When I was young my mom made Amish Friendship bread all the time. She was always trying out new variations of the recipe by switching out the pudding flavors and adding in nuts, coconut or chocolate chips. Now that I have a family of my own, I make it myself sometimes and it always disappears from the kitchen very quickly. Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I thought it would be a great time to share this recipe with you. It is such a great gift to give to friends....a loaf of this homemade sweet bread along with a starter so they can make their own. With this recipe you keep a starter going as long as you want and at the end of the cycle you have extra starters to give away. It truly is a gift that keeps on giving!
If you are starting the bread yourself combine 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour, and 1 cup sugar in a zip-top bag and squeeze it together until mixed in. This is day 1. Continue with the rest of normal instructions.
Note: Do not refrigerate the starter. Keep it at room temperature.
Amish Friendship Bread
Day 1: Receive starter from a friend.
Day 2-5: Mush closed bag twice a day.
Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Mush bag.
Day 7-9: Mush bag and release air twice a day.
Day 10: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. This is the day you make your bread.
First measure three 1 cup starters and put them in three separate bags. Save one for yourself and give the other two to friends.
Pour remaining batter into a large bowl and add the following ingredients:
1 cup oil
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 large box instant vanilla pudding
Mix ingredients well. In a bowl, mix together 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar. Grease two loaf pans. Pour batter into loaf pans, and sprinkle top with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake at 35o degrees for 40-50 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans. This does really well in the freezer.
wow that looks great! do you keep the starter bag in the fridge or at room temperature?
ReplyDeleteI haven't had friendship bread in YEARS! I might have to mix up a batch of starter.
ReplyDeleteThat looks and sounds so good! But I don't think I would have the commitment for a 10 day recipe, I don't have enough commitment for a 1-day recipe! :-) lol!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this, I think I just might try to attempt it.
yum! I did this a long time ago and have wondered for a LONG time how to start it! Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteI am soooo glad you posted this! My neighbor gave us some friendship bread a few years ago and my husband and I were a little skeptical but tried it anyway and let me tell you it's so worth the 10 days!!
ReplyDeleteI am so glad I have the recipe now thanks to you!
I have never heard of friendship bread, but it seems cool. One question, how big is a large box of instant pudding? I'm in NZ and our instant pudding mix comes in satchets
ReplyDeletehttp://myzoebug.blogspot.com/2008/04/mmmmmmm-bread.html
ReplyDeleteAHHHHHHH!!!! Stay away stay away stay away! That bread is soooooo addictive! Try making french toast out of it! To dye for!Must stick to diet, must not make this bread....oh god it is just that good!
Just curious, but what other puddings are good?!
Ok, here are the answers to your questions.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to put it on there....the starter should NOT be refrigerated. Just keep it on your counter.
The larger size dry pudding box is 5.1 ounces, but I have used the 3.4 ounce size before and it still turned out great.
I have tried butterscotch pudding and that was yummy! Banana was good too. I have also heard a friend who really liked the pistachio. The possibilities are endless! :)
I never knew how to start a batch! Thanks. I will start a batch and start giving them away like I did a couple of years ago!
ReplyDeleteI love this bread. Like Amy said, it's so addictive. In fact I baked up a double batch today. In my recipe, you add 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, and milk on the tenth day and then make four starts of one cup each. I usually double the recipe so I only give one start away.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter won the Clover Leaf division of the State competition for baking when she was 8 years old. Amish Bread was one of the things she made for us all the time. I miss it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recipe. I'll have to make the starter and give her some so she can make some for old times sake. She'll be 20 tomorrow!
This might be a silly question, but I've always been nervous to make this because of what I feared that 10-day old milk smelled like... Is it bad? LOL
ReplyDeleteThank you! I just mixed up a batch of starter.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard the starter recipe before. Kind of excited. Lol. Shared a link over here from my blog for it.
ReplyDeleteThank You for the Armish Bread Recipie. I love the idea of it being Friendship bread. I volunteer at a family shelter that houses woman and children. I counsel woman who are codependent and work with them on all of there activities of daily living; cooking banking; and I try to make it fun at the same time.....I love the idea of the friendship bread it covers so many areas such as cooking/baking - teamwork and most of all giving....this is why I love blogging I learn so much from so many woman who are passionate about cooking; crocheting an crafting...and the woman who are great at couponing...I have passed so much on to the woman and children at the shelter....thanks again. I posted your bread on my blog......that's how much I like it.
ReplyDelete...gosh, I feel so uncreative, never even occured to me to add other items to the bread! what a great idea!
ReplyDeleteMy family likes this too! My recipe makes 2 loaves of bread. I tried making it in a bundt cake pan. Oil the pan, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mix. Put some walnuts or pecans in. Pour half the batter in. Sprinkle more cinnamon/sugar and nuts in. Pour rest of batter in. I sprinkled more cinnamon/sugar on that. Bake. A little longer than for the bread. Cool for 10 minutes> Put platter on top of cake pan and flip over. A lot of the cinnamon/sugar come off. It is really good.
ReplyDeleteHow great to have the starter recipe...I used to love doing this when I first got married.
ReplyDeleteMandy - I found this amazing blog awhile ago from somewhere...I visit almost everyday, and I'm always inspired! I was so excited to see YOU! You guys are amazing!
Erin (Johnson) Johanson
How cool! I haven't had this since I lived in Pa. I'll definitely be making a starter batch!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Amish Friendship Bread. Glad to find the base recipe again...Thanks! Also thanks for visiting my blog - neat to be Saucy this week!!
ReplyDeleteThis has to be the yummiest treat ever!!
ReplyDeleteAbout 7 years ago this kept going around. I haven't seen it since then. I'm so happy to have been reminded of it. My friends are going to be soooo happy.
Love your blog!
THANK YOU for posting the starter! I've had this once and wanted to make it again! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
ReplyDeleteI love this bread too! But after doing it a couple of times--I find it impossible to give away. (I guess my friends got tired of me giving them the starter). So my question is....How do you make it so that you don't have more than one starter left over? It hurts my pregnant brain to try to figure it out. Anybody know?
ReplyDeleteJessica, you're in big trouble for giving me that start. I know I asked for it, but it is PURE EVIL! I ate almost a half a loaf myself this afternoon! If I ever ask you to share a start with me again, say NO!
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have any willing recipients, try using all the starter up and making multiple loaves of bread on the 10th day. Each time you make the bread, you use one cup of start. So quadruple the recipe (or double it twice--that's a lot of ingredients for most mixers to handle!). You would end up with 8 loaves, which seems like a ton, but you can freeze 7 of them for later!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently working on day 5 of my starter.
ReplyDeleteIt's great stuff!!!
Has anyone ever tried subbing part whole wheat flour at the final step (when you're actually making the bread)? I realize you probably wouldn't want to do that in an earlier step, but maybe towards the end...then I could justify it as being a little healthy? :)
ReplyDeleteI am so excited! A friend brought this over a few weeks ago but I was out of town when we were supposed to add other ingredients. My husband was so sad because he loves the bread. I'm going to make it and surprise him. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteI made a batch the other week and put butterscotch pudding and butterscotch chips in it. It was the best batch me and my family have ate. Try it!
ReplyDeleteI've been making this every 10 days for the past couple of months! I wrote my own recipe to hand out with the starter. It is just like yours except that I like to use 2 mashed bananas instead of pudding, I like to use half flour and half almond meal, and I included this advice:
ReplyDeleteYou can leave it plain or add almost anything you like to the mix, including ½ to 1 cup of one or more of the following - raisins, chopped apples, bananas, crushed pineapple, fresh, dried or candied fruit, coconut, chopped dates, nuts or chocolate chips. Add to batter just before baking.
Go ahead and improvise, thinking about the flavor combinations that you usually enjoy in oatmeal or muffins, such as: Banana-Pecan-Maple, Apple-Cinnamon-Nutmeg-Vanilla, Strawberry-Banana-Vanilla, Orange-Chocolate Chip, Blueberry-Lemon Zest-Cardomom…
YUM! I'm going to bake some tomorrow!
I finally got to make my bread today - instead of the full cup of oil, I used 1/2c oil and 1/2c applesauce. Because the applesauce has sweetness to it, I cut the sugar down to 1/2c. Pretty darn good! I didn't try the WW flour yet, maybe next time with some walnuts.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that other starters I have seen require adding yeast, but not yours. Will it still be OK without the yeast? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI read Tania's question about reducing the recipe so you don't have to give any starters away. I have been making the bread this way for several weeks and it seems to work just fine. On day six add 1/2 cup of flour, sugar and milk. On day 10 add 1/2 cup of flour, sugar and milk as well. I save 1 cup for myself as a starter and use the remainder to make the bread. Hope this helps!!
ReplyDeleteYou can also freeze the starts. I divide them into 1 C. bags and freeze them. *Note* The bags never fully freeze all the way, they are still a little soft. This is normal! When your ready to bake, take a start out and treat it as day 10 (baking day) or day 1 (to start the whole process over again). It's really easy to do this, just take it out and let it thaw for a couple of hours before you want to bake. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying this today. I think I'll try to shoot it, but I don't think it will be as pretty as your picture!
ReplyDeletePlease someone help. It is day 8 and I never added the ingredients on day five. I haven't done much of anything since day four. Is my starter ruined or can I pick up and add the ingredients today? My mom was so thrilled I took one of her starters and I don't have the heart to ask her what to do. Need help quick :-) Thanks!
ReplyDelete