Amish Friendship Bread

So ... quite a few years ago, my sister was nice enough to send me some Amish Friendship Bread Starter.

I built it up. Made some bread, and froze some of it.

From time to time, I pulled some out of the freezer and made more bread.

From time to time I build up more to replenish my freezer supply.

Until fairly recently, I've only ever used it to make the standard (Original) Amish Friendship Bread Recipe. It is a nice easy thing to make for the family or my "Friday Breakfast Club" that I've mentioned before.

Note ... being in Denver ... it is important to make High Altitude Adjustments (see Recipe Adjustment Guide) for the bread to turn out pretty. Sometimes I do a better job than others. Even when the top collapses some on itself, the bread still turns out delicious.

Here is the recipe I use:

Ingredients

● 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
● 3 eggs
● 1 cup oil
● ½ cup milk
● 1 cup sugar
● ½ teaspoon vanilla
● 2 teaspoons cinnamon
● 1½ teaspoon baking powder
● ½ teaspoon salt
● ½ teaspoon baking soda
● 2 cups flour
● 1 small box vanilla instant pudding
● 1 cup nuts chopped (optional)
● 1 cup raisins (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325° F (165° C).
2. In a large mixing bowl, add ingredients as listed.
3. Grease two large loaf pans.
4. Dust the greased pans with a mixture of ½ cup sugar and 1½ teaspoons cinnamon.
5. Pour the batter evenly into loaf or cake pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture on the top.
6. Bake for one hour or until the bread loosens evenly from the sides and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.
7. ENJOY!

If you are lucky enough to get an Amish Friendship Bread starter ... here is the process of building it up:

Day 1: Do nothing.

Day 2: Mash the bag.

Day 3: Mash the bag.

Day 4: Mash the bag.

Day 5: Mash the bag.

Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Mash the bag.

Day 7: Mash the bag.

Day 8: Mash the bag.

Day 9: Mash the bag.

Day 10: Follow the directions below:

Pour the entire bag into a nonmetal bowl.

Add 1 1/2 cup flour, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cup milk. Mix well.

Measure out equal portions of 1 cup each into 4 1-gallon Ziploc bags. Some people will end up with 4-7 portions depending on how active your starter has been, especially if you made your starter from scratch.

Keep one of the bags for yourself (or leave it in the mixing bowl if you plan to bake right away), and give the other bags to friends along with the recipe.