Amish Friendship Bread

Photo courtesy of Mr. Pete’s Cajun SpicesMr. Pete’s Cajun Spices & Gramma’s In The Kitchen are sharing their Amish Friendship Bread! I decided to follow along! I love this bread, but have never actually made it myself. This is a great gift idea and great for teaching your children about baking 🙂 I will post a reminder each day and instructions to follow for that day. This recipe will make 6 large loaves of bread and take a total of 10 days to make. We will split the starter on the last day into 3 portions of 2 loaves. You can opt to freeze 2 of the portions, pass them along to a friend, or cook them all! I will come back each day and add a new step.  Be sure to bookmark this page so you can bake along with us 😀

Day 1: Gather your ingredients: 1 gallon zip lock bag, 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of milk (I will be using 2%), and 1 cup of sugar and combine in gallon size ziplock bag. Keep in mind, the starter will not be ready for baking until the 10th day. I will give youinstructions as each day passes, or you can visit Gramma’s blog for more details.

DAY 2, 3, 4, & 5:  Mush your dough twice a day 🙂

Day 6 – Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup of milk and 1 cup sugar. Mush to mix well. May be lumpy.

Day 7, 8, and 9 – mush bag 1 or 2 times a day.

Day 10 – Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of sugar. Mush bag to mix.

*Pour 3 cups of mixture into 3 separate bags…1 cup in each.
(Keep a bag for yourself and give the other 2 to two friends, with a copy of the recipe)
*Pour the rest of your mixture in to a medium size mixing bowl.

DO NOT USE METAL UTENSILS WHEN MAKING THIS BREAD! It will change the process of the dough!

Add 1 cup oil (or 1 cup applesauce)
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Mix well.

Add 2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup nuts (optional)
1 large pkg instant vanilla pudding
Mix thoroughly. Batter will be thick.

Grease 2 large or 4 small loaf pans.
Sprinkle all around pan with cinnamon sugar.
Pour batter in to pans.
Sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar.

Bake on 350* for 1 hour (or less if you use 4 smaller pans) or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Allow to cool on wire rack for approx 15 minutes. Run knife around inside edges of loaf pans and remove from pan and continue to cool on wire racks.
I hold the pan, with a pot holder in one hand, and turn out loaf on other hand, then place bottom side down on cooling rack.