Amish Cinnamon Bread (Friendship Bread)

"Amish Friendship Bread is a great bread for those special occasions. When you've made your bread, you can give your friends a sample and the starter that came from the original batter that helped to make the sample bread! Then your friends can make their own and pass it along to their friends. This is why the bread is called "friendship bread". It's time consuming, but it's worth it. Amish Friendship Bread is a starter bread. If you know someone with a starter, you are in luck. For those of you without access to a starter, I have placed the directions for the starter in step one. When passing the recipe on, be sure they realize that part of step one is not day one for them. Or you may want to eliminate the part of step one that does not pertain to them when passing on your starters."
 
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Ready In:
241hrs
Ingredients:
11
Yields:
2 loaves
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Day One: For those making the starter from scratch: combine 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup flour in a large zip lock bag and mush to mix ingredients. For those receiving the fermented batter in a gallon zip lock bag: Do nothing. Leave it to sit on the counter.
  • On days 2-4: Squeeze the bag several times during the day. (If air builds up in the bag, open the zip lock slightly and remove the air). I took mine to work, laid it on my desk, and to relieve stress squeezed the bag several times during the day. Ha ha ha!
  • On day 5: add 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup self-rising flour to the bag. Squeeze the bag several times during the day.
  • On days 6-8: Squeeze the bag several times during the day.(remove air).
  • On day 9: Add 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup self-rising flour into the bag. Close zip lock. Squeeze the bag several times during the day.
  • Day 10: Pour 1/2 cup "starter" in four (4) separate gallon zip lock bags. These starters replace the milk, flour, and sugar used to start the very first batch from scratch. Give the four bags to friends along with the steps on how to finish making their own starters and bread, or freeze the starters for future use if desired, just be sure that once you take a starter out of the freezer, you let it sit out one day before starting your steps.
  • In a large glass bowl add 2 cups self-rising flour, 1 cup of sugar, 3 eggs, 1 cup oil, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 large box (or 2 small boxes) of instant vanilla pudding, 1/2 cup of either raisins, nuts, chocolate chips or fruit (optional) or 1/4 cup of any two of these ingredients; mix well.
  • Spray well 2 large loaf pans with cooking spray.
  • In a small bowl or cup, mix 1 tsp cinnamon and 2 tbsp sugar. Sprinkle about 1/2 to 2/3 in loaf pans, reserving about 1/3 to 1/2 of the mix.
  • Pour batter into pans.
  • Sprinkle remaining cinnamon and sugar mix across the tops of the batter.(You may choose to sprinkle the remaining mix after baking the bread).
  • Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.
  • IMPORTANT NOTES:

  • You may also make small loaves. If you do, bake at the same temperature, but for 25-30 minutes.
  • Do not use metal spoon or metal bowl for mixing.
  • Do not refrigerate at any time during the process. Keep on the counter.
  • If air builds up in the zip lock. Open the zipper slightly and squeeze the air out, being careful not to let any of the batter out. Quickly reseal.
  • It is normal for the batter to thicken and bubble during the time it sits on the counter. This is called the fermentation process.
  • You may replace the nuts or the raisins with chocolate chips or dried fruit (or fresh, not canned or frozen). Or you can eliminate them and just leave it plain. It's great any way you slice it. ;0).
  • Also, the bread will yield more than four serving. If you do the two large loafs, it will yield how ever large a slice you want it to be. So if sliced about the size of a normal slice of bread, one loaf could yield about 16-18 slices. The serving size listed came off the paper I got with the recipe. I'm not sure why they say four servings. Each of four servings would be 1/2 a loaf.

Questions & Replies

  1. Due to self isolation I have not been able to get out to purchase the vanilla pudding. Is there something else I can use or something I can do to the starter to keep it active until Saturday when I can get the pudding? Today is day 10 of the starter.
     
  2. Years ago I made this into Muffins. Everyone loved it but, I cannot remember how long I baked it for. Does anyone know how long to bake it?
     
  3. Can I freeze the bread
     
  4. What is the point of asking a question, if you don't get an answer?
     
  5. How much of the starter do you use in each batch of bread?
     
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Reviews

  1. This is the way I make it! I already have the starter straight from the amish. This is always good no matter how you do it!
     
  2. excellent recipe -- my husband loves it! and it really is very easy
     
  3. greeeaaaatttt
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I Baked the above "Horn of Plenty" for Thanksgiving 1992. Stuffed it with all types of fruit. It was a big hit. I don't have a favorite cookbook. I have not found one yet that comes up to my standards. They either want you to spend a fortune to make a good dish or if they do have inexpensive recipes, they don't know squat about what's really good. Most are standard or generic recipes that barely pass the snuff. If you wonder why I don't post recipes, its because I'm a pinch here, dash there type of person. I don't measure. I grew up in an environment of cooks that cook that way. If I ever slow down long enough to measure what I do, I'll post. But I won't guarantee it will turn out to be as good as what I make because I'm a taste tester. I put in what I think would taste good, then I test taste it as I bake or cook. Cookie dough hmmm. Too bad I didn't think of Cookie dough icecream first. Ha ha ha ha. s far as what I love to do, I use to love going camping hiking and horseback riding, but my bad knees just won't allow that anymore. I miss it terribly. For work, I'm a researcher. My passion is singing. MY PET PEEVES: My biggest pet peeve is a liar. And unfortunately there are a lot of them out there. My second pet peeve is a person who starts trouble and then pretends they are innocent victims and are very clever in doing so. Either they are oblivious to what they are doing and are that cold hearted by nature, or they just love to hurt people to make themselves feel big and thus cold hearted on purpose, either way although there are few of those out there, they tend to do damage as if they are many. How sad. These people consider themselves popular because they attract like minds. But they will never be able to truly trust their friends, although I'm sure they tell themselves they can simply because they need to feel they can. My third pet peeve is a person who is picky about what they eat to the extreme. These people usually live on junk food and eat little of anything else. A <a href="http://www2.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/338080"><img src="http://www2.clustrmaps.com/stats/maps-no_clusters/www.recipezaar.com-member-338080-thumb.jpg" /> </a>
 
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