Easier Amish Friendship Bread
Exciting news for all the overwhelmed Amish Friendship Bread cooks out there! I’ve been experimenting…and you can make the initial starter recipe without as many ingredients…
In fact, all I did was eliminate two cups flour, two cups sugar and two cups milk from the original recipe. And, my two rules of thumb for maintaining your starter couldn’t be easier…read on.
Amish Friendship Bread–the manageable “family” version!
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup milk
Day 1~
- Dissolve yeast in water. Let stand ten minutes.
- In 2 quart glass, ceramic, or plastic container (remember: no metal!) combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will lump when milk is added.
- Slowly stir in milk and dissolved yeast mixture.
- Cover loosely and let stand at room temperature till bubbly.
Days 2-4~
- Stir starter with a wooden spoon. (no metal!)
Day 5~
- Stir in one cup flour, one cup sugar and one cup milk.
Days 6-9~
- Stir starter with a wooden spoon. (no metal!)
Day 10~
- Stir into the starter: one cup flour, one cup sugar, and one cup milk. Now your starter is ready to bake into bread! *note: at this point you have 6 cups of starter total
Baking Instructions (notice I left out the instant pudding mix, you can put it back in if you want–one small box worth, plus any of your favorite variations, nuts, butterscotch chips, etc.)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Then mix the following well:
- 1 cup starter
- 2/3 cup oil or applesauce
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
In separate bowl combine:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Combine the wet and dry ingredients thoroughly. Grease two medium sized bread loaf pans well; or one large and two-three miniature pans. If desired, you could mix up some additional cinnamon and sugar and shake it into the greased pans to coat bottom and sides. Pour mix into pans. Again, if desired, shake a little cinnamon-sugar on top. Bake in the 325 degree F oven for 1 hour or till toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, allow less time for the miniature pans. Cool completely before freezing.
Now, you wonder, what about the feeding schedule for my leftover starter? Simple, you can keep it all, or give a cup (or more) away making sure your friend has the recipe and that she/he knows the following info.
Maintaining what’s left: Stir each day (or squish and release the air if necessary if you’re storing it in a zip lock). Once every 8-10 days, feed your starter the requisite one cup each of flour, sugar and milk. At this same time, remove about a third of the starter and either bake bread or freeze it (thaw frozen starter at room temp and start the feed/divide process as though day one was just completed).
The goal is to keep your starter “alive” by feeding and dividing. No need to refrigerate, in fact, refrigeration might mess the process up. I’m not an expert on “refrigerating” my starter. I do know that once you have a healthy starter, you can bake the friendship bread at any point during the ten day process.
I, for one, am thrilled that I found a way to cut this recipe back and save on flour, sugar and milk! If anyone is interested, I doubled up when it was time to bake, using 2 cups of starter, etc and got 1 large loaf and 2 medium loaves of bread as a result.
Hey, anyone want any starter?
Comment by Maria
March 30, 2007 @ 7:15 am
I’m just wondering what happened to the Amish Friendship Bread blog with all of those wonderful entries? I went back to it today to see if there were any more helpful hints but it was gone!
Comment by Maria
March 30, 2007 @ 7:25 am
Never mind…found it!! YEAH!!
Comment by Sandy Cole
October 3, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
Hello, when you get to the 10th day could you just cook all of the batter if you do not want to give any of the batter away? How many loaves would it make and would you have to put more ingredients in than if you would if you gave 4 starters away? (If you do not separate the 4 bags just use all of the batter in the bowl) Thank you for your time.
Comment by Mary
October 4, 2007 @ 6:01 pm
Hi Sandy,
If you want to use up the entire recipe(and I’m referring to this exact one here on the site) you’ll have six cups of starter, which will end up being six times what you need. One cup is needed for the recipe, so using all six cups would yield around 9 or 10 loaves of bread. It freezes great. Just to be clear, you’d have to multiply each ingredient in the above recipe by 6.
HTHs,
Mary
Comment by Sandy Cole
October 6, 2007 @ 8:20 pm
Thank you Mary for the information. It would be over whelming to make that much bread at one time. I will try your new way of making it. Thanks again. Sandy
Comment by Mary
October 7, 2007 @ 4:11 pm
Sandy, on the other Amish Friendship thread, here at this site, someone just posted that they successfully froze their starter for 5 months and when they thawed it and baked it, it was delicious. Maybe you could just freeze the starter you don’t want to use?
HTHs,
Mary
Comment by Sandy Cole
October 9, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
Yes that sounds like a good idea. When this person took out the starter after the six months did she just go from day 10 or did she start from day 1? Thank you again for all of your help.
Comment by Mary
October 9, 2007 @ 10:22 pm
No problem.
She didn’t say, but what you’d need to do is thaw it at room temp and start the whole process as if day 1 had just been completed. So day 1 would be the thawing day, and the next morning would start day 2.
I love how versatile this stuff is.
God bless!
Mary
Comment by SindyAnne
October 16, 2007 @ 8:15 am
Thanks for the prompt reply Mary, checked out the easier recipe and think mine might be easier/smaller still…not sure since I didnt “start” this batter. The thing is I am only putting 1/2 cup batter in each bag I give away! To make it more clearer as to what I am doing:
I received a bag of starter (1/2 cup in ziploc bag)
Day 6 = Add 1C each SRflour, milk, sugar
Day 10= Add 1C each SRflour, milk, sugar, then put 1/2 cup in 4 bags named Day 1. With the remaining to be cooked batter I am to add all the usual suspects except 2C SR flour instead of 1.
If I only make 2 bags named day 1 then I have an extra cup of “to be cooked” batter! How do I adjust recipe so I wont have 4 loaves or 48 muffins?
Thanks, by the way, I am also thinking of thinning the batter out and using it in bread pudding…not sure if it will work but the first time I did this that’s what it reminded me of on day 10 as I was adding ingredients. Here goes nothing and it seems the batter forgives us for goofing anyways
Comment by Mary
October 16, 2007 @ 6:43 pm
Hm, I’ll think on it Sindyanne…my head’s in a blur after reading all that, and it doesn’t help that its been a particularly busy day with appts and home-school co-op meetings. My first thought is to try adding half the ingredients on days 6 and 10, and end up with a half cup of batter in 2 bags, instead of 4? If I think of anything better, I’ll add it here ASAP.
Anyone else have any ideas on this recipe?
Mary
Comment by Tywllah Schauer
November 8, 2007 @ 9:24 pm
Just letting you know that the starter is freezable. I brought the original starter from Indiana Amish and I froze it for 5 years and just brought it out and have made 7 batches. Had it for our Presbyterian church Dam site Days. made 20 loaves of miniature, 7 loaves of next size 4 loaves of next size and 4 loaves of regular size. and the mixture can be lumpy on the day it is all added to, as the next day after working it will mellow out and not be lumpy. Tywllah
Comment by Mary
November 9, 2007 @ 11:40 am
5 years!!! Wow. I’ve had people report that 6 months is doable, but years, that’s amazing! And you bought yours straight from the Amish? How neat. Thanks, Tywllah, for these tips, very good to know.
7 batches, you were busy! Bet your house smelled great!
Comment by Geri
November 25, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
Mmmmm…just made my first batch last night (it was supposed to be made the night before but Kyle was teething and had to be held by Momma!) and it is delicious! It was done by midnight last night since we were gone all day so I had a slice (or 2) with my coffee this morning…I know Bad Geri!! Cinnamon sugar and all…and Kyle wanted to try some so I let him have a few bites…so yummy and great for the Christmas season!! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Comment by Mary
November 25, 2007 @ 8:05 pm
Mmm, isn’t it good with coffee! I do love the cinnamon sugar coating. So glad you are happy with the results!
Comment by Cena Dunfee
November 25, 2007 @ 8:39 pm
I made our first batch in a 9×13 pan (took 35 minutes at 325) and it was gone as soon as it was cool. I’m feeding mine one day a week and then using it to bake whatever day I feel like it. We’ll see how that works. I used the recipe at top with a tablespoon or so of oil and then filled to 2/3 cup with applesauce. I put all of it in the 9×13 and it was a perfect amount for the pan. My daughter calls it Amish (with a long A sound) Buddy Bread! Everyone loved it. Thank you.
Comment by Mary
November 25, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
These kind of raves are why I love to share recipes! Makes my day that your crew loved it, Cena! And thanks for following up and telling me how you did it! I love the idea of baking it in a 9×13″ pan! Dressing it up like cake…I’ll try that next time.
Isn’t the applesauce/oil trick the best? I do that all the time with cakes, etc. It’s never failed.
I like the Amish Buddy Bread!
Comment by Emily
December 10, 2007 @ 8:57 am
My recipe called for 1 cup of oil, however the bread was too heavy. For my second batch I substituted 1 stick of melted margarine; added two mashed bananas and walnuts to one batch; blueberries and cinnamon to the next; and drained crushed pineapple with cinnamon to the last. I also increased the oven temperature to 350 and baked the breads for one hour - four for us and four for the church Christmas bazaar. I’m now freezing batter before it takes over the house!
Comment by Mary
December 10, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
So how did it turn out with the butter/banana substitute? Like you, I never use the full amount of oil called for, usually substituting all of it, or most of it with applesauce if I have it on hand (toddler goes through applesauce fast!). I’m very interested to know if you think the half-cup butter/banana is something you’d try again!
And I can relate to it taking over the house…especially if you just made 8 loaves! Wow! I can just smell your house right about now…
Merry Christmas, Emily! Thanks for sharing your variations with us!
Comment by Jenny
December 12, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
Wow I have been reading for the past half hour and found a lot of great information! A question similar to mine was asked but I still feel confused after reading the answer. This is my first time making AFB. One of my neighbors passed them out to those of us who live near her and I have been very good about following instructions. Today is day 11, as I had to wait to get some of the ingredients until today (due to a teething baby as well!) and I read that it’s fine to go ahead and bake today. However, one of my neighbors isn’t as excited about the idea as I am and passed her starter to me. I am excited because I want to give starters and/or loaves for Christmas gifts this year but this neighbor never added any ingredients. She has been mashing the bag every day, but has not added anything. Do you think it would turn out alright if I added the overdue ingredients at the same time I’m adding the 1oth day ones, then bake today?
Sorry to be so verbose but I wanted to be clear. I’m going to go ahead and bake my bread and hope to hear back from you today about dividing and baking my neighbor’s starter.
Thanks so much in advance for your help!
Jenny in Torrance, CA
Comment by Mary
December 12, 2007 @ 11:35 pm
Hi Jenny,
Hope the teething lets up for your little one! So hard on their little gums!
You’ll be fine with your neighbor’s starter, even though she didn’t add the middle of the week ingredients…just add the day ten ingredients, and divide and bake following this paragraph on maintenance, taken from the above post:
“Maintaining what’s left: Stir each day (or squish and release the air if necessary if you’re storing it in a zip lock). Once every 8-10 days, feed your starter the requisite one cup each of flour, sugar and milk. At this same time, remove about a third of the starter and either bake bread or freeze it (thaw frozen starter at room temp and start the feed/divide process as though day one was just completed).”
So don’t try to play “catch up” by adding all the missing ingredients…just add the day ten and split the starter up, baking some and carrying on with the rest. It should be fine if she really has been squishing it each day!
God bless, and feel free to ask away if you have any other questions!
Mary
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April 14, 2008 @ 5:54 pm
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Comment by Lucille
September 12, 2008 @ 10:25 am
I have recently just started baking the bread - made about 3 batches - and found this site. It is filled with great info but I was wondering whether I could bake the bread in muffin tins using paper muffin cups (the tins that holds 12 muffins)and if so for how long would I need to bake them. By the way my last batch was from batter that I had frozen and you could not tell the difference. Thanks again for a fab site.
Comment by Mary
September 12, 2008 @ 10:19 pm
Yes, Lucille, I know you can bake them into muffins b/c someone shared (somewhere on this site) that they do it all the time! I would think you’d just need to keep an eye on them the first time you bake them as muffins to know for sure, but most muffins take 20 or more minutes to bake. You can also bake this in a 9×13 pan…
And you’re welcome, I’m glad you liked the site, hope you come back and share your findings on muffins/times baking!
Mary
Comment by tonia
October 29, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
bread very good as snack with vanilla yogurt
Comment by Mary
October 29, 2008 @ 6:39 pm
Yum, that sounds great Tonia!
Comment by Joyce
November 19, 2008 @ 3:30 pm
I think this would make a great Fruit cake starter. But what fruit should I add besides cherries, nuts, dates, rasins, apples?
Comment by Mary
November 19, 2008 @ 5:11 pm
Hi Joyce,
This could be a yummy version of fruitcake, it’s definitely not as dense, but experiment away! Blueberries, dried cranberries, and isn’t dried pineapple in many fruitcakes? Let us know what you did and how it turned out!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Mary