Amish Friendship Bread

This is the bread that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends!  If you aren't familiar with Amish Friendship Bread I should explain why it is like the chain-mail of bread.  Someone (presumably a friend) gives you a bag of mush.  You take care of that bag of mush for 10 days, mushing the mush together in the zip lock bag, feeding it flour, sugar, and milk halfway through, and finally on the 10th day you add more to it and set 4 cups aside in individual bags to give to friends to start their own bread (the bread that keeps on giving!).  You keep the remaining mix and add the final ingredients to create the bread that you've been preparing for 10 days.  You get to do something that takes a long time and requires no fancy technology, hence appreciating the Amish life?  Well, I don't think that's really the point.

People have tried to give me the starter mix in the past and I have respectfully declined.  I feel like I could get stuck in this bread making chain and possibly be converted to Amish beliefs (ha, I don't really fear that.... really... I don't).  I've declined this starter bread my entire life - until yesterday that is.  I found a message on my Facebook wall from a friend who wanted to know if I would like a starter kit and instead of running away screaming about the vicious cycle of Amish Friendship Bread I accepted the offer.  I'm a baker (not professionally) and I should embrace this bread challenge (not that it should be considered a challenge).  I should find out if it is any good (people rave about it) and I should see what I can do to it to make it unique... shouldn't I?  That's my dilemma.  Do I follow the recipe exactly, try an online variation, or my very own variation?  I think I have some good ideas in mind, but when I have to wait 10 days to find out if they are awesome it becomes a painfully long process.  Should I mess with the classic or switch it up?  I'll probably just end up feeding it to my coworkers anyway (especially if it comes out bad... ha ha!)  It'll be a fun project for me though.  I hope the bread mix survives for 10 days; my potted basil in the windowsill died in my care in half that time ;) 

Also, there's still the issue of the chain bread.  I think I am going to break the chain instead of risking all of the extra carbs that would come my way ;)  I'm an Amish rebel.

My bag o' Amish bread mush