Amish Friendship Bread

Amish Friendship Bread is the chain letter of the baking world. The idea is very simple: a friend gives you a cup of yeast culture (also know as "starter") and a copy of instructions. Following the instructions, you add sugar, flour and milk and it grows. Eventually, you end up with 4 cups of the starter. You use one to make bread (the instructions provide you with a recipe), keep one to start a new cycle and give two to your friends. Each of your friends also gets a copy of the instructions for what to do with the yeast starter. The latter part makes it somewhat like a chain letter. Of course, Amish Friendship Bread does not come with any promises of riches for those who spread it on or curses for those who don't.

Bread made following the traditional Amish Friendship Bread recipe is sweet and tastes more like a cake. Presumably, you could use the starter to make lots of different types of bread.

Electronic version of the amish bread instructions is available at http://www.freewisdom.org/amishbread/