Friendship Bread, Part II

Yesterday was baking day for my Friendship Bread experiment, and I was quite pleased with the results, in fact I was even a little surprised!  The following is the recipe I used to make the completed loaves when already having access to a starter.  If you don't have any access to a starter, see my earlier post about how to make your own!  This will make the traditional Friendship Bread that I grew up making, no fancy additions, just a good cinnamon loaf!


Classic Friendship Bread


1 cup Friendship Bread starter
2/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp butter or oil
cinnamon/sugar mixture for dusting (about 1/4-1/2 cup)


-Preheat oven to 325 deg. F
-Grease two loaf pans with the butter or oil making sure to cover the bottom and sides of the pans.
-Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture in each pan the way you would with flour when dusting before baking a cake.  Be sure the cinnamon/sugar covers the bottom and sides completely all the way up to the top.
-Sift all dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.
-Stir in the starter, eggs, and vanilla blending well.  The result should be in between the consistency of dough and batter.
-Pour the batter evenly between the two loaf pans, it should be about halfway up the sides of the pan if you are using regular sized loaf pans, if it is much higher use an additional pan.
-Sprinkle the top of the dough/batter with some more cinnamon/sugar mixture coating the top well (this will result in the delicious crispy crust!)
-Bake the loaves for 45 minutes to an hour, until they are golden and set in the middles.
-Allow the loaves to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

This bread is great!  It made our whole house smell amazing and was such a nice dessert bread to have after dinner or for breakfast!  It is a simple bread, so some additions will be nice, but I am happy with this classic rendition.  I'm definitely going to try some fun variations as I will be baking this lovely bread every 10 days!  I'll keep you guys posted as I try new ideas!