Almond Poppy Amish Friendship Bread

If you haven't received a mushy white ziplock filled with Amish friendship bread recently then this recipe won't really work. You can create your own starter (google it) or just swing by my house for some. I had been avoiding this as it uses pudding mix which has never seemed very amish, but I've finally accepted it for what it is - an almost cake sweet bread. I can't leave well enough alone though, I've modified it to fit my poppy seed fetish.


Almond Poppy Amish Friendship Bread
Wet:
1 cup Amish starter
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp almond extract
3 Tbs poppyseeds
1 large box instant vanilla pudding

Dry:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sliced almonds

1. preheat the oven to 350
2. Mix together the wet ingredients in a large glass bowl (the recipe claims you shouldn't use metal, but I think that's a bit bogus)- beat well
3. mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, use a fork to avoid lumps
4. Combine the dry with the wet and mix well. Crumble 1/2 the almonds and add them to the batter
5. pour into 2 greased and floured 9x5 loaf pans and sprinkle the remaining almonds on top.
Bake at 350 until done - about an hour

Note on pans - the original recipe says 2 loaf pans. I think my loaf pans are a bit bigger than normal so it was too flat in 2 pans. you can also use muffin tins, mini loaf pans, etc. Just adjust the bake time accordingly.