"Friendship" Bread

Anyone ever heard of Amish Friendship bread? Here's the scoop, in a nutshell. One of your friends gives you a bag of starter (which is a secret combination of yeast, flour, sugar and milk that only the Amish know). You nurture the starter till Day 10. On Day 10, you make four more bags of starter, from the original bag, and two loafs of very tasty bread. You then begin the process again... nurture the starter for 10 days, make bread and more starter. For the mathematicians out there, each starter bag makes four more starter bags and two loafs of bread. Figure out how much bread you could have! The possibilities are endless.

The reason it's called Friendship bread is that you are supposed to give some of your starter away, thus sharing in the fun. My best friend, Christi, gave me my bag of starter. Thankfully, she gave it to me on Day 9, so all I had to do was make the bread, and the four new bags of starter. But now, one Day 3 of the new cycle, as I look at the bags of yeasty mess that I have to deal with every day, I'm not so sure about the whole friendship part of the process.

You have to deal with these bags, every day. Then, on day 10, you have to make bread. Oh, and because of the yeast, you can't use metal bowls or spoons. For me, that means no mixer! Gee thanks! Amish Friendship Bread = more work! And did I mention that this bread is so good, you could eat it all day, every day, gaining 10 lbs in a week?

In all actuality, it's worth it! The bread is sooooo yummy! And you can make it different ways, with nuts, raisins or even chocolate. The work isn't all that bad, because if it was, I so wouldn't be messing with it at this point in my life. Plus, every time I mush my starter bag, I get to think of my sweet friend Christi!

Anyone want some starter?