friendship bread

[thanate]

Back in April, my aunt brought me an Amish Friendship Bread starter at the family reunion. I find the concept rather fascinating-- for those of you who haven't met the stuff before, it's a starter-based super-sweet quickbread, from which you're supposed to pull 4 starters every baking cycle and give at least three of them away again. I inherited instructions with an "if you only want one starter" modification, and haven't yet used anything else, as I haven't found anyone to pawn off share starters with.

The recipe as I obtained it goes more-or-less thus:

*do not use any kind of metal (spoons, mixing bowls, etc) in contact with the starter. (not sure what this one's about, but I haven't done it...)
*do not refrigerate
*Batter will bubble & ferment; just "burp" & reseal as needed.

Day 1: this is the day the starter gets bagged up-- do nothing further
Days 2-5: mush & burp the bag.

Day 6: add 1 cup each of flour, sugar, & milk; close & mush the bag.

Days 7-9: mush & burp the bag.

Day 10: baking day! Pour the contents of the bag into your non-metal mixing bowl.

for multiple starters: add 1-1/2 cups each of flour, sugar & milk, mix well and measure out 1 cup each into 4 sturdy gallon-sized ziploc bags. Put the date on each (this is day 1) and distribute to whoever you can con into wanting them.

for a single starter: measure a scant 1/3 cup of the stuff into a sturdy gallon-sized ziploc bag and add 1/4 cup each of flour, sugar & milk.

Now to bake: Preheat the oven to 325*F, and add:
3 eggs
1 cup oil (um... I've been doing about half this)
1/2 tsp vanilla (or more... I may yet get around to talking about the amazing properties of vanilla)

(I mix the dry ingredients separately & then add them, but it's not required):
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 "large" box vanilla pudding (er, my grocery stores don't have large boxes... I've been using the about 3.5 oz kind)
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
nuts &/or dried fruit as desired

Grease your pans-- either 6 mini loaf pans, or 2 standard sized ones-- and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (perhaps 1/4 c sugar & 1 tsp cinnamon if you haven't got a pre-mixed container, though you won't use it all yet)
Pour the batter into your pans, and then sprinkle the tops with the rest of your cinnamon sugar.

Bake-- 35-40 mins for mini pans, or 75-90 for full sized (I like things underdone & still use the longer times) until it passes the stab-with-toothpick test (ie toothpick comes out clean)... Cool until it comes out of the pan neatly (10-15 mins) and then finish cooling on a wire rack. You know the drill. Freezes well.
____

So, being me, I take recipes as rather loose suggestions most of the time. The cinnamon version is good, but after a couple rounds I got a bit tired of it. So, thus-far-approved variants include:

*add: cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, and/or allspice as desired
*leave out the cinnamon (and the sugar-dusting bit entirely) and add anise seed & a little almond extract
*no cinnamon, substitute the vanilla pudding with pistacio pudding (um, it was on super-sale?) & add almond extract (this is very good-- rather marzipanny)
*no cinn, chocolate pudding, 1 T baker's chocolate, some chocolate chips (I think about 1 cup), and I replaced about 1/2 cup of the flour with finely ground hazelnuts.

Other notes:
*Bags-- I've been rotating between two, and washing them out between times. You want your new starter to go into a clean dry bag so it doesn't start oozing sticky out the zip when you "burp" it, but a thorough rinsing & drying between uses seems to be sufficient on the clean front. (I also freeze things several mini-loaves at a time in saved commercial bread bags with the crumbs shaken out, folded or twist-tied shut and then with a bit of masking tape with the recipe version written on it.)

*My mother's rule of baking is that you should add 1/4 cup of wheat germ for every cup of standard flour you use. This is subtle enough that it doesn't bother the "eew, that tastes healthy!" people, but adds a little more substance & nutrition. Also, when mixing a whole bunch of white powdery kitchen substances, it makes it easier to see when your drys are properly mixed. Thus far we haven't found anything where the other amounts needed to be tweaked to make this work out, and the only place I've found it doesn't work is in refrigerator-style no-kneed dough, because when wet the wheat germ will oxidize after a day or three & turn a mucky gray color. If your grocery stores don't have wheat germ (check the "Bob's Red Mill" shelf) then try a health food store or an amish market.

*I started out rather skeptical about the mini loaf pan thing, but after a month or so of full sized friendship breads, I find that mini-loaves are very much the thing. They are 1-2 serving sized for someone who likes sweet breads (me), and not too overwhelming for someone who thinks a tiny bit is sometimes good (grauwulf), and you don't have to eat half your batch every nine days. Also, when giving mini-loaves away or breaking them out for parties, it's easier to mix and match flavors from what you've got in your freezer-- just don't forget to label them when you put them in!

I got 4 mini-loaf pans at AC Moore and 2 from Shopper's Food Warehouse (the only places I could find them nearby-- richer suburbs may not have this problem) and the AC Moore ones are definitely both slightly better & slightly cheaper. I also put all 6 pans on a small cookie sheet with a lip for ease of getting in & out of the oven.

Comments

[dante-di-pietro.livejournal.com]

That stuff is delicious. Truly delicious, friend. :P

[thanate.livejournal.com]

*cough* Would you like a starter?

Next baking day is supposed to be Saturday, although I think I'm going to have to move it up a day, since we'll be at Assessment. (And I do keep meaning to bring some of these to events-- I just keep forgetting to get them out of the freezer at the right moment.)