Amish Friendship Bread

In keeping with the theme of the Hungry Journalist, here is a recipe I tried out last night and love. The Hungry Journalist needs to eat and as I find cool recipes I will post them here.

Here is a copy of the recipe I was given:

Amish Friendship Bread

Important notes:

Do NOT use any type of metal bowl or spoon for mixing.

Do NOT refrigerate

Do let air out of the bag

It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble and ferment.

Day 1: Do nothing (this is the date on the bag)

Day 2: Mush the bag

Day 3: Mush the bag

Day 4: Mush the bag

Day 5: Mush the bag

Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk; mush the bag

Day 7: Mush the bag

Day 8: Mush the bag

Day 9: Mush the bag

Day 10: Follow the instructions bellow:

1. Pour entire contents of bag into a large, non-metal bowl

2. Add 1.5 cups of flour, 1.5 cups of sugar and 1.5 cups of milk; mix well until blended

3. Measure out 4 separate 1 cup batters and place each one in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag.

4. Keep 1 for yourself as a starter. Give the rest to friends with this recipe. Mark the start date on the bag.

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

6. To the remaining batter add: 3 eggs, 1 cup oil, ½ cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp vanilla, 1.5 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, 2 cups flour, 1 large box of instant vanilla pudding. Mix well.

7. Grease 2 large loaf bread pans. Mix an additional ½ cup sugar with 1.5 tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with half this mixture.

8. Pour the batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top.

9. Bake for 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from the pan. Turn onto serving dish. Serve warm or cold.

If you keep the starter for yourself, you will be making bread 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 will have to wait until someone gives you one back.

Options: Add fruit, candy, nuts or chocolate to the batter, substitute vanilla pudding with other flavors.

You can actually make your own starter. Like sourdough, it's a very specific type of yeast, so you'll probably have to order it online if you can't find a friend who has one. Check with some local churches, as these breads are popular bake sale items.


This is a sweet bread. I recommend using really high quality cinnamon (I used Saigon cinnamon) because the cinnamon is the main flavor of the bread. The type of cinnamon you use will also determine the color of the bread. The darker the cinnamon, the darker the bread.

Cut it up and serve it like cake or gingerbread. It's good plain or with butter. I wouldn't recommend adding anything sweet as it is already pretty sweet.