Amish Friendship Bread

Nothing says friendship like cinnamon sweet bread. While I cannot find anything in my Internet research truly validating the fact that this recipe was indeed started by the Amish, it is fun and delicious nonetheless.

The bread recipe is a type of sourdough bread, made in a ten-day cycle, originally started through the old fashioned chain letter. To make this recipe, one must get a starter bag, which I was lucky enough to come across from my friend, Corinne. However, I was able to dig up the recipe to create a starter bag. I haven’t tried this myself, so don’t send blame this direction if it doesn’t work.

Starter Bag:

• 1 package of active dry yeast
• ¼ C. of warm water
• 1 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 C. white sugar
• 1 C. milk

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes. In large plastic, glass or ceramic bowl (NOT METAL!), combine flour and sugar. Mix thoroughly. Slowly stir in milk and yeast mixture. Transfer to one-gallon plastic bag.

Once you make your starter, or even better, receive one from a friend, its time to start the 10-day process. Please note that once you receive a starter in its first day, you can freeze the bag and use it when you want.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe:

• Day 1 – receive the starter and do nothing
• Day 2 – Mush the bag.
• Day 3 – Mush the bag.
• Day 4 – Mush the bag.
• Day 5 – Mush the bag.
• Day 6 – Add to the bag 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk. Mush the bag.
• Day 7 – Mush the bag.
• Day 8 – Mush the bag.
• Day 9 – Mush the bag.
• Day 10 – Follow these instructions:

Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups milk and stir. Measure one cup batter into four 1-gallon Ziploc bags and give to friends along with a copy of the recipe. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Add to the remaining batter:

• 3 eggs
• 1 C. oil
(or 1/2 C. oil, 1/2 C. applesause)
• 1 C. sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 C. milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 C. flour
• 1 large box instant vanilla pudding
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Grease 2 large loaf pans. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2-cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with 1/2 of this mixture. Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture over the top. Bake 1 hour. Cool the bread until it loosens evenly from the pan (about 10 minutes). Serve warm or cold.

This recipe makes cinnamon sweet bread, however, a mess of other recipes exist using the same starter bag. With my next starter, I plan to make banana nut bread substituting the vanilla pudding for banana cream and adding 2 mushed bananas and walnuts. I also plan to add chocolate chips in the future. For more variations on this recipe, click here and scroll to the bottom.

All the HAP girls have starter bags, so contact us on our contact page if you are in the Milwaukee area and want to try this for yourself!