Day 10: The Goo Becomes a Loaf

5:30pm

Today is the day! It’s time to bake the Amish Friendship Bread (AFB). I just got home from work and I’m ready to go.

While the oven preheats to 350 degrees:

Pour the entire contents of the bag into a (non-metal) bowl, then add 1 ½ cups flour, 1 ½ cups sugar, and 1 ⅓ cups milk and mix well (using a non-metal utensil). I belatedly realized that this recipe should tell you to mix the flour and sugar together then gradually add to the batter, alternating with the milk. In my eagerness to be done with this project, however, I dumped everything into the bowl at once, which resulted in some very clumpy dough.

I measured four separate clumpy dough batters of 1 cup each into 4 one-gallon freezer bags. These are new AFB starters, which I may present to my friends if I choose to share.When mixing the following ingredients into the remaining dough, I did remember to combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl, and then alternate adding the wet and dry ingredients to the batter.Wet mix: 3 eggs, ½ cup milk, ½ tsp. vanilla, 1 cup oil (1 whole cup! I’m definitely giving this bread away to work people)

Dry mix: 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 ½ tsp. baking powder, ½ tsp. salt, 2 cups flour, 3 small instant vanilla pudding packets

Mix well.I used one 9” x 5” loaf pan and one 8” x 4” loaf pan. I poured the large loaf first, then added chocolate chips to the remaining batter and filled the small loaf pan. I sprinkled the tops of both with cinnamon and sugar.6:00pm

Into the oven for an hour.

7:00pmBehold, the bread. F had a piece of the chocolate chip loaf for dessert, and gave it rave reviews. I also snuck a few crumbs (which probably added up to a generous piece), and I agree that it really is delicious. It had better be, with all that sugar and a full cup of oil! Although this is called Amish Friendship Bread, let’s not fool ourselves: it’s cake.

Since I do not need two loaves of cake, or four bags of cake dough, I will bring the four bags and the large, plain loaf to work tomorrow. I am hoping that the finished and delicious AFB loaf will help to make the goo bags more desirable to my co-workers. But my decision to share with my colleagues poses some logistical difficulties. I must anonymously set up my AFB display in the work kitchen, and photographically document its popularity (or lack thereof) throughout the day. But how will I carry out the AFD drop without being seen?

The Plan:
8:15am Leave the house
8:20am Catch the bus (assuming it’s on time)
8:35am Get off the bus downtown
8:40am Dunkin' Donuts for coffee
8:45am Get to work
8:47am Remove coat and hat
8:48am Make photocopies of AFB instructions
8:50am Write start date on instructions and attach instructions to each of the dough bags
8:55am Enter kitchen. Close both doors so no one can sneak up on me.
8:56am Arrange AFB on counter with dough bags
8:58am Take photos
9:00am Be back at my desk and nonchalant by start of day

Of course, the execution of this plan depends on a number of factors: whether I can really leave the house at 8:15 (no matter how hard I try to leave early, I always end up leaving at exactly 8:36 every morning), the timeliness of the bus, the length of the line at Dunkin' Donuts, the duration of the wait for the elevator at work, and, most importantly, the number of co-workers I must avoid on the way to the kitchen.

Now it is time to get some rest. I have a big day tomorrow.