Amish Friendship Bread
- Source
- Magazine/website clipping (Armchair World "The Gourmet's Helper")
- Cook
- 1 hour bake, plus 10-day starter process
"This is more than a recipe - it’s a way of thinking. In our hi-tech world almost everything comes prepackaged and designed for instant gratification. So where does a recipe that takes ten days to make fit in? Maybe it’s a touch stone to our past - to those days not so very long ago when everything we did took time and where a bread that took 10 days to make was not as extraordinary as it seems today.
The recipe comes to us from Mrs. Norma Condon of Los Angeles. Amish Friendship Bread is a great bread for the holidays. When you’ve made your bread, you can give your friends a sample and the starter that made it! Then your friends can make their own and pass it along to their friends. This is why the bread is called ‘friendship bread’. It makes a great homemade birthday and Christmas present. Church groups and hospitals have spread a lot of love and cheer by making Amish Friendship Bread for their members. Many people make it regularly just because it tastes so good!"
Important Note: Don’t use metal spoons or equipment. Do not refrigerate. Use only glazed ceramic or plastic bowls or containers.
Ingredients
Required main ingredient:
- 1 cup live yeast starter (see note above)
Added on Day 10:
- 1 cup oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
Dry ingredients (combined separately, added Day 10):
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup nuts
Steps
- Day 1: Do nothing with the starter.
- Days 2-5: Stir with a wooden spoon.
- Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Stir with a wooden spoon.
- Days 7-9: Stir with a wooden spoon.
- Day 10: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Stir. Take out 3 cups and place 1 cup each into three separate plastic containers. Give one cup and a copy of this recipe to three friends. To the balance (a little over one cup) of the batter, add the oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla listed above; mix well.
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients listed above and mix well.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.
Notes
Variations on a Theme #1 (from the same source, credited to Mrs. Cherii Martin of Fresno, CA, Suzette Pierce, and Lori Panzino of San Bernardino, CA — apply to the basic recipe above):
- Banana Amish Friendship Bread (Cherii Martin): Omit cinnamon and vanilla pudding in the basic recipe and add two bananas (mashed).
- Chocolate Amish Friendship Bread (Cherii Martin): Omit cinnamon and vanilla pudding from the basic recipe and add 1 - (5.1 oz) box of instant chocolate pudding, 3 tsp. cocoa and 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Bake for 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours.
- Apple Cinnamon Friendship Bread (Cherii Martin): Add one cup of raisins and one small diced apple.
- Pudding, Chocolate Chip and Nut Variations (Suzette Pierce): “You can use many different flavors of pudding. My favorite is pistachio flavor. You may also use different flavors of chocolate chips and nuts.”
- Butterscotch Amish Friendship Bread (Lori Panzino): “Add 1 box of butterscotch pudding and 1 cup of butterscotch chips. We bake the cake in a 13” x 9" pan. It’s my family’s favorite cake!" She adds, “Don’t forget to omit the vanilla pudding.”