Amish Friendship Bread

Brittany shared this Amish Friendship Bread starter with me this week. The bread pictured is some she made since I won't make mine for another week. It was so moist and yummy. I found lots of recipe variations here, and I'm trying to decide which one I might try. The whole concept is neat, like a chain letter in the form of bread. You can start one, too.

I've always been really interested in starters, but have never taken the time to try one. This might be my motivation. I read recently about beer breads, which use nothing but the yeast in the beer to make the bread rise. My aunt Beth made some a long time ago for a family holiday, but until now I never realized how cool it was. I'm really intrigued by these various cultures that make bread rise, especially sourdough starters.

I have this really great cookbook, The Sunset Cookbook of Breads, that I've been using for several years. I really like this book for its introductory chapter on bread ingredients and properties. It explains how each ingredient functions, which makes me feel a little more confident when experimenting and substituting. It has a good section on sourdough breads and starters so I think I'm going to have to give one a try. I'm tempted to start several different starters with various recipes to see which one I like best, but I'm wondering if I really have the time. We'll see.