Amish Friendship Bread

Now I will start off with a warning, this "friendship" bread can cost you friends if you aren't careful. We have all been offered one of these starters before and the first time you make it is great. You have yummy bread to enjoy, and it wasn't that hard. Even though you did have to feed and mush the bag for 10 days leading up to your yummy treat. But the real problem is trying to give out all these starters as each time you make bread you end up with 4 starters.
Now being the planner that I am, as soon as my boss gave me one of these bags I looked for answers on Google (I mean how I did live before Google??). Well the answer to keeping my friends happy was simple, just freeze the starters that you get and defrost when you want to make more bread. You just bake the bread once it defrosts and no 10 day waiting period is involved. Just be sure that once you are down to one bag in the freezer you start the 10 day process over so you end up with more starters to freeze.
Now you don't have anyone that wants to pawn this starter off onto you? Well although the starter is an Amish secret, it has somehow found its way on-line. So you can always just make your own starter. I have never made my own starter as my boss gave me starter. You aren't supposed to use any metal when making this so break out the glass bowels and wooden spoons (read some tips below for the baking process). But here is a recipe to make things simple:

The starter:
1 pk. active dry yeast
1/2 c. warm water
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 c. warm milk

To make the original starter: Soften the active dry yeast with 1/4 c. of warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon, not metal. In a non-metal bowl, combine 1 c. flour with 1 c. sugar. Slowly stir in the 1c. of warm milk and the dissolved yeast. Cover loosely and let stand. Mixture will become bubbly.
This is considered day 1

Now everyone has there starter and in 10 days you will be enjoying some yummy bread.
Day 1-Mush the bag.
Day 2- Mush the bag
Day 3- Mush the bag.
Day 4- Mush the bag.
Day 5- Mush the bag.
Day 6-Add 1 c. flour, 1 c. sugar, and 1 c. milk. Mush the bag.
Day 7- Mush the bag.
Day 8- Mush the bag.
Day 9- Mush the bag.
Day 10-Pour the mixture into a non-metal bowl. Mix with a wooden or plastic spoon. Add 1 1/2 c. flour, 1 1/2 c. sugar, and 1 1/2 c. milk. (some say 1 cup of each, so whichever you would rather). Fill 4 gallon Ziploc bags with 1 cup of mixture to pass or freeze.

To the remaining starter in the bowl add:

3 eggs
1 cup of oil (I only used 1/2 cup of oil, and it was still very moist)
½ cup of cold milk
1 cup of sugar (again I cut back)
2 tsp cinnamon (left out since i did banana bread, read tips for directions and ideas)
½ tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding (I used one large, different flavors can be used)

Mix all the ingredients together, separate into two loaf pans and bake at 350 for about 1 hour.
Notes and Tips:
* I used my Kitchenaid to mix the bread with no problem, and even baked on loaf in a metal pan. So I wouldn't worry to much about metal when making the bread.*
*This is a very forgiving mixture. You can forgot to mush, or add things a day late or early with no problem. I baked my bread on day 9, because we were going out of a town on day 10. No harm done!*
* I also did my own thing when adding on day 10, I added a little about 3/4 cup of sugar since I felt it might be to sweet.*
*I made banana bread out of mine instead of the traditional type which turned out great, I used banana cream pudding instead of vanilla, mushed two bananas, and left out cinnamon from the traditional one.*
*Next time I make it I think I am going to do a fake coffee cake, using my mom famous Merck's coffee cake crumb mixture. The plan is to put down some bread mixture, the crumb mixture, more bread, and top it off with the crumb.*
*There are tons of web-sites with different varieties so be creative, one of my favorite that has tons of tips is: My Sister's Kitchen*