Amish Friendship Bread Recipe

This isn't a bread, per se, but much more like a moist, sweet cake. You certainly wouldn't make a sandwich from this "bread".

General Guidelines

Do not refrigerate your mix. Below room-temperatures will retard yeast growth, perhaps even kill the yeast.

If air gets into the bag, let it out. Some "air" which will inflate the bag (if the yeast is growing properly) is really carbon dioxide, a natural by-product of yeast growth (also known as "fermentation"). So this "air" is perfectly normal and, indeed, should accumulate. That is, you should see bubbles forming in the mixture if the yeast is growing properly. Let this carbon dioxide out of the bag as needed to prevent the bag from over-inflating. At the same time, keep the bag closed otherwise to prevent ambient air from the room from coming into contact with the yeast mixture.

Below, where the instructions say "mush the bag", this simply means that you should squeeze and massage the yeast mixture through the bag, in effect, to stir it up.

Instructions

• Day 1: This is the date on the bag. You don't need to do anything this day other than put the bag in a place of moderate (room) temperature and where you'll notice it tomorrow and succeeding days.
• 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, then mush the bag.
• Day 7: Mush the bag.
• Day 8: Mush the bag.
• Day 9: Mush the bag.
• Day 10: Baking day. Follow the instructions below:
  • Pour the contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl.
  • Add 1½ cups flour, 1½ cups sugar, and 1½ milk.
  • Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 1-gallon Ziploc™ bags. Keep a yeast starter for yourself (if you choose) and give the other 3 along with copies of this recipe to friends. Write today's date on each bag so your friends will know what to designate as Day 1.
  • Preheat the oven to 325°.
  • To the remaining yeast mixture in the bowl add the following:
    • 3 eggs
    • 1 cup oil
    • ½ cup milk
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 2 tsp. cinnamon
    • ½ tsp. vanilla
    • 1½ tsp. baking powder
    • ½ tsp. baking soda
    • ½ tsp. salt
    • 2 cups flour (sifted if you wish)
    • 1 large box of instant vanilla pudding
  • Grease or oil 2 large loaf pans.
  • Mix an additional ½ cup sugar and 1½ tsp. cinnamon. Dust the greased pan with half of this mixture.
  • Pour the batter evenly into 2 pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top.
  • Bake one hour.
  • Allow the loaves to cool (about 10 minutes) until they loosen easily from the pans. Turn onto a serving dish.

If you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking every ten days. Only the Amish know how to create the starter yeast, so if you give all of yours away, you'll have to wait until someone gives one back to you. On the other hand, if you don't give any away, then you won't have anyone to go to if you lose yours. In any event, you can always find the bread recipe here.