Amish Friendship Bread

Found this package on my doorstep last week and what a treat from my friend, Carol. I am working on my first batch, then will share with friends. Notice the ziploc bag is full of air - Lots of fermentation going on. Wonder how many people have done this?

Important: Do not use any type of metal spoon or bowl for mixing. DO NOT refrigerate and do not bake in a convection oven.
If air gets into the bag, let it out. It is normal for the batter to rise & ferment.

Day 1: Do nothing, this is the day you received the batter.
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 directions below:
1. Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl.
2. add 1 ½ cup flour, 1 ½ cup sugar, 1 ½ cup milk
3. Measure out separate batter of 1 cup each into 4 Ziploc 1 gallon size bags. Keep a starter bag for yourself and give 3 to friends with a copy of the recipe. Mark all bags with the date you put together in case it is not being passed on the 1st day.
4. Preheat oven 325 degrees.
5. To the remaining batter in the bowl add (mix dry ingredients together first):
3 eggs
1 cup of oil (or ½ cup of oil and ½ cup applesauce)
½ cup milk
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. each of vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt
2 cups of flour
1 large box of Vanilla Instant pudding mix
Optional: ½ cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips
6. Grease 2 large loaf pans or 1 Bundt pan and mix additional ½ cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon. Dust the greased pan with the mixture.
7. Pour batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar/cinnamon mixture over the top.
8. Bake 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from pan evenly (about 10 minutes). Serve warm or cold.


Note: if you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking every 10 days. The bread is very good and makes a great gift. If you give all the starters away, you will have to wait until someone gives one back to you.

How to get all that good batter out of a ziploc bag? I rubber banded it to my cupboard knob and let it drip.

Chocolate Variation- omit the cinnamon, replace the vanilla pudding with sugar-free chocolate fudge pudding, add 3 oz. of chopped bittersweet chocolate, and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.
Lemon Variation - omit the cinnamon, use sugar-free lemon pudding, add 1 teaspoon of lemon extract, and 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries, thawed and drained.