Anybody ever head of this?!? Well the other day I was in the break room at work getting water and saw three bags of cream colored mush... Now I had seen these bags several weeks back and didn't pay much attention to them, but these strange looking bags were back, so I decided to stop and read the paper attached to them and saw "Amish Friendship Bread" with strange instructions like "Mush the Bag."
Well still not really sure what the bag of goo was, I went back to Google, and read up on it. It is similar to a chain letter, in the sense that once you get it, you must pass 3 more along. So this bag of mush is really an active yeast mixture that is supposedly passed down from generation to generation steaming only from the Amish. Now I don't know how true this is, but it has definitely been circulating around my office for a month or so now. Even after reading of this "chain letter" I did not take a bag home, but I eyed them every time I went to the break room....
Several days had passed, and only one bag remained... I had been poking and mushing the bag as I passed it daily, and my curiosity was starting to get the best of me. Then I noticed that it was almost Day 6, time to add stuff to the bag....but it was still just sitting in the break room without a home.... so of course I "adopted" the little bag! :D Once I brought the yeast home, I fed it some flour, sugar, and milk for the day, and it sure was hungry! I went to bed feeling good about myself for taking in a lost soul :)When I woke up the next morning, I knew the yeast had enjoyed his dinner because the bag was inflated with lots of air, and so being the good caretaker that I am, I burped the bag! Several more days of mushing the bag and burping the bag before we arrived at BAKING DAY!! :) I then proceeded to follow the directions on the instruction sheet. An hour and a half later..... it was done, and the outcome was a slightly sweet and cinnamony, delicious bread! It was so tasty that I decided to keep a starter and bake it again in 10 more days! And I gave the remaining 3 bags to friends; hence, chain letter.
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| Notice: NO METAL!!! |
Then I came across this wonderful post by Make It From Scratch, and I can finally breath a sigh of relief!!! :D My bag is DEFINITELY going on a diet! and then will be taking a nice trip to the freezer for awhile! If you ever get your hands on a starter bag of yeast, I would recommend that you most certainly make the yummy bread, but please do not let the mush take over your life!! (and after more Google researching, it turns out that there are recipes for the starter bags of yeast, so don't feel like you need to hang on to the little guy. Just let him go and look up the recipe the next time you feel like some good ole Amish Bread!)
Click Here to download the Amish Friendship Bread instructions!!
Be sure to write in the dates so that your friends know when BAKING DAY is!!!!
Here are some tasty variations:
ReplyDeleteReplace the vanilla pudding mix with pistachio. Bread turns out a fun color of lime-ish green and taste terrific. (Omit the cinnamon, but use a little powdered sugar or brown sugar to keep the bread from sticking)
Replace the vanilla pudding with chocolate pudding and throw in a handful of choco chip, OR butterscotch chips.
These two variations make a tastier dessert if you mix up a little icing to drizzle over them, and serve well to eliminate a leftover starter you can't find a home for!
I'm confused. When you look at the instructions above Michelle's name, it states on day 10 to add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and 1 1/2 cups milk. BUT when you click on the link to download the instructions it states to add only 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup sugar. Which is correct. I made the bread tonight using the instructions I was given with the starter and those instructions said to add 1 1/2 cups of each of those ingredients. The bread was very, very sweet and I used lemon instant pudding and lemon extract, so the bread should not have been sickenly sweet. Can someone clarify which is correct? 1/2 cup or 1 1/2 cups of each?
ReplyDeleteHi there! Sorry for the confusion... I have been meaning to update the post to include the Full recipe which is the 1 1/2 cup version. The one above is the small batch version that I discuss in the post. Just depends on how many starter bags u want to have leftover.
DeleteUse the link above for the small batch version, and this is the full batch version below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxfs-pKIUSDLMTFjZDYyY2UtOTk0Mi00ZTJhLTkxMWItNzIwNDEyOWMxZTUz/edit?usp=sharing
Let me know if that helps clarify :)
Thanks for stopping by!