[Photo credit: Joel Straus]Is that it can be a lot of work. In early November I got this email from a friend:
"Would you be interested in getting a starter for this Amish Friendship bread that I'm making tonight? I'll have a batch of starters to give away starting tomorrow, and it's really tasty and easy (instructions come with), so let me know."
Sounded easy enough and like a fun adventure, so I thought what the heck, and I took a bag of yeast. I did not really know what I was getting myself into. You have to "mush" this bag every day for 10 days and then on day 6 you have to add some stuff to feed the yeast. And then on day 10 when it's time to bake, you have enough to bake a whole cake (that's the other thing, this "bread" is really cake) PLUS 4 starters to give away (or 3 to gift 1 to keep).
The first round of starters I gave away all died because my friends did not care for them. (I'm hoping the inability of my friends to care for friendship bread is not an actual reflection on any of our friendships.) And in the second round I think only 1 starter got the treatment it required.
After 3 rounds, this friendship-bread thing was starting to stress me out. So at the end of the last cycle, I cooked all of them (except one starter that I froze for a later experiment), looking for as many variations as I could find. And this week I pulled out a frozen carrot cake from my freezer, frosted it (while it was still frozen, for the record), and served it at a little gathering. It was so good it almost made me miss having the secret ingredient constantly growing on my counter.
Anyway, I feel a little bad sharing this recipe because you cant make it without the yeast, but since this appears to be somewhat common I'll share my variations and assume that one day you all will find yourselves with the veritable baking chain letter that is Amish Friendship Bread. Although, I guess there are recipes on the web to make the starter, so it's not really that much of a secret.
Here are some "Important notes" that came with the bread.
1. The bread starter will come in a gallon size bag. This works well because it gives you enough space to add the ingredients later on.
2. Do not use any metal bowls, pans, or spoons when mixing (but you can bake it in a metal container).
3. Do not refrigerate the yeast.
4. The yeast will make a bunch of air bubbles in the bag, especially after you've done your mid-cycle additions. Make sure to let them out, or the bag will explode.
And, here's what to do for the 10-day cycle.
Days 1 - 5: "Mush the bag." I don't really know what this means. I generally squished it around in my hands for a minute or so.
Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk to the bag and mush it together. Don't refrigerate, even though there's milk in there. It will be okay, I promise.
Days 7 - 9: Mush the bag. Same as days 1-5 but it will grow more since you just fed it, so make sure to let the air out.
Day 10: Bake your bread and make your starters by following the instructions below.
Instructions:
1. Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non metal bowl, and using a wooden spoon, add 1.5 cup flour, 1.5 cup sugar, and 1.5 cup milk and mix well. Note: a lot of the recipes I see on the web say to add only 1 cup each of these things. I always did it according to these rules and in the end I always had around 5 1/2 cups of yeast at the end, so 4, 1-cup starters and 1 1/2 to make the bread. This seems wrong because most of the recipes online only call for 1 cup of starter, but I'm not going to question it because it worked well each time. That said, I wouldn't call the whole process exactly scientific, so I wouldn't fret too much about it.
2. Make your starters to gift away or keep for yourself for another cycle by adding 1 cup of the mixture to 4 separate gallon-sized ziplock bags. Make sure you write when Day 1 is on the bag.
3. Preheat the oven to 325.
4. Make your batter by adding stuff to what's left in the bowl. Add:
3 eggs
1 cup oil (or 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup applesauce)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
1 large box of instant vanilla pudding
5. Grease your dish. This is enough for two loaves or 1 bundt pan. Then dust the bottom of the pan with a cinnamon sugar mix (like you would with flour to keep something from sticking to the pan). Bake for 40 minutes in a loaf or 1 hour in a bundt. These baking times are really approximate. I found that all the bundt variations took a little longer. Start checking at 40 minutes. It's done when a knife comes out clean.
And finally, some variations:
1. The first variation I made was pumpkin (pictured above). Instead of 1 cup of oil I used half a cup, and then I added 3/4 cup of canned pumpkin. I also substituted the cinnamon with 2-3 teaspoons of Penzy's pumpkin-pie spice. I started with only 2 and then added more until I found that the batter tasted sufficiently spicy. The glaze is a classic cream-cheese frosting, thinned with warm milk so that it could be drizzled like a glaze.
2. The second variation I made was banana. Instead of 1 cup of oil I used half a cup and 3-4 mashed bananas. I think I just used how ever many I had in the freezer. It was really good. Up there with banana cake.
3. And then I made biscuits. They were terrible. Okay, not terrible, but my immediate response to them was "I would not serve them to my friends and admit that I made them." So, I will spare you that recipe. Suffice to say, if you ever find yourself with friendship bread and are looking around on the web for variations, don't trust ones that say they will make biscuits.
4. And finally, carrot cake. Reduce oil to 1/2 cup and add 3 cups of grated carrots. Because I still have it, I used 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in addition to the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Also, I made the carrot cake in two 9 inch silicon pans and frosted them with cream cheese frosting. Man, it was good. For the cream-cheese frosting: (1) 8 ounces cream cheese, (2) 4 tablespoons butter, (3) 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and (5) sifted powder sugar. I started with 4 cups and then added a little more until I was happy with the texture.
Type the rest here
