Amish Friendship Bread and Starter Recipe
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5
22 reviews
Excellent
Amish Friendship Bread and Starter Recipe
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Amish Friendship Bread features a unique sourdough-like starter that's created over 10 days through a process of mixing flour, sugar, milk, and yeast with daily feeding, resulting in a sweet, cinnamon-spiced quick bread batter. The starter is shared among friends for a communal baking experience.
Description
The Amish Friendship Bread recipe involves preparing a living starter by combining warm water, active dry yeast, flour, sugar, and milk and allowing it to ferment and develop over 10 days. Each day involves stirring (or squishing) the starter bag, feeding it with additional flour, sugar, and milk halfway through the process, which results in a bubbly, aerated mixture with a mild sweetness and yeast aroma.
After the starter is established on Day 10, part of it is combined with eggs, flour, dry vanilla pudding mix, oil, sugar, cinnamon, and leavening agents to form a batter. This batter bakes into a moist, cinnamon-flavored quick bread with a cake-like texture. The bread is known for its tender crumb and subtle spicy-sweet flavor.
The starter can be divided and shared, making it a social baking tradition. Care should be taken to avoid metal contact with the starter, and proper storage and discarding conditions apply to ensure safety and maintain starter health.
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Ingredients
TO MAKE THE STARTER ON DAY 1:
- ¼ cup water about 110-115°F, warm
- 1 active dry yeast 2 ¼ teaspoons, package
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup milk (use at least 2% milk or higher fat)
TO ADD TO THE STARTER ON DAY 6:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup milk (use at least 2% milk or higher fat)
TO DIVIDE THE STARTER ON DAY 10:
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups milk (use at least 2% milk or higher fat)
TO BAKE THE BREAD:
- 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter what’s left in your large bowl after dividing on Day 10
- 3 large egg
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 large vanilla instant pudding mix just the dry mix, 5 ounce box
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup milk (use at least 2% milk or higher fat)
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- granulated sugar for the topping
- ground cinnamon for the topping
Instructions
MAKE THE STARTER:
- In a small bowl, combine the warm water with the dry active yeast. Set aside until bubbly, 5-10 minutes.
- In a large non-metal bowl mix together the all-purpose flour and the granulated sugar. Stir in the milk and the yeast mixture.
- Cover loosely and leave on the countertop at room temperature until bubbly.
- Place starter in a large (gallon size) Ziploc bag. Seal bag and squish, squash, and mush until well combined. Let stand at room temperature overnight. The day that you prepare the starter is DAY 1.
- Day 2: Squish and mush the bag.
- Day 3: Squish and mush the bag.
- Day 4: Squish and mush the bag.
- Day 5: Squish and mush the bag.
- Day 6: Add to the bag – 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of milk. Squish and mush the bag.
- Day 7: Squish and mush the bag.
- Day 8: Squish and mush the bag.
- Day 9: Squish and mush the bag.
- Day 10: BAKING AND DIVIDING DAY. Pour the entire contents of the starter bag into a non-metal bowl and add 1 ½ cups of flour, 1 ½ cups of sugar, and 1 ½ cups of milk. Measure out 4 separate batches of the starter batter (1 cup each) and place into large gallon-size Ziploc bags. Keep one bag of starter for yourself to continue the process (Day 10 is equal to Day 1) and give the other 3 to friends along with a copy of these instructions. After dividing the starter into separate bags, you should have about 1 cup of the starter batter still left in your large bowl. The starter that remains in the large bowl will be used for baking your Amish Friendship Bread.
BAKE THE FRIENDSHIP BREAD:
- Preheat oven to 325°F/160°C. Spray two loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
- To the bowl with the remaining 1 cup of starter, add the eggs, flour, instant pudding mix, canola oil, sugar, milk, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and salt. Stir just until combined.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two greased pans.
- In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle the top of each loaf with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
- Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and then remove bread from pans.
REPEAT THE 10-DAY PROCESS OR FREEZE THE STARTER:
- If you keep a starter bag for yourself, then DAY 10 is equal to DAY 1 again, and you can repeat the baking process every 10 days. If you do not want to continue the cycle right away, place the 1-cup bags of starter in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you take the starter out of the freezer, you can treat this as DAY 1, or you can use that starter right away to bake the loaves of Friendship Bread.
Notes
- Use non-metal spoons and bowls to avoid unwanted chemical reactions with the fermenting starter.
- The starter will rise and become bubbly during fermentation; release excess air from the bag as needed.
- If you have more than four one-cup portions of starter on Day 10, share or freeze the extras.
- Do not refrigerate the starter; to preserve extra starter, freeze it following recommended freezing and thawing methods.
- Discard the starter if it shows discoloration, mold, or a strong acetone smell.
- Add the dry vanilla pudding mix directly to the batter; do not prepare it separately.
Nutrition Information
Show Details
Serving
1slice of bread (12 slices per loaf)
Calories
223kcal
(11%)
Carbohydrates
32.5g
(11%)
Protein
2.5g
(5%)
Fat
9.8g
(15%)
Saturated Fat
0.9g
(5%)
Cholesterol
111mg
(37%)
Sodium
117.9mg
(5%)
Fiber
0.5g
(2%)
Sugar
20.8g
(42%)
Nutrition Facts
Serving: 2loaves
Amount Per Serving
Calories 223 kcal
% Daily Value*
| Serving | 1slice of bread (12 slices per loaf) | |
| Calories | 223kcal | 11% |
| Carbohydrates | 32.5g | 11% |
| Protein | 2.5g | 5% |
| Fat | 9.8g | 15% |
| Saturated Fat | 0.9g | 5% |
| Cholesterol | 111mg | 37% |
| Sodium | 117.9mg | 5% |
| Fiber | 0.5g | 2% |
| Sugar | 20.8g | 42% |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
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User Reviews
Overall Rating
5
22 reviews
Excellent
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