Christmas is Coming Around Again

Here is another back posting of something that I made a while ago. As the Christmas season nears, I am reminded of last year's "Holiday Baking Madness". It was a full week of baking and wrapping and baking. There was also some force feeding of sweet stuff in my brother's mouth while he slept. It was quite amusing to watch him finish the bite while he slept. It would've been nice to get a comment from him before he fell back asleep.

Before the Christmas season started, a coworker of mine who was also an avid baker gave me a pouch of the "Amish Friendship Bread" starter. I was really excited to be a part of the chain. It was kind of fun caring for the baby yeasts and the resulting cupcakes were delicious! I ended up wrapping them and gave them away to coworkers as Christmas presents. This recipe is very common but here it is again!

Armish Vanilla Friendship Bread

Important:

• Do NOT use metal spoon or bowl for mixing.
• Do NOT refrigerate.
• Mush means to squish the batter around in the zip-loc bag.
• If air builds up in the bag, let it out.
• It is normal for batter to thicken, bubble and ferment.

Day 1: This is the date on the bag. You don't need to do anything this day other than put the bag in a place of room temperature.
Day 2: Mush the bag.
Day 3: Mush the bag.
Day 4: Mush the bag.
Day 5: Mush the bag.
Day 6: Add to the bag 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, then mush the bag.
Day 7: Mush the bag.
Day 8: Mush the bag.
Day 9: Mush the bag.
Day 10: Baking day. Follow the instructions below: 

• Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and 1 1/2 milk to the Ziploc. Mush to mix
• Measure out 1 cup of batter each into a large Ziploc bags for 4 cups of batter. Write today's date on each bag so your friends will know what to designate as Day 1.
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• To the remaining yeast mixture in the bowl add the following:
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 large box of instant vanilla pudding
• Line 12 muffin tin with paper or grease them generously.
• Fill each muffin with batter so they are at most 3/4 full. Use additional tins if requires.
• Mix an additional ½ cup sugar and 1½ tsp. cinnamon. Sprinkle the mixture over the batter.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes. Allow muffins to cool on wire rack