Amish Friendship Bread Recipe and Printable

I went out with my Visiting Teaching companion the other day to give our sisters some Christmas Gifts and when we visited one sister she gave us these Amish Friendship Bread starters and recipes. For those of you who don’t know what a visiting teacher is, you can read about it here.

So we took the starter home and squished it a squashed it and added milk, sugar and flour to it until the 10th day and this is what we got . . .

It’s so good! It makes a really sweet bread similar to banana bread and the crust is crunchy because you use cinnamon sugar to coat the pan and sprinkle on the top of the bread.

We use zip lock gallon sized bags for this recipe. It makes it really easy to mush the bag around each day. You can print the instructions for your friends HERE. Then send them a bag of dough with the instructions. This is a really fun recipe to make with kids. They have a lot of fun squishing the bag each day.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe:

This is the Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe. Do not use metal at all when making this bread. Only wooden, glass or plastic bowls and utensils.

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.

2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.

3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Add the mixture to a gallon zip lock bag. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.

For the next 10 days handle starter according to the instructions above for Amish Friendship Bread.

You can download a printable version of this recipe HERE.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe and Instructions:

Day 1 – receive the starter or make a starter (the recipe for the starter is below)

Day 2-4 – squish squash the bag and let out air.

Day 5 – Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.

Day 6-9 – squish squash the bag and let out air.

Day 10 – Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 gallon zip lock 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 4 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 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• Optional: One box instant vanilla pudding mix, nuts and raisins.

Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. In a separate bowl add ½ cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with ¼ of the cinnamon sugar in each pan instead of flour. Sprinkle the top of the 2 loafs with remaining cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour (individual oven temperatures vary). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans. Makes two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread.

You can download a printable version of this recipe HERE.