Amish Friendship Bread

I spent the morning making a second batch of Amish Friendship Bread. The first batch was made on Christmas Day. That's the day my Bread Starter was ready. Not knowing what to expect, I followed the recipe exactly. The bread was good but really dense. I placed the rest of the starter in the refrigerator loosely covered.

This morning (5 days later), I pulled out the starter, gave it a stir, and made another batch but this time I added raisins and chopped nuts to the recipe. That was the only alteration. It smelled WONDERFUL (it actually woke up Elder Boy and brought him upstairs wondering what the smell was).


It rose beautifully, but once I pulled it from the oven, it fell. Figures. But the taste was SO GOOD! And it wasn't as dense as the first batch.


I'm wishing I had included this batch in some of the Christmas packages instead of the first batch. I'm also wondering what surprises the next batch will have in store for me. Maybe I should just let the starter "age" a bit before using it. I wonder if the altitude affects the starter process?