Friendship Bread Almond Joy Muffins

About mid April my friend, Louise, gave me and Anita a starter for Friendship Bread.  You know the kind, you get a baggie full of "starter" and you have to squeeze it every day, day 7 you add milk, sugar and flour, and by day 10 you are ready to bake, with starter for three friends and another batch for yourself to start again.  Meaning you will have to bake again in 10 days, and give away 3 more bags.
  I was not a good starter mommy and let mine die not once, but twice (one time was not really my fault, it was Dave's, I was out of town).  Anita was kind enough to bring me another starter both times.  It makes a very delicious bread, but with just two of us at home now, I don't need to bake two loaves of sweet bread every ten days, and what to do with three extra bags of starter every 10 days?  My friends were starting to avoid me, and I wait until zucchini is overabundant to leave bags in unattended cars.
I was looking through a bookstore and I came across a book called Friendship Bread by Darien Gee so I picked it up.  It was a sweet story of how important friends are, grief and overcoming it, forgiveness and a positive look at reinventing yourself throughout your life.  The end of the book had several recipes for using the Friendship Bread starter, and a website with over 200 recipes for the starter! (Find the website here)
I was very excited to try the sweet and savory recipes, and share the book with Anita.  If you haven't been "blessed" with a starter there is even a recipe to start your own (or just leave me a note, I can send you some since I'll have 3 more bags in about 4 days).  Just keep in mind, friends will stop all eye contact with you after you go through several 10 day cycles.

Almond Joy Amish Friendship Bread
adapted from Friendship Bread Kitchen

Ingredients 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 tablespoon espresso powder
1-2 small boxes instant chocolate pudding
1 cup coconut
1 1/2 cups slivered almonds
mini almond joy bars

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325° F (165° C).
2. In a large mixing bowl, add ingredients as listed.
3. Line muffin pans with paper liners
4. Scoop batter into muffin pans to fill 2/3 full
5. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
6. Cool about 10 minutes
7. When muffins are just warm top each muffin with unwrapped mini almond joy.
8. Cool completely.
9. ENJOY!

Tips:  

This makes 24 large muffins or I often make 12 muffins and a loaf of bread.  Butter the loaf pan and dust with cinnamon and sugar before adding the batter.  Bake a loaf for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I seldom have instant pudding so I used cook and serve, it works just fine.

June 13, 2012     Daylight  21 hours, 38  minutes     Current Temp.  65ºF