Amish Friendship Bread

(Sort of a sourdough starter, starter...if you will) ☺️😅

Show of hands, who remembers Amish Friendship Bread?? Getting a starter in a ziploc baggie with a date on it and instructions for how you can create delicious bread and lots of extra starter every ten days!!! Once you had given your extra starter to your friends, then they had starter to give away and then what?! But, the bread was oh so delicious.

(this old recipe has been hanging inside our cabinet for years..it’s ”the original”)

My son loves this bread. We went years without it though, because it seemed like such a waste to throw away all that extra starter! Then came Coronavirus Quarantine 2020 and I finally dove head-first into sourdough starter and Clare started an Amish Friendship Bread starter. Sadly, her starter grew mold and nothing went right. Weird, because my sourdough starter was beautiful. It was a sad time for Clare 😒

This inspired me to research more Amish Friendship Bread recipes and I found one that I thought may be the one! Also, bonus, the recipe didn’t include the box of instant vanilla pudding (which I never thought sounded very Amish, if you asked me?) 🤷🏻‍♀️ So, thank you AVirtuousWoman.org for your recipe inspiration!! Isn’t this how it goes? You search for a recipe, then try it and tweak it to meet your family’s needs? Well that’s exactly what I do/did here. The original recipe didn’t have enough salt for us, so I added a bit more next time. Also...and here’s the kicker..I ended up having to add that box of instant vanilla pudding to the recipe because my kids did not approve without it! Oh well, C’est la vie. anyway, here’s the recipe for the starter..

• 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

• 1 oz warm water

• 1 Tbsp sugar

• 1 Tbsp vinegar

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 c flour

• 1 c milk

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add all the ingredients in a large bowl and stir until creamy. You can use a bowl that you can cover with a tea towel or a ziploc baggie. If a bowl, go ahead and cover it with your tea towel. If a baggie, you will mush the ingredients around instead of stirring. Also, if the bag gets air in it, just let the air out so it won’t burst. That’s a normal phenomenon with the fermentation. Let mixture stand in warm place for two days to ferment. It will bubble and have a pleasant sour odor. After the 2nd day, you start the friendship bread starter countdown. You should have 1 cup starter. Don’t refrigerate (unless of course you’re needing a break, then it’s okay to refrigerate or even freeze! When ready, take it out and allow to warm up to room temp and start back where you left off.)

Don’t use a metal spoon or bowl.

Here’s the Friendship Bread Instructions

Days 1,2,3,4 - stir each day

Day 5 - add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk and stir (adding 1 cup of each will make enough starter to share with 2 friends on baking day + saving 1 cup for yourself. If you really don’t want to worry about that (and here’s the kicker guys!! This was the game-changer!!) only add 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup milk. It’s so gloriously simple! 🤦🏻‍♀️ I never thought of it. Days 6,7,8,9 - stir each day

Day 10 - again add the 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk (or 1/3 cup each!) stir, be sure to reserve about a cup to be your starter for next time.

Here’s the bread recipe. Since I added back the instant vanilla pudding mix, we’ll call it

”Amish” Friendship Bread

Combine the dry ingredients

• 2 cups flour

• 2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 large box instant vanilla pudding

then add your wet ingredients

• 3 eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 cup milk

• 1 cup oil

• approx 1 cup starter

Combine all together well. I spray my baking pans and sometimes dust them with cinnamon sugar. Also, dust the top with cinnamon sugar before baking 😅

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

you don’t have to use all of that, but that’s a good ratio to use. Pour your batter into your prepared pans and bake at 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes. Ope, don’t forget to preheat your oven..sorry 😬

Life is all about balance, right? Farm fresh eggs and a box of instant vanilla pudding. Oh well.

Look at these beautiful yolks 😍

Can you see the vanilla bean flecks in this homemade vanilla extract?!?!

Haha, oh nice try with your warning to not eat uncooked flour 😉😋

Also, I wanted to point out that I only ever use unbleached flour. We’ll get into why I prefer unbleached flour as well as why I make my own vanilla and why I prefer Vietnamese cinnamon in future posts!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do ☺️

With love,

Summer ☀️