Amish Friendship Bread

Last week, my boss handed each of the employees at our company a starter bag for Amish Friendship Bread. At first I eyed the Ziploc bag with the curious-looking liquid substance inside with apprehension, since I’d never heard of starter nor the bread (Amish what?). She handed us each a sheet with instructions on what to do with the starter, adding that there was absolutely no pressure for us to actually make the bread — that we could “let it die” if we didn’t feel like using it.

Apparently this  starter is a substitute for baking yeast and can be used to make many kinds of yeast-based breads, and the most common bread it is used for is Amish Friendship Bread. It’s a quickbread with a mild cinnamon flavor that is much like coffee cake and pound cake in its appearance and taste. The recipe for Amish Friendship Bread usually calls for keeping the starter and stirring or mushing the substance for 10 days (unrefrigerated) and at the end, using one cup for the batter of the bread and giving the remaining cups away to friends — the sharing of the starter with copies of the recipe makes for a chain letter effect. After trying some of my boss’s delicious loaf, I decided to give it a try.

Here is the recipe I used. (There seem to be slightly different variations online.)

Amish Friendship Bread

• Do not use a metal spoon or metal mixing bowl
• Do not refrigerate — if air gets into bag, let it out
• It’s normal for batter to rise, bubble and ferment

Day 1 — Do nothing — this is the day you receive your batter
Day 2 — Mush the bag
Day 3 — Mush the bag
Day 4 — Mush the bag
Day 5 — Mush the bag
Day 6 — Mush the bag — add 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup milk to bag
Day 7 — Mush the bag
Day 8 — Mush the bag
Day 9 — Mush the bag
Day 10 — Follow the instructions below:

1. Pour contents of bag into non-metal mixing bowl.

2. Add 1-1/2 cups flour, 1-1/2 cups sugar, and 1-1/2 cups milk; mix well.

3. Into (4) 1 gallon Ziploc bags, measure 1 cup of batter. These will be your next starter and the other three will go to your friends along with a copy of this recipe. Make note of the starter date (baking day) and tell your friends what day you are on. Write the date on the baggies.

4. Preheat oven to 350°.

5. To the remaining batter in bowl, add the following:

a. 3 eggs
b. 1 cup oil (may use 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup applesauce)
c. 1/2 cup milk
d. 1/2 tsp vanilla
e. 1 cup sugar
f. 2 tsp cinnamon
g. 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
h. 1/2 tsp baking soda
i. 1/4 tsp salt
j. 2 cups flour
k. 1 large box of vanilla instant pudding (may use other flavors)

6. Grease 2 large loaf tins — mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon together in small bowl. Dust loaf pans with half of mixture.

7. Pour batter evenly into the prepared loaf pans and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the batter.

8. Bake 1 hour — cool approximately 10 minutes — cut and serve warm or cooled.

If you keep a starter you will be baking every 10 days. This bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create the starter, so if you give them all away you will have to wait until someone gives you one back to enjoy. Enjoy!!

Today was Day 10, and I made the batter from the starter and just baked two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread with it. The kitchen smells divine and the bread looks and tastes amazing!

Now the issue is that I have four bags of starter sitting in my kitchen.If there’s anyone who wants a bag (or two) that is local, please let me know! Otherwise, if there are no takers, I’m just going to let them die.

They really do make really yummy bread and we’d be willing to drop them off if you’re within reasonable distance. 🙂