Have you ever spent ten days on making bread?

Probably not, and why would you? Everything in todays world is fast and easy, who spends ten days making a loaf of bread. Well I did just that this past week, actually the past couple of weeks I have been making and remaking this Amish Friendship Bread. I received a Ziploc bag with some mushy looking liquid in it. My husband’s friend from work decided that giving me the baked blogger a bag of friendship bread would be perfect.

I was a little apprehensive at first, I had never heard of this and it just didn’t seem right not to be refrigerating something like this. However I followed the directions, I mushed and added and mushed some more. It was simple, took very little time up of my day, and I was very curious. By day ten I was ready to make this bread. I followed the directions and prepared the 4 bags that I would be giving away, and then made my bread.

My directions told me to use two bread pans, but I only had one, so I used that and an 8-inch round cake pan. The bread one was nice, but the one in the cake pan turned out way better. You are supposed to hand out the4 bags you set aside to your friends, I kept one because I wanted to do this again, the bread was just fabulous.

However I didn’t want to have to go through all the steps again and hand out even more bags to my friends. I went searching online for how to make a starter for this and to see if there was a way to make the bread without having to hand out more bags to friends. I came across the starter on allrecipes. To my surprise while reading the comments I found out the way to make it without having to hand out extra. Below is the starter recipe and the comment that tells you how to make this bread without being friendly.

Starter recipe

INGREDIENTS

* 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
* 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
* 3 cups white sugar, divided
* 3 cups milk

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or flour will lump when milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly. Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.
2. On days 2 thru 4; stir starter with a spoon. Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Days 6 thru 9; stir only.
3. Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Remove 1 cup to make your first bread, give 2 cups to friends along with this recipe, and your favorite Amish Bread recipe. Store the remaining 1 cup starter in a container in the refrigerator, or begin the 10 day process over again (beginning with step 2).

Once you have made the starter, you will consider it Day One, and thus ignore step 1 in this recipe and proceed with step 2. You can also freeze this starter in 1 cup measures for later use. Frozen starter will take at least 3 hours at room temperature to thaw before using.

I love this bread, but always run out of people to give the starter too. This last time I froze them. I took one out and just let it sit for the 10 days, not adding the extra 3 cups on the 5th or 10th day, I just stirred it each day. Then on the 10th day I followed the rest of the recipe and the bread turned out wonderful, no difference and I don’t have to find 3 people to give a starter too. Thought this might help anyone trying to find a friend to share with or if your friends all say no.

Above is the starter directions, here is the directions to make the Amish Friendship Bread.

Amish Friendship Bread

Directions:

Do not use any metal bowls or spoons for mixing. Do not refrigerate dough. Release air from bag, it’s normal for batter to rise, bubble, and ferment.

Day 1- Do nothing, this is the day you will receive your batter-make sure bag is dated.

Day 2, 3, 4, 5 - Mush the bad each day once or twice

Day 6 Add to bag 1C Flour, 1C Sugar, 1C Milk mush the bag well (remember if you don’t want to make extra bags just mush the bag this day and don’t add anything)

Day 7, 8, 9, Mush the bag

Day 10- Pour batter into non-metal bowl and add 1 1/2 C flour, 1 1/2 C Sugar, 1 1/2 C Milk Mix well (again skip adding this if you don’t want to hand out extra bags,) Measure out 1C Batter into 4 Separate gallon size Ziploc bags. Label each “day 1″ and date. Give to friends with a copy of this recipe.

To remaining batter add 3 eggs, 1c Oil, 1/2c Milk, 1c Sugar, 2tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2c flour, and 1 large box )5.1oz,) instant vanilla pudding. Stir well. Grease two loaf pans (or 8- inch round cake or pie pans.) Mix 1/2 C. Sugar with 2tsp. Cinnamon in a non-metal bowl. Dust pans with 1/2 of the mix pour batter into pans and cover with remaining sugar. Bag 1 hour at 350 degrees. Check for doneness, cool remove from pan and wrap. Keep refrigerated.
You might find the process odd, and it does take a while, but you actually feel a sense of accomplishment after the ten days are up and you have this delicious warm bread. The taste and the process keeps me coming back for more. Everyone should try this at least once, and surprise your friends with a task that they don’t normally have to face every day.

Filed under: Rants & Raves, Recipes, Recipes from Friends, bakedblog, baking