Elizabeth’s “Amish except for the pudding” Friendship Bread

Ok, so I know this isn’t a garden recipe, but it’s still a timely one since I’m in the middle of it. This is a great, interactive recipe that yields a really tasty and moist cake-like bread. It takes 10 days to make the “starter”, though, so plan ahead. On the 10th day, you will separate your starter into three 1-cup portions (which you can then give away to friends so they can start their own 10-day adventure) and a baking portion (which you will combine with other ingredients and bake).

I received my first starter from Elizabeth about 4 or 5 years ago, and I swear we had Friendship Bread either in the office or at home for about three months straight. Finally, we all just had to let the starter expire (though now I think people have discovered that you can just freeze it for future use). After that, I put this recipe away and truthfully forgot about it until I found it last week! I decided to make a new batch of starter and am on Day 7 today. Have fun!

Starter Ingredients
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar

To make starter:
Do not use metal mixing bowl or utensils. Do not refrigerate. Dissolve yeast in small amount of warm water. Mix all ingredients together in ample size bowl and pour into a one gallon Ziploc bag marked with today’s date. This is day 1 of the recipe.

**Release air from bag if it begins to puff up. It is normal for the starter to bubble and ferment.

Day 1: The day you make or receive the starter. Do nothing.

Day 2,3,4,5: Squeeze the bag. Check to make sure you have everything for Days 6 and 10.

Day 6: Add 1 cup sugar, milk, flour. Do not mix, just squeeze the bag.

Day 7, 8, 9: Squeeze the bag.

Day 10: Prepare three one gallon Ziploc bags by writing Day 10’s date on them. In a large bowl, combine the starter with 1 cup each of flour, sugar and milk. Mix well with wooden spoon or spatula. Then pour three 1 cup portions of the starter into the prepared Ziploc bags and give with these instructions to three friends, or give 2 away and keep one for yourself. You can also freeze unused starter portions for later use.

** Note that Day 10 becomes Day 1 of the starter cycle – that’s why it helps to write the date on the bag before handing it off to a friend!

Once you’ve separated the three “give away” portions, add to these ingredients to the bowl containing the remaining starter mixture and stir:

1 cup oil
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding (you can try other flavors too!)

If you’d like a cinnamon sugar coating on the bread, mix an additional 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon together in another small bowl.

Grease 2 loaf pans or 1 large Bundt pan and coat with of the sugar/cinnamon mixture if you’re using it. Pour batter into pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

EDITED TO ADD: I measured out the remaining goo that you bake off after separating the give away starters – it’s about 2.5 cups. So, if you don’t want to give away starter portions after adding the 1 cup of milk, sugar, and flour (and you don’t want to freeze the starter portions for later), I’d recommend just stirring all the batter, dividing it into two equal parts, and then use each part for one recipe of the baked bread so you’ll end up with a double batch of finished product (i.e. 2 bundt pans worth).