Sunday, December 14, 2008

Amish Friendship Bread...Revealed!

Congrats to the recipients of the Amish Friendship Starter: MaryBeth from Dunkin Cooking, Aleisha, and The Blonde Duck from A Duck in Her Pond! Hope you enjoy the bread and can pass along the starter to your friends.

Alexandra asked if I had the recipe for the starter and I sadly let her know that I didn't. The premise of the Amish Friendship Starter is that only the Amish know how to "start" it so you must receive it from a friend. Well, I'm 99.9% sure that a nice Amish lady wasn't the originator of the starter I received, but well...I suppose you never know.

Fast forward a couple of days, and I fortuitously happened upon a Friendship Starter Cookbook at our library's book sale. I couldn't believe it! Now I have a whole bevy of recipes to bake with my starter.

And without further adieu, here's the recipe for the Amish Starter:

Amish Starter RecipeSince I received my starter from my niece, I can't guarantee this recipe, though I'd like to give it a try. I'll be sure to post the results of any other baked goods I experiment with. Finally, here's the recipe and "feeding" instructions for your starter:

Starter Feeding Directions
DO NOT use any type of metal spoon or bowl for mixing. Don't refrigerate the starter

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 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: Do the following:

Pour entire contents of bag into a non metal bowl. Add 1.5 cups flour, 1.5 cups sugar and 1.5 cups milk.

Measure out four separate batters of 1 cup each into gallon size ziploc bags. Keep one starter for yourself and give the other 3 to your friends, along with a copy of the recipe.

Cinnamon Amish Friendship Bread
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
To the remaining batter in the bowl (we measured about 2 cups) add:

3 eggs
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 large box vanilla instant pudding

Grease 2 large loaf pans or 1 large and 3 small loaf pans.

In a small bowl, mix an additional 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with 1/2 the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Pour the batter evenly into the loaf pans. Sprinkle the remaining mixture on top. Bake 1 hour. Cool.

Look at the other fabulous vintage cookbooks I found at the library sale. The sale consisted of all the books you can fit into a bag for a dollar! What else can you buy for a dollar these days?

Amish Starter RecipeOh, and look at Betty Crocker's makeover:

Amish Starter RecipeHope you had a good weekend!

9 comments:

Esi said...

How cool!! I don't know if I have the patience to do a starter though :) I totally remember Betty Crocker getting a makeover, hilarious!

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

I have the same recipe on my blog. It was so good that I don't want to keep making it because I will eat way too much!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

So fun!!

The Blonde Duck said...

I love the Betty Crocker makeover! Thanks for picking me!

Rebeca said...

I loooooove Amish Starter breads. Yummy! Thanks for sharing the starter recipe!

Bunny said...

Thanks for the recipe Sharon and Congratulations to the recipients!!

grace said...

both friendship and cinnamon in the recipe title? it must be a winner. :)

MaryBeth said...

Thanks for picking me for being a recipient of some starter.

Tereza said...

I made this before and am posting on it soon!