooo good I was glad Mom gave me a baggie of starter to take home on the plane.
The good news is that I passed through security with the starter in my carry-on luggage. The bad news: I had to wait 10 WHOLE DAYS to let the starter fester before I could bake the yummy, moist sweet bread (not sure "fester" is the scientific term...........). I guess it's a good lesson in patience for the kids AND for me. Sniff, sniff.
Here's the recipe:
Day 1 Do nothing (this is the day you get the starter) **DO NOT REFRIGERATE!
Day 2 - 5 Mush the contents of the bag around by squishing it gently
Day 6 Add 1 c. flour, 1 c. milk, and 1 c. sugar. Mush.
Day 7 - 9 Mush
Day 10 TA DA! You made it! You've been so patient and haven't killed the starter yet!
This part takes patience. Wait until the baby is taking a good, long nap and you're feeling perky. Note that you've gotta have some vanilla pudding mix before starting (we had to make an emergency run to the store today because I didn't read the whole recipe.........oops.)
Add to the bag:
2 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. milk
Mix and measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each to put into 4 separate ziplock baggies. You will keep one starter bag and give three away to your dearest friends (or the mail lady).
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| It was pretty hard to take this picture while holding the bag with one hand! |
Preheat over to 325 degrees. Dump remaining batter (from bag) in large mixing bowl and add:
3 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. milk
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
2 c. flour
1 large box of instant vanilla pudding
Grease 2 or 3 large loaf pans and mix an additional 1/2 c. sugar and 1 1/2 t. cinnamon. Dust the pans with half of the mixture. Pour batter into pans and sprinkle with the rest of the mixture. Bake for 1 hour (or as long as you can stand waiting for the delicious bread, whose aroma is wafting through the house by now).
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| Dust pans with cinnamon-sugar mixture before filling. |
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| The batter rises a lot in oven, so not TOO full! |
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| Then dust with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. |
We decided to live dangerously and use those mini loaf pans, too, so we just guesstimated the bake times for them. After about 40 minutes we just couldn't take it anymore--we were so hungry and they were pretty much baked.
If you want to try this bread but don't have a starter, ask around. If you get really desperate, maybe I can send you some in the mail? I don't know if that would work, but I'm willing to try!
It would have been nice if I had taken a photo of how the bread turned out, but I was too busy snarfing it down.
Here's some information from Wikipedia on this kind of bread.
Sooo..."starter" can't actually be "started" ? I have heard tales of a San Francisco baker who uses a starter brought over from France over 100 years ago!! Yeast is forever clouded in an unfathomable mystery to me!!
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