Amish Friendship Bread

For those of you who have tried Amish Friendship Bread you can

completely relate to this story. It is the best bread you'll ever taste to begin with. It's more like a cake bread. (a lot like pumpkin bread if you've had mine) My mom brought me this starter for it in a ziploc bag, and a page long instruction manual on how to make it. It takes 10 days to make a loaf, but it's well worth the wait.

Anyway, I'm a baker. Not a cook mind you, but a baker. In my mind they are completely different. I can bake any dessert. I can't cook much more than spaghetti. So, after reading these instructions, I set about making this bread, which I'd never even tasted yet, just heard about from my mom. We mushed for 10 days, then baked the loaves. They were gone in 2 days, I think. Maybe they didn't even make it that long. The reason they call it friendship bread is because from that one ziploc bag my mom gave me you get 4 more starters, and are supposed to give them to 3 friends, keep one for yourself and do it again.

I have 4 starter bags, so I'm thinking I'll keep them all and next time we'll have lots more bread - 8 loaves! Matt and Carlie will love that! (Alex isn't so fond of sweets, a genetic mutation I think) I make the next batch, and yes, we have 8 loaves, and everyone stares at the bread with big smiles..... until they see...... 16 ziploc bags of starter on the counter. What the heck will I do with all this? They didn't tell me I was breeding this stuff, my mom may as well brought me two random rabbits! So, I took 10 bags to work to pawn off on a few unsuspecting souls, but it was harder than I thought. These people at work KNEW about the breeding capabilities of the "friendship" bread. (ha! friendship my butt! I know better. They weren't friends, they were secretly making out on my counter when I turned my back) I finally managed to "give" it away, all of it. Whew! I returned to my office, only to find two of them back on my desk, with the instruction manuals to boot. Crap..... oh, I have neighbors, nice LDS neighbors, who bake! I go home and unload the rest and am left with three bags. Next week I'll have to make some new "freinds".

PS- Matt made a loaf and it turned out way better than mine. I'm handing him the friendship torch...