Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Amish Friendship Chain Bread and Knitting Party: fun times!


Remember chain letters? You got it from one person - but suddenly had to pass it along to 5 of your friends to avoid imminent danger and gloom.

Well - this bread was made from a sort of chain dough. I've heard of bread starters as it relates to sourdough bread - but have never had this cinnamon coffee cake until someone at work brought it in about 12 days ago. Along with the finished product, he brought in a few gallon ziplock bags with about 1/2 cup of milk/flour mixture. this was the start of a BREAD CHAIN.

Amish Friendship Bread - it's moist with more than a hint of cinnamon. Topped with a sugar cinnamon crunch and very moist. Overall, tasty and welcome for a morning treat at work. I brought home a bag of starter and the instructions - and watched it grow on my counter.

It took 10 days to fully proof. About 7 days in - I had to add milk, flour, and sugar. Then - just let it grow and develop for a few more days. On the 10th day, I was able to mix up the final dough - and portion off a few new ziplock bags to hand on to someone new. I made a bundt cake and a batch in my ridged long pan (no idea what it's call - something Scandinavian).

The bundt pan is heavier and darker - and put out a better looking product. This was pretty - and perfect for the knitting party that I hosted 2 days later. The recipe included a box of vanilla pudding - which seemed odd to me. Why wait so long for a starter to develop flavor to just overwhelm it with a box of instant pudding? For that - and the fact that you need a starter to make this exact recipe - I'm not including the recipe. I would suggest finding a different coffee cake to make if you are looking for something similar.

As far as my luck is concerned - I should be worried. I threw away the starters that I set aside. No one at my knitting party wanted to take one home. Not wanting to impose - I thought it was best to just throw it away. I'm sure bad luck will befall me in someway after angering the Amish Friendship Bread gods - it's a risk that I took willingly.

6 comments:

Cathy said...

Sorry nobody wanted to take the starter! I used to have a sourdough starter that was awesome - but same thing, not everyone was interested in it.

Pearl said...

amish friendship bread sounds very cool.

Frieda Loves Bread said...

I wouldn't be worried! You had a great time!

Anonymous said...

my mom always used to get these starters when i was a kid, but i don't remember it being cinnamon. sounds yumm! so weird about the vanilla pudding though - thats a real turn off to me for some reason. of course, now i want coffee cake....

Anonymous said...

I'm excited to find your post about the amish friendship bread. I received a starter a few days ago (after never hearing of this before) and I need to bake it today. I love the bundt pan idea - did you bake it for longer than the hour the original recipe calls for? Bummer that nobody took your starters!

Scate said...

The bundt pan was put on the top shelf of the oven - and the smaller on the bottom shelf. THe top of the oven is a bit hotter - so they actually baked for the same amount of time- and was about the same as the instructions. I used an instant read thermometer to check the internal temp - I think it had to get to about 180 F... i'd have to check a book to see for sure. But taking a temp really helps.