I would bake it on day 11. I have done this in the past and it has worked just fine. As for the milk it really shouldn't matter. I have made it with whole milk, 2% milk, and skim milk and no one could tell the difference.

Happy belated Birthday,
Linda

1. Starter's in general (and this is just a sweet, milk-based form of starter) are very forgiving. The yeast shouldn't die because of neglect for a day or two. I'd also bake on day 11; and the type of milk is not an issue. I only use whey-based milk substitute (powdered milk) when I make an occasional batch.

2. Some helpful hints... Source: Friendship Starters with Recipes - by Jackie Gannaway

- Once the starter is well established, the feeding schedule can vary a little. You may want to adjust the schedule to a calendar -- feed on the fifth, tenth, fifteenth, twentieth, twenty-fifth, and thirieth days. Ignore the thirty-first day of a month and wait until the fifth of the next month to feed again. The established starter will do fine with this slight variation.

- If you know you will be away or won't be baking for a month or more, you may freeze the starter in a plastic bag for up to 6 weeks. Don't feed it before freezing. After thawing, feed as usual and wait a few days for bubbles to form. indicating the yeast action is back to normal before using the starter.

- The starter may die if kept in a drafty location or if the humidity is very high. If the starter is doughy or strong yeast odor, be safe and toss it.

-For a stronger starter flavor, remove starter for baking before feeding. For a milder starter flavor, remove staarter after feeding.

- If you don't need any starter for baking or giving, you may have to take some out and discard it. This way you will always have a manageable amount of fresh starter.

-Grainlady

Oh yeah, that starter went around my office so many times that people would run if someone came in with a bag, LOL.

It was very forgiving in my experience too. I just forgot to feed it more than once and it always snapped back, I just proceeded like that day didn't exist, so a 10 day cycle became an 11 day cycle (or a 12 day cycle, LOL).

I never have anything on hand other than skim milk, so that's what I used and it worked fine.

We got really creative at adding things to the bread to make it different, apples with cinnamon and raisins, peaches or apricots with ginger, sweet cherries with almonds, bananas, chocolate chips. We still got tired of it eventually and threw away all the starter, knowing we could always start a new batch if it suited us.

Annie

Instead of using applesauce and oil, I use mashed up bananas and add a couple of tablespoons of walnut oil.
This time, since we just got back from Hawaii I used pineapple, well drained and some macadamia nuts. I am having some now.
I froze the starter since our trip was sort of unplanned and it came out fine.
I wish I would have added some coconut.
Yours will turn out great.

Thanks everyone. Glad to hear this bread is so forgiving. Annie, I have to laugh now too, now that I see the implications for this bread. There's a circular song my daughter learned a couple of years ago:

This is the song that never ends
It just goes on and on my friend
some people started singing it not knowing what they had
and................

and over and over again.

It's a fun thing for kids to do - and it's just started in my daughter's circles, so they're pretty excited to introduce each other to it - and happy to receive a bag. But this will have to end soon.

I love the idea of using mashed up bananas and walnut oil (that will give me my first excuse to use the oil I bought and haven't used yet). I have a question - do I just use the walnut oil or do I mix it with canola oil?

Thanks.
Lynn.