Friendship Bread

After 10 long days of waiting, I finally have some friendship bread. What, you ask, is friendship bread? Well, it's a quick bread made from a starter that has to sour for 10 days on your countertop. You can give that starter away to other people (ie, friends) to make their own bread! I got this recipe off the internet, but there's tons of variations out there. According to Kathy and Jan, some have yeast in the starter, some don't. This one does.

The Starter:
Dissolve 1 package of active dry yeast in 1/4 c warm water (about 110 degrees F). Let sit for 10 min.
In a non-metal bowl, mix together 1 cup EACH of flour & sugar. Mix totally. Slowly stir in (with a nonmetal spoon) 1 cup milk and yeast mixture. Cover bowl loosely with a towel and leave out (or, I think you can try putting it in a gallon sized ziplock bag, just make sure to let the gas out every day). This is DAY 1.
Day 2-4, stir with nonmetal spoon, or mush bag around.
Day 5, stir in 1 cup EACH flour, sugar and milk.
Day 6-9, stir or mush.
Day 10, stir in 1 cup EACH flour, sugar and milk. Take out 3 cups and place 1 cup each in separate baggies or containers. Give to friends with a copy of the recipe below and save one for yourself (or you can freeze them separately and keep them all, waahahahaha).

The Recipe:
Again, no metal. Add to the balance of the starter (a little over a cup):
1 c oil (Canola would be best, I think)
1/2 c milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients:
2 c flour
1 c sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 large box instant vanilla OR banana pudding (about 5.1 oz)
1/2 tsp salt
1 c nuts (optional, of course).

add dry to wet ingredients, mix until combined, and pour into two large well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

Results: Delicious. Sweet and moist. I told Chris I was bringing one of the two loaves into work, and I think he almost mutinied. When I sugar the pans, I use cinnamon sugar. Also, I tried it with the walnuts, mostly because I have a lot of them left over from the maple pudding, but also because I like the smell of them roasting, so I roasted them first. Chris didn't care for the walnuts, and people at work didn't notice them, so I think you can skip them. I also replaced about half of the white flour with whole wheat, and an informal poll at work revealed that you couldn't really taste the whole wheatyness, but that people liked the chewy, al dente-ness that the whole wheat added, so I think I'll try it again. Those are the scientific terms, by the way. I ended up having to keep it in the oven about 5 minutes longer than 1 hour.

Casualties: None! My sous chef (Harper) did end up covered in flour and sugar, but I think she liked it.