Amish Friendship Bread Recipe

Amish Friendship Starter and Bread

Our neighbor gave us some of this bread last year (a couple days before I had Lillie!) and it was delicious. I'm not sure if it tasted so good because I basically hadn't eaten for 9 months, or if it really was super tasty. Either way, I've been looking for the starter recipe and found it in the newspaper this week. I haven't tried this bread from the starter recipe, so if anyone has any suggestions or a variation on this recipe, please comment!

Starter:
1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 Tbsp. warm water
1 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk

Day 1:
Combine yeast, warm water and a pinch of sugar in a cup. Allow to stand a few minutes until it begins to foam. In a large glass bowl, combine sugar, flour, and milk with a wooden spoon. Stir in yeast mixture. Do not use a metal bowl, spoon, or beater. Cover loosely and keep at room temperature (or keep in a Ziplock bag). Do not refrigerate.

Day 2, 3, 4, and 5:
Stir through once each day. (or squeeze bag)

Day 6:
Add and stir 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Then stir in 1 cup milk.

Day 7, 8, and 9:
Stir through once each day. (or squeeze bag)

Day 10:
Add and stir 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Then stir in 1 cup of milk. Remove 4 cups of mixture. Give 1 cup each to three friends to use as starter. (They put in bowl and start in at Day 2.) Give them a copy of instructions!
Use 1 cup as your starter with what remains in the bowl. Make Friendship Bread (see below).

Amish Friendship Bread:
1 cup Day 10 Friendship starter
2/3 cup oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 large apple, peeled, pared and chopped
1/2 cups nuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 325. Beat together the ripened starter, oil, flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, salt, eggs, apple and nuts. Pour into two well greased 9x5" loaf pans. Bake 40-45 minutes. Makes two loaves.

this is another variation of ingredients for the bread Day 10:

1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup nuts