Pseudo-Amish Curse Cake
So, a couple weeks ago, Anton ga me a starter for Amish freindship friend. A start pack consists of a zip-lock bag containing yeast mixed with the flour, milk and such that it feasts upon.
The way it works is you let it grow for five days,mixing it every day, then you feed it some flour, milk and sugar, then five days of mixing later, you bake bread. You end up with five cups of yeasty-floury mixture. Ideally, you mix bake the two loaves of bread, and put the other four into baggies and give them to your friends. Though, if you know many people interested in baking, it doesn't quite work that way .
Now, this Amish Friendship bread turns out to be a bit of a misnomer. Let's take it word by word:
Amish:
Wikipedia says:'There is no reason to think that the bread has any connection to the Amish people.' Also, one of the ingrediants in the bread is a package of instant pudding mix, which somehow I don't think is traditional Amish fare.
Friendship:
Giving someone a starter pack is not necessarily a friendly thing to do.
Getting a starter pack is like getting a pet without all the cute and cuddliness and companion ship. You have to feed it, and check on daily. (As the yeast eats and grows, it produces gas, which will inflate the bag. If you don't squeeze out the gas periodically, it will blow up. I learned that one the hard way).
Also, I alluded to above, this stuff is impossible to get rid of. Everyone I know either doesn't bake or knows it for the curse it is. So, instead of giving the extra stater packs away, I end up making eight loaves instead of two. Now my freezer is full of this stuff. I've given loaves away to everyone I can think of: my landlord, my roommate, Dan's family, and soon, my family.
I slapped some chocolate frosting on one loaf and it became Dan's birthday cake.
However, the actually baking, I dont' mind. Nothing like a mindless instruction-following task that results in yumminess to de-stress.I like to put on a movie while I'm baking. Movies that I've seen enough times to know what's going on without looking at the screen all the time, like Star Wars or LOTR,are best for this purpose. Anyways, I digress.
Quite unexpectedly, Anton asked for a stater. (I never though I'd ever hear someone *ask* for one. He tried to get around the eternal baking by making his yeast go dormant in the fridge, and ended up killing it. My plan is the next time I bake (next Tuesday I think), I'll make all the yeast into bread (eight loaves again!) except for one, which I'll give to Anton, and then I'll be done with it.
Bread:
This is only bread by virtue of its shape. It is quite clearly cake, and is rather rich. For two loaves, there is a cup of vegetable oil and three eggs. It also comes in a varietly of flavours, depending on what kind of pudding you use. So far I've made: chocolate, vanilla(with and without raisins), lemon, butterscotch and pistachio. Lemon is my favourite so far.
This stuff is quite delicious, but not very healthy, so I don't want to eat too much of it.
The way it works is you let it grow for five days,mixing it every day, then you feed it some flour, milk and sugar, then five days of mixing later, you bake bread. You end up with five cups of yeasty-floury mixture. Ideally, you mix bake the two loaves of bread, and put the other four into baggies and give them to your friends. Though, if you know many people interested in baking, it doesn't quite work that way .
Now, this Amish Friendship bread turns out to be a bit of a misnomer. Let's take it word by word:
Amish:
Wikipedia says:'There is no reason to think that the bread has any connection to the Amish people.' Also, one of the ingrediants in the bread is a package of instant pudding mix, which somehow I don't think is traditional Amish fare.
Friendship:
Giving someone a starter pack is not necessarily a friendly thing to do.
Getting a starter pack is like getting a pet without all the cute and cuddliness and companion ship. You have to feed it, and check on daily. (As the yeast eats and grows, it produces gas, which will inflate the bag. If you don't squeeze out the gas periodically, it will blow up. I learned that one the hard way).
Also, I alluded to above, this stuff is impossible to get rid of. Everyone I know either doesn't bake or knows it for the curse it is. So, instead of giving the extra stater packs away, I end up making eight loaves instead of two. Now my freezer is full of this stuff. I've given loaves away to everyone I can think of: my landlord, my roommate, Dan's family, and soon, my family.
I slapped some chocolate frosting on one loaf and it became Dan's birthday cake.
However, the actually baking, I dont' mind. Nothing like a mindless instruction-following task that results in yumminess to de-stress.I like to put on a movie while I'm baking. Movies that I've seen enough times to know what's going on without looking at the screen all the time, like Star Wars or LOTR,are best for this purpose. Anyways, I digress.
Quite unexpectedly, Anton asked for a stater. (I never though I'd ever hear someone *ask* for one. He tried to get around the eternal baking by making his yeast go dormant in the fridge, and ended up killing it. My plan is the next time I bake (next Tuesday I think), I'll make all the yeast into bread (eight loaves again!) except for one, which I'll give to Anton, and then I'll be done with it.
Bread:
This is only bread by virtue of its shape. It is quite clearly cake, and is rather rich. For two loaves, there is a cup of vegetable oil and three eggs. It also comes in a varietly of flavours, depending on what kind of pudding you use. So far I've made: chocolate, vanilla(with and without raisins), lemon, butterscotch and pistachio. Lemon is my favourite so far.
This stuff is quite delicious, but not very healthy, so I don't want to eat too much of it.