Monday, January 3, 2011

Amish Friendship Bread Starters: The Tribbles of the Baking Universe

Here's a word problem for all you math whizzes out there:
If Katie accepts one Amish friendship bread starter on December 10, 2010 that will be ready to bake on December 15, 2010 and doesn't manage to give any new starters away, how many starters will she have by Christmas? Bonus question: How many loaves of Amish Cinnamon Bread will Katie have to bake to keep up with all this madness? Read on for the answers.

I am a sucker for Amish friendship bread but there is a part of me that dreads the weighty responsibility that comes along with accepting an Amish friendship bread starter (which is essentially a bag of a squishy batter-like substance containing live active yeast that must be fed milk, flour, and sugar every five days). Somehow this simple gesture of baking kindness always manages to spiral way out of control until I am up to my ears in fermenting bread dough. The blessing/curse of an Amish friendship bread starter is that after ten days, it turns into two loaves of bread and four new starters (well, it doesn't do this on its own, you have to bake it into bread and separate the new starters from the original one). The idea is to pass those new starters on to other people so they can do the work next time. In ten days, each of those people ends up with two loaves of bread and four new starters and, ideally, passes them on to new people. It's kind of like a chain letter that includes baking- a pyramid scheme of bread, if you will. I think it might actually be a conspiracy implemented by the Amish to drive people like me crazy.

You would think that I'd know better by now but I still jump at the chance to begin a new cycle of friendship bread insanity even though I can almost never get rid of the new starters after I bake. Then they multiply so fast that it's all down hill from there. To answer the above questions, my December baking frenzy has resulted in a total of eighteen* new starters and six* loaves of cinnamon bread. I was able to unload two starters and one loaf on the unsuspecting family for whom my in-laws were house sitting over the holidays. That still leaves me with plenty of bread to bake, which will result in even more bread starters that will exponentially increase for infinity into an Amish friendship bread avalanche of epic proportions (if anyone knows how to express that in mathematical terms please share it in the comments). Thankfully, the starters can be frozen. This slows down the explosion of live active yeast and helps create a more reasonable time frame in which to experience the joy of baking Amish Cinnamon Bread. Nevertheless, my freezer can only hold so many frozen time bombs.


So, here's another word problem:
If Katie approaches you with a zip-lock baggie full of bread goo and tries to convince you that accepting it will make you a better person, how fast and how far will you run in order to avoid being sucked into the vortex of Amish friendship bread?

*If you're a big enough math genius to realize that there actually should have been sixteen starters and eight loaves after two baking cycles- wow, you're a geek, I'm both amazed and disturbed by you. The discrepancy occurred when I ran out of time to do any more baking (it was 2:00 in the morning) and just turned two of the four starters I had from the first baking cycle into five new starters each instead of two loaves and four new starters each. If you're confused, don't worry, you're probably normal. If you understood everything I just said, you should probably go seek professional help.

11 comments:

Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said...

When I get suckered into the Amish Friendship Bread vortex, you know what I do? I make it ALL into bread. :) Yep, I'm the grinch that ends the chain of bread. But it sure does take the stress out of it all.

Kim said...

Katie, I LOVE your blog. Love, love, love it. You're just the right amount of snarky and totally hilarious. DO NOT give me Amish friendship bread. Unless you want it to die an untimely and unbaked death. That's what happened last time.

Katie K said...

Emily, you're not a grinch, just person with a simple solution to a simple problem- why didn't I think of that? =)

Kim, thanks! I'm glad you enjoy the blog. Don't worry, I've stopped pushing friendship bread on people who don't want it because I don't want it to be unfriend-ship bread. Har, har, har.

So many thoughts... said...

I wish I ate gluten so I could help you out there. God knows I wouldn't mind some friendship bread over applesauce for dessert! Though I think I would follow in Emily's footsteps and just bake it 0no sharing here. :)

Katie K said...

Susanne, yeah, don't worry, you're safe for now. Although, I'm sure I could come up with a Real Food version for you- that might be a worthwhile challenge.

BeeCreative said...

Can I make your day, Katie & say I'll take a starter from you? I'm not sure if Anthony has ever has Amish Friendship Bread :)

Katie K said...

Kari, yes, that totally makes my day! I will even deliver it to you if you want.

Sherida said...

Great post! I LOVE Amish Friendship bread, and I REALLY LOVE Emily's idea! I think I actually threw away all the starters during the second round, last time I made it. I think someone would much rather get a loaf of freshly-baked Amish Friendship bread, than the bag of goo that you have to goo-sit until it's ready to bake.

Katie K said...

Sherida, I think you're totally right. The first time someone gave me a starter I was a little confused/disturbed/nervous/etc. The first time someone gave me a delicious loaf of already baked Cinnamon bread I said, "Yum! Thanks." Emily's idea is a great one. I feel kind of like a bone head for not thinking of it myself. =)

Lani said...

Ok oh my goodness I think I need to make sure not to drink anything or eat anything while reading your blog. I guess after reading and trying to follow It's safe to say I am ....Normal in your bread baking terms. I have to say the amount of bags that were sitting around at christmas in the kitchen yeasting away... I did have this thought "Is my sister-in-law addicted to Friendship bread"? maybe but I'm not sure if there is a Rehab BAking center.... So funny ...and if case someone did follow all of that and is need of a therapist you can send them my way

Katie K said...

Lani, you're so right, I'm not normal. Perhaps Amish Friendship Bread-aholics could be a specialty of yours- if I find any I'll be sure to send them your way. As for me, I don't have a problem, I can quit any time...really...I can!