Amish Friendship Bread

Here at Serenity we’re all about making friends; so it seemed like a great idea to make the Amish Friendship Bread recipe that was brought to us by Maren. Friendship Bread is interesting because you must be given some batter as a starter kit before you can make it. Maren gave us a few starter kits and we worked at mixing and adding new ingredients for about ten days until we could finally bake our bread today. Claryce and Lois were the main helpers today; and they loved it! We mixed in all the final ingredients and couldn’t wait until it was done baking so we could try it.

If you would like to try this Amish Bread just let us know and we will provide the starter kit. Below is the recipe for the Friendship Amish Bread that we made here at Serenity!

First, you must obtain about 1 cup of fresh starter from a friend (thus the name Friendship Bread). If you have no success in finding some, you can make your own – you’ll just have to wait a whole lot longer (traditionally about 16 days) for the finished product! Within CCF’s website, you will find some recipes for this starter and other uses for it besides this bread.

The instructions that follow are for that 1 cup of starter that you have obtained from a friend.

Do not refrigerate the starter. This batch is the starter’s day one.

Day One – Do nothing.
Day Two – Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Three – Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Four – Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Five - Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Six – Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Seal bag, letting out as much air as possible. Mush thoroughly.
Day Seven - Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Eight - Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Nine - Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Ten – Squeeze the contents of the bag into a large bowl. Add to the bowl 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Stir and measure out 4 (1 cup) starters into Ziploc bags to give away, along with a copy of this recipe and instructions (the friendship part of this recipe). Don’t forget to keep one bag of starter for yourself.

To Bake: To the small amount left in the bowl, add 1 cup oil, ½ cup milk, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix well and set aside.

In another bowl mix together 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, ½ teaspoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 – 6 ounce box of instant vanilla pudding mix, 1 cup chopped nuts (optional). Add these ingredients to the first mixture and mix well.

Grease two 4 x 8 inch loaf bread pans. Sprinkle pans with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Tomorrow starts day one on your starter. Enjoy!