If you’re lucky enough to have a friend or neighbor bring you over “the bag” and the instructions for what to do with it–then you already know this fact…
Amish Friendship Bread is absolutely scrumptious! So scrumptious, in fact, that whenever we eat it, I’m tempted to shoot the van and buy a horse. We positively love it-LOVE it around here. But what if—the bread isn’t being passed around your circle right now and you have a hankering for some hot, cinnamony friendship bread right this very minute? Huh? What can you do?
Here’s the answer. Nothing, that’s what.
Well, almost nothing.
Truth is, that the whole process does, indeed take some time. But now you’ll not only have the instructions for how to start your own “starter” but what to do with it all after that, as well.
You are certainly a lucky duck. A very patient, lucky duck.
And it’s so well worth it.
The first thing you need to know is that it is very important to use plastic or wooden utensils and plastic or glass bowls when making this. Try not to use metal if you can help it–it messes with the live yeast and if it’s in contact with, say, a metal bowl for too long it doesn’t tend to rise properly, sinks in the middle. Consider yourself warned!!
Amish Friendship Bread Starter
Starter Ingredients:
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk
Starter Directions:
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly so the flour won’t get lumpy when you add the milk. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Pour into a gallon Ziplock bag. The mixture will get bubbly–don’t be afraid. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle.
Amish Bread Instructions
Day 1 – receive the starter–or make the starter from the recipe above.
Day 2 – smush the bag
Day 3 – smush the bag
Day 4 – smush the bag–I really like the word “smush” don’t you?
Day 5 – Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk—and smush the bag.
Day 6 – smush the bag
Day 7 – smush the bag
Day 8 – smush the bag
Day 9 – smush the bag
Day 10 – Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 gallon bags, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.
After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:
2/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Using a wooden spoon, beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts if you want, but why mess with perfection? :}
Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour, remove from pans–and allow to cool. Makes two loaves of the most amazing Amish Friendship Bread in the land…
and I can prove it.
hee hee!
- 1 pkg. active dry yeast
- ¼ cup warm water
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup warm milk
- In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes.
- Stir well.
- In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar.
- Mix thoroughly so the flour won’t get lumpy when you add the milk.
- Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture.
- Pour into a gallon Ziplock bag.
- The mixture will get bubbly–don’t be afraid.
- Consider this Day 1 of the cycle.
How did you know?? I’ve looked all over the internet for a starter for several months. I’ve been dying for some (and to make it dairy free too)
Thanks!
It is so tasty. I shared my starter with my family and gave my second loaf to my parents.
yUUUm!!! This stuff is so tasty! 🙂 Nate loves making it lately… so I just walk by and poke the bag every now and then. I have the best part of the deal… I get to help eat it too! 😀
I was able to call my Katie and let her know the mystery had been solved (or at least revealed). She’s been looking for a recipe to start this for some time – should have known you’d have it. I’m going to start sending all my kids to you to field their questions etc – they already know I don’t know anything 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
We make this every year here and it is certainly tasty!! There are even more recipes of things to do with it if you look online. The girls love it (for a few weeks) than they are tired of it and want to stop!! I like it as a breakfast bread. It is easy to send out the door in slices as they are running to the bus for school. Cream cheese on warm friendship bread……yummm……
im a little confused or maybe i did something wrong, but i ended up with 6 cups of starter??? any idea how this happened? im pretty sure i followed the instructions, 1 cup in each bag and 1 cup for my bread?
You know, I’ve read so many variations of this recipe and it seems like quite a few people, using the same recipe end up with more–or less batter at the end. Maybe it has something to do with the moisture in the air, wet-winter vs. dry-summer…or something. I really don’t know.
So I’d say, follow the directions and use the extra batter in one cup increments to make either more bread, or new starter. You can always freeze the extra starter to begin the process again later. It’s all good and it should taste wonderful. :}
Do you store the bag in the refrigerator or freezer during the 10 days??
Could I just give my friend the bag and the directions for making the bread instead of doing the 10 days again??
Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
A wee bit confused by this as well, Do I sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on the butter and then put the mixture in the pan or do I put the mixture in the pan and the cinnamon sugar on top of that??
I hope my questions are not dumb I am not a very good cook at all.
Thank you for this recipe
Hi Marie–your questions are certainly not “dumb” and I’m sorry for not being more clear. I’ll fix that in the recipe.
You just leave the bag with the batter out on the counter for the 10 days to kind of “season.” Sounds kind of creepy I guess, but that’s how it works. I read somewhere that if you didn’t want to start the process over with another bag that you could put it in the freezer until you were in the mood.
I have a little shaker bottle with cinnamon and sugar mixed in it–that I use for cinnamon toast. So when I make sweet breads I butter the pan and sprinkle a bunch in the pan and tip it back and forth to cover all the buttered sides. Makes the bread come out of the pan all sparkly and sweet. I usually butter the top of the bread when it comes out of the oven and sprinkle some on there too–but that’s after it’s cooked. Can’t get enough of that cinnamon sugar! 😉 Let me know if you have any other questions. I’m happy to help!
So do I just give them the starter and they do the 10 day process?
And they split and give it to their friends? Does the yeast grow? Or will someone eventually have to add more?
Nope, you won’t have to add more. It’s the way natural yeast works. In the old days, everyone had a yeast “starter” that they fiercely protected. As long as they kept it safe and alive and fed it–like this recipe does, it would continue to grow and be viable.
So, yes, just split it and give it out with the instructions. Spread the Amish Bread love! 😀