Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Amish Friendship Bread
10 days ago I recieved some Amish Friendship Bread starter from a co-worker. After massaging it, feeding it, and sending it to a health spa, I made bread.

IMHO it was a lot of work for an over-grown muffin that uses a bread starter. Yup, you heard me, muffin. Eggs, lots of sugar, milk, baking soda & powder, no proofing == muffin. I guess the starter is just there for a bit of flavor.

Next time I'll just make a raised bread or a muffin bread or just make muffins. (Zucchini and banana breads use the muffin method.) Wot? You don't know the muffin method? Get thee to a bookstore and get "I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking ".

Any how, the recipe below I adapted from this Amish Friendship Bread recipe.

The results? Decent. Not my best. Though my co-workers enjoyed it. One of them said, hyperbolically, "It brightened my morning." Go figure.
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup wheat flour [why just go with AP, wheat is neat.]
  • 2/3 cup honey [much tastier than sugar... and I lessened the quantity.]
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground gloves [coffee grinders are fun!]
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
  • 2 eggs [Sure the original called for 3, I only had 2.]
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 apples - peeled, cored, chopped [I used Granny Smiths]
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda and salt, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the Amish Friendship Starter, eggs, oil, honey, and vanilla. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients, until just blended. Finally stir in the chopped apples. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean. Makes 2 loaves.