friendship bread

So, I have to be honest. This bread was a lot of fun to make, but the fact that I have four starter bags to give away stresses me out a little. The idea behind friendship bread is to have four starter ziplock bags with 1 cup of batter in it (milk, cinnamon, vanilla pudding mix, flour, sugar, and eggs). You keep one bag for yourself and give away the ziplock bags, with a recipe attached. I bake my own batch, by adding ingredients to my own starter bag.

See? It can be daunting, but once you get the hang of it, it's the best bread I've ever had.

I wouldn't even call it bread. I would call it dense, sweet, moist cake-like bread.

My friend Linda gave me the starter bag - the recipe is below!

Day 1 - receive the starter (the recipe for the starter is below)

Day 2 - stir

Day 3 - stir

Day 4 - stir

Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.

Day 6 - stir

Day 7 - stir

Day 8 - stir

Day 9 - stir

Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.

After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2/3 cup oil

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional).

Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour 

p.s. It's almost 6am and I can't sleep. Does this happen to anyone or is it just me?