Amish Friendship Bread

About ten days ago, my neighbor stopped by, right as I was folding tons of laundry. My house was a mess and I was busy, but I was stopped by the sight of my neighbor holding a bag of gooey dough. He gave me the bag and a paper that explained what it was. Amish Friendship Bread. He told me that the bread was delicious and that this was a starter to bake more. He said that he knew that I liked to bake and that the kids liked to help and he thought this would be fun for us. I told him thank you, brought the bag inside and set it on the counter after reading the paper he gave me with it. It gave me instructions for each day I had the bag.



Please note the following:

DO NOT use any time of metal spoon or bowl for mixing.

DO NOT refrigerate. It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment.


Day 1: Do nothing. This is the day you receive the batter. The bag is dated.

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:

1. Pour the entire contents of bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 ½ c. flour, 1 ½ c. sugar, and 1 ½ c. milk.
2. Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 zip-lock bags (1 gallon size). Keep a starter for yourself and give 3 friends along with a copy of this recipe. (Note: if you keep a starter, you will be baking every 10 days.) The bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create a starter, so if you give them all away, you’ll have to wait until someone gives you a starter back. Should this recipe not be passed on to a friend the first day, be certain to tell the friend which day the batter is at when it is presented to them. Baking instructions:
3. Preheat oven to 325F.To the remaining batter, add:
   * 3 eggs
   * 1 cup vegetable oil (or ½ c. oil & ½ c. applesauce)
   * ½ cup milk
   * 1 cup sugar
   * 1 tsp cinnamon
   * ½ tsp vanilla
   * 1 ½ tsp baking powder
   * ½ tsp baking soda
   * ½ tsp salt
   * 2 cups flour
   * 1 large box instant vanilla or chocolate pudding
4. Grease 2 large loaf pans. Mix an additional 1/3 cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp cinnamon in an additional bowl. Dust the greased pans with half of the mixture.
5. Pour batter evenly into the 2 loaf pans. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top.
6. Bake 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from sides of pan.
7. ENJOY!

It seemed easy enough. Mash the bag most days. Add some stuff in the middle there and then add more at the end, pour into separate bags and then bake what's left. And it was just that easy. And SOOOO delicious! I got four starters (one that I kept to make more from) and two loaves of this bread from this one gooey bag my neighbor brought by.