Friendship Bread-Recipe

I've come to grips with the fact that I am a very very very bad blogger.  As promised two weeks ago, here is the recipe for Friendship Bread.

In the last post, we talked about the starter.  Follow those directions in order to get to "Day 12".  As explained, separate the batter into 4 one-cup containers.  Save one as your ongoing starter.  This day, or "baking day" as my mom call it, is your new "Day 1".  Follow the same steps as before, skipping Day 1.  Repeat this on every "Baking Day".

Alright, you now have 3 containers that each have 1 cup of starter in them (unless you give one away to a friend like you are supposed to, which means you have 2 containers of starter, making 8 loaves).  Each of these 1-cup containers makes 4 small loaves of bread.  I like to make different flavors from each container, so I mix each container into a bread batter separately.  If you want 12 loaves of the same flavor, I suppose you could mix it all together, so long as you triple the recipe requirements.

The beginning part of the following ingredients is the same for all flavors:

Base Mix:

• 1 cup starter
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (or almond or lemon if you desire!)

For different flavors, mix the additional ingredients with the base mix.  We love chocolate the most, but you can be creative and play with the flavors. 

Chocolate:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pkg instant chocolate pudding 
• 1 cup chocolate chips

 Mix all ingredients together except chocolate chips.  Pour into 4 small loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, pull out and top with desired amount of chocolate.  Bake for an additional 20 minutes.

When making other flavors, increase the flour amount to a full cup to account for the 1/4 cup cocoa you are omitting.  Other flavor combinations can include:

• Vanilla pudding and cinnamon with raisins
• Cheesecake pudding with fresh berries
• Butterscotch pudding with butterscotch chips
• Lemon pudding with poppy seeds (about 1/4 cup seeds.  VERY yum!)
• 1 cup pumpkin, add cinnamon and keep chocolate chips
• Add coconut

The possibilities are endless!