Amish Friendship Bread

Amish Friendship Bread is a type of bread or cake made from a sourdough starter that is often shared in a manner similar to a chain letter. The starter is a substitute for baking yeast and can be used to make many kinds of yeast-based breads, shared with friends, or frozen for future use. The sweet, cake-like Amish Cinnamon Bread is a common bread that is made from this starter, it is a simple, stirred quick bread that includes a substantial amount of sugar and vegetable oil, with a mild cinnamon flavor. It has characteristics of both pound cake and coffee cake.

A common recipe using this starter suggests using one cup (240 ml) of it to make bread, keeping one cup to start a new cycle, and giving the remaining two cups to friends. The process of sharing the starter makes it somewhat like a chain letter. One cup of starter makes one standard loaf of bread. Here is the recipe taken from allrecipes.com

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 3 cups white sugar, divided
• 3 cups milk

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or flour will lump when milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly. Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.
2. On days 2 thru 4; stir starter with a spoon. Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Days 6 thru 9; stir only.
3. Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Remove 1 cup to make your first bread, give 2 cups to friends along with this recipe, and your favorite Amish Bread recipe. Store the remaining 1 cup starter in a container in the refrigerator, or begin the 10 day process over again (beginning with step 2).

Once you have made the starter, you will consider it Day One, and thus ignore step 1 in this recipe and proceed with step 2. You can also freeze this starter in 1 cup measures for later use. Frozen starter will take at least 3 hours at room temperature to thaw before using.

Amish Cinnamon Bread

Ingredients

• 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 (3 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup peeled, cored and chopped apple
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease three 9×5 inch loaf pans.
2. Place the starter in a bowl, stir in the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix well.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, instant pudding, and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to the starter mixture and beat by hand. Add the pecans, raisins and apples and mix well. Pour batter into the prepared pans.
4. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 1 hour.