Amish Friendship Bread Starter and Bread Recipe

Amish Friendship Bread Starter (Don't say I didn't warn you):

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup warm milk

Soften active dry yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon, not metal. In a non-metal bowl, combine the 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of sugar. Slowly add the 1 cup of warm milk and the dissolved yeast. Cover loosely and let stand. Mixture will become bubbly. This is considered Day 1 of the recipe.


The Care and Keeping of your Starter:

Do not refrigerate. If air appears in the bag, let it out.

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 of flour (self rising if you've got it), 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup milk. Mash the bag.

Day 7: Mash the bag
Day 8: Mash the bag
Day 9: Mash the bag
Day 10: Follow the directions below:

Pour entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups flour, and 1 1/2 cups milk.
Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 gallon-size Ziploc bags. Keep one for yourself and give 3 others to friends along with a copy of this recipe. Be sure to let your friends know which day of the cycle the starter is on.

Baking Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Add 3 eggs, 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 cups flour (if not using self rising flour, also add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda), 1 large box of vanilla instant pudding.

3. Grease 2 large loaf pans. In a small bowl, mix an additional 1 1/2 cups subar and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with half of this mixture.

4. Pour batter evenly into the two pans. Sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture over the top.

5. Bake for 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens evenly from the sides of the pan. You may need to run a knife or spatula around the edges to loosen.


Notes from along the way:
This is a very sweet (and very delicious) bread. If you want to make it healthier, you can cut the sugar, especially on the topping. Use 1 cup white flour and 1 cup wheat when you add the ingredients to bake the bread. You can also add milled flax seed to the mix.

Want to make it worse for you? Use chocolate pudding and add chocolate chips!

To make Banana Bread with the starter: Use 4 mashed up very ripe bananas in place of the pudding. Reduce the sugar by 1/2 cup. Add walnuts if you want.