Discovering Baking

I always thought I hated baking. I never even bought a bag of sugar in the first 2 1/2 years in this apartment. The last time I had baked was for Christmas about 12 years ago. I made Christmas cookies with a friend, and the only reason I did that was because I had a friend to help me clean up afterward. Baking always seemed too complicated, too messy, and too precise. I would much rather cook a nice savory dish where I could toss in a pinch of this and a scoop of that without having to measure the ingredients. I like being able to taste as I go along, and adjust the recipe accordingly.

I also rarely baked because my diabetes was totally out of control, and I did not want to have sweets around the house. I was afraid I would not be able to exercise control over my consumption of baked goods. I had little to no will power, so I just thought my best bet was to avoid baking altogether.

Then, a few weeks ago, a friend came to my house with a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter. I trudged to the store and bought all of the ingredients I needed, flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, vanilla, etc. I made the loaves of bread, and a huge mess along the way. But, the end result was so delicious, and the process was actually kind of fun. Plus, I had all of these baking supplies on hand. So, of COURSE I had to continue baking!

I moved from the plain Amish friendship bread on to recipes gleaned from various websites. I made a bread machine banana bread. I made a Peanut Butter Banana Bread. I tried a delicious apple bread. Each recipe I tried was more successful than the last!

Now, my new thing is the Amish Friendship Breads. After I was given the initial bag, I baked several loaves of the bread over a few weeks, and ended up with seven bags of starter. Now they are in my freezer, waiting to be put to good use. I defrosted two bags of starter recently and made a few variations of the original recipe. So far, I have tried the banana bread and apple bread versions. Perfection!

A hint: There is no need to go through the whole ten day process of feeding the starter each time you want to make one of these breads. If you freeze the four bags that you make after feeding the original starter, you can pull a bag out a few hours before you want to make the new loaves. Simply use the bag and make the additions that come AFTER the starter has been divided.

Now, I have a freezer full of quick breads. I am going to be passing them on to friends, family members, my doctors, whoever is interested in baked goods. And lets be honest.. isn't EVERYONE interested in baked goods???