Ten days ago I was given a Friendship Bread starter from my neighbor. For those of you not familiar with Friendship Bread, here are the basics: you receive a starter from a friend (contained in a plastic bag) to which you add ingredients on Day 6; all days before and after 6, you squeeze the bag to combine the contents; with your efforts culminating on Day 10 when you add more ingredients, separate your concoction into new starters and use what is leftover to make two loaves of bread.
Today was my Day 10. As good fortune would have it, I happened to have a friend who arrived at my door for the evening just as the bread was finishing up in the oven. I love greeting a friend with a kitchen that smells of baked cinnamon. Had my friend closed her eyes, she might have been in my grandmother's kitchen as easily as mine, a kitchen that always smelled of homemade rising cinnamon rolls that let you know preparations were being made for your arrival long before you came.
Luckily, after smelling the bread baking for 40 minutes, the taste didn't disappoint: sweetly decadent and slightly dense - bread that acts like cake. Warm-from-the-oven bread, a friend worth baking for, and time set aside just to talk. I love an evening well spent.
LOVE Friendship Bread! I had it for the first time when we built our first house. Our neighbor was kind enough to deliver a batch to us and we then delivered ours to new neighbors. It was a nice how it carried on to each new member of the neighborhood. Very sweet :)
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