I am sure a lot of you have heard about Amish Friendship Bread, and have given it a whirl. I had heard about it, but had received a starter until just recently when a friend at work brought me in one. I was excited, but also a little worried I’d screw it up.
Here are the directions, if you want to give it a try!
Basically, these are the steps:
Day 1: Do nothing. This is the date on which you receive the bag. Squish-squash-mush the bag.
Day 2: Squish-squash-mush the bag
Day 3: Squish-squash-mush the bag
Day 4: Squish-squash-mush the bag
Day 5: Squish-squash-mush the bag
Day 6: Add to the bag 1 C. flour, 1 C. sugar, 1 C. milk. Squish-squash-mush the bag.
Day 7: Squish-squash-mush the bag
Day 8: Squish-squash-mush the bag
Day 9: Squish-squash-mush the bag
Day 10: BAKING DAY!
So, yeah, there is a lot of squish squashing to it! I had always thought the bread would be a white dinner bread, but I was wrong. Its a sweet dessert bread, with sort of the same consistency at zucchini bread. Its YUMMY!
At the end of the 10 days, it was finally BAKING day!
Pour entire contents of bag into large non-metal bowl and add: 1½ cup flour, 1½ cup sugar, 1½ cup milk. Measure out 4 separate batches of the starter batter, 1 cup each, into 4 separate Ziplock bags (one gallon size). Keep one for yourself and give the other 3 to friends along with a copy of this recipe/instructions. You’ll see my four friendship bags, pictured above. I did not keep one, because I figured it was enough fun one time! And, it’ll always come back around to me sometime, I am sure!
After you split it up, there will be some of the mixture left in the bowl, you’ll add the additional ingredients to this, and bake!
You’ll be pleasntly surprised to find out that the secret ingredient to Amish bread is vanilla pudding. YUM!
Pre-heat oven to 325°. To the remaining batter in the bowl, add:
3 eggs
1 cup Canola oil
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 large box instant vanilla pudding
Grease or butter 2 large loaf pans and mix an additional ½ cup sugar and 1½ tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with half the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Pour batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the top with remaining sugar mixture.
Bake for 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from sides of pan and turn out to serving dish.
And, ta-dah! Amish Friendship Bread! This recipe makes TWO loaves, so you can share a loaf and enjoy a loaf at home. The kids even loved it!
