About
Some people celebrate friendship with flowers, others with homemade bracelets, but as you know, a full stomach equals a happy heart, so baking a luscious loaf of Friendship Bread is a great option, too! Your friendship starts with a test as you spend ten days perfecting and activating a made-from-scratch starter. After lots of quality time together, your starter is either ready to be gifted to a friend (which is where the name comes from), or you can keep it for yourself and bake a loaf to share, but only if you want to! It's a win-win situation, though, because they each result in a sweet, hearty, and fluffy loaf of cinnamon Friendship Bread that's as worthy of the time investment as your friendships are!
Ingredients
- For the starter:
- 1 (.25-ounce) packet of active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
- 2 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 2 cups milk, 2% or higher in fat, divided
- For the bread:
- 1 cup friendship bread starter
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
Step 1 -Mix the packet of yeast into warm water and let it sit until frothy, about 5 minutes.
Step 2 -In a glass bowl, mix 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Then mix 1 cup of milk and the frothy yeast mixture into the flour mixture.
Step 3 -Pour the starter into a gallon resealable bag and place it on a flat surface.
Step 4 -For the next five days, mash the resealable bag once a day. Doing this encourages the yeast to activate.
Step 5 -On day six, add the remaining 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk into the resealable bag. Seal the bag and mash around until all are combined.
Step 6 -Continue to mash around the starter daily for days seven, eight, and nine.
Step 7 -On day ten, the starter is ready for baking or gifting.
Step 8 -If you would like to gift the starter to a friend or loved one, reserve 1 cup of it for sharing.
Step 9 -If you would like to keep the starter going, add an additional 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk to the remaining starter and mix. This starts the cycle over again, and day ten becomes day one.
Step 10 -To make the bread, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Step 11 -Grease two 9x5-inch loaf pans.
Step 12 -In a glass bowl, mix 1 cup of the starter mix with the vegetable oil, 1 cup granulated sugar, the eggs, and vanilla extract.
Step 13 -In a large bowl, mix the baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and flour.
Step 14 -Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Step 15 -Fill the prepared pans 1/4 each full with the batter, using 1/2 of the batter total.
Step 16 -Mix together the remaining cinnamon and the remaining sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle 1/2 of the cinnamon sugar over the top of the batter in the pans.
Step 17 -Split the remaining batter evenly between the two pans. Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar over the top.
Step 18 -Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40-50 minutes.
Step 19 -Allow the pan to cool.
Step 20 -Serve.
