Friendship Bread Baking

I just finished baking a loaf of Friendship Bread this weekend. A few months ago I read the book Friendship Bread: A Novel by Darien Gee.

The concept of Friendship Bread is that you make a starter, “babysit” the starer for 9 days and then bake on day 10. You will have grown enough starter to share with 3 friends. Then they continue the cycle and keep sharing friendship and bread.

I am no expert, but here’s the recipe.

***Thanks to my friend Kayelynn for making the starter and doing the first round. She then shared it with me.

Ingredients

1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1-2 small boxes instant pudding (any flavor)
1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 325° F (165° C).
2.In a large mixing bowl, add ingredients as listed.
3.Grease two large loaf pans.
4.Dust the greased pans with a mixture of 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
5.Pour the batter evenly into loaf or cake pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar-cinnamon mixture on the top.
6.Bake for one hour or until the bread loosens evenly from the sides and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.
7.ENJOY!

A few of personal tips

When you receive the starter, keep it in a gallon size ziploc bag.

Don’t store the bag of starter in your over the stove microwave. It will start to cook when you make your supper on the stove. I thought I was being smart by keeping it there instead of out on the counter. My counter looked cleaner without it just sitting there. But when I forgot about it being in the microwave and started to cook spaghetti one night for supper, I started smelling the most wonderful aroma of bread. The steam from the spaghetti noodles was heating up my microwave and starting to cook my starter. Uh-oh! Lucky for me I had more starter in the freezer and I was able to start over.

Mark each day on the bag with a sharpie marker.

Just remember to mash the bag each day and feed on day 5 and 10.

Baking day is Day 10!

Have you ever made Friendship Bread? I’d love to hear your tips and stories!

You can also interact with the Friendship Bread Community and author Darien Gee here on Facebook! Thanks Darien!