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Ten Days ago my friend gave me a ziploc bag filled with some batter along with an instruction sheet. She told me that I was to keep mashing the bag, add some ingredients and then make bread. I told her if she was my true friend she would just make me the bread (just kidding)! My sweet friend told me it would be a great thing to blog about——–now I was on board. My husband and I cared for our batter everyday and yesterday was the BIG day, I made the bread. It was really delicious and now I have my bags of batter ready to go to three very special friends!
So I began writing out the recipe and instructions and then realized this does all of you absolutely no good—-you don’t have a starter. But lucky for all of you adventurous bakers a quick google search led me to many recipes for the starter. I have not tried this but they all looked the same.
Amish Friendship Bread Starter
It is very important to use plastic or wooden utensils and plastic or glass containers when making this—no metal.
Ingredients:
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110°F)
Directions:
1. In a small bowl dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.
2. In a 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 the dissolved yeast mixture. Cover the mixture loosely with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter. I would put this mixture in a ziploc bag so I could continue on with the recipe.
For the next 10 days use the starter according to the instructions.
Allrecipes has another Amish Friendship Bread Starter recipe with tips about freezing the starter.
Here is the recipe and instructions on how to use the starter
Amish Friendship Bread Recipe and Instructions
There are many variations to make Pumpkin Bread, Strawberry Bread, Carrot………..
If you have a favorite or tips about making this bread please leave a comment!
Julia says
I have made this bread for years. I have also moved more times than one should and have had to start anew each time I moved. Just a few suggestions:
If you do not make the bread on day 5 you can just keep stirring for another 5 days and the mixture does just fine. At that point follow the recipe just as if it were day 5 or 10. I find that the older the mixture gets (within reason) the better the bread. Also, try new variations: chocolate w/chocolate chips (instead of nuts and I also use chocolate pudding), banana and walnut, carrot and pecan, cranberry or raisin and nut, etc. I always use real fruit rather than just a flavored pudding, just my preference. I want to try pistachio!
GS test demo says
Amish Friendship Bread | Skip To My Lou
Peggy says
I froze my starter for several years – fogot about it really – and it baked up fine. I consider it ready to mix up and bake after thawing for a couple hours. I am now ready to make some new starter with my last bag. I read that I need to consider it day one so here goes . . . . I like to use banana pudding and add a cup of nuts. This time I used the vanilla pudding and added mashed ripe banana and the nuts. It’s in the oven- can’t wait to try it.
Pam Kragt says
HELP! I froze the starter bag and know I forgot what I am suppose to do with it? Anyone????
Jen says
Ive been told that you can freeze starters instead of giving them away. How long could I freeze them for before using them. Im about to end up with about 12 starters and there is no way I can find someone to take them all, after a while it kinda becomes a pain
tricia says
Love this bread. My husband does not like it sitting out for ten days before baking it. I didnt know that you could freeze it. Iwill
have to try it
Lorraine Moore says
I didnot make the bread on the 10th day because I realized I did not have the vanilla pudding. Will it be ok if I missed a day…has anyone ever did this..
Sandi says
Thank you thank you thank you! I searched for the starter recipe before but couldn’t find it, so again, thank you! When I had this before, I experimented with different types of pudding, and that seemed to be all that was needed to make different flavors. The chocolate pudding variation was the best in my book! I froze mine and a few times just baked extra and froze it because I ran out of people to give it to, but now that I am on the Freecycle network I will have more people to share with 🙂