baked goods {friendship bread}

This recipe is a test of serious patience. It takes 10 days to make and cannot be rushed. The good news is it's absolutely delicious when finished and well worth the wait. Today was my tenth day and i made two loaves this morning. The whole house smells like cinnamon bread, it's amazing.

Now, generally you have to receive a starter for this to work but i was able to find a recipe for the starter here. Once you have your starter, keep it in a well covered bowl or plastic bag on the counter, stirring it everyday. If you keep it in a plastic bag, it may fill up with air sometimes and appear as though it's going to pop, do not be alarmed. Simply let the air out.

On the sixth day add one cup milk, one cup sugar and one cup flour to the mix and stir.

On the tenth day you're ready to go. Make sure you have all your ingredients though. Sometimes I get to the baking day and start mixing only to realize i'm missing eggs and have to find a substitute. I'm sure you can imagine my anger.

So to begin add another cup of sugar, cup of milk and cup of flour to the mix. Portion out 3 cups from the mixture and put them into plastic bags for friends {or if you're like me, keep some in your freezer so you can make the bread whenever you like}. These will become their {your} new starters. What's left is a little more than a cup of mixture for you.

Add to the mixture:

1 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Stir. I put it in my KitchenAide mixer but you don't need that at all. I just love it so much that I've become lazy just so I can use it all time.

In a separate bowl combine:

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 tsp. backing powder

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 large box instant vanilla pudding

1 cup nuts (optional, you can also use chocolate chips)

Add the dry mixture to the batter and mix until combined. Pour into 2 well greased sugar loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

When you're finished, not only will your whole house smell amazing, but you'll have two delicious loaves to pig out on. Oh I'm sorry, I meant you'll have to delicious loaves to eat for breakfast for the next week or so... yeah right.