
Yum!
Recently I was approached at a party by a stranger with a freezer bag filled with an odd substance. He said it was for making bread and he would like to give it to me. Normally I might be a little cautious about accepting plastic bags full of unfamiliar substances but he went on to explain that it was a starter culture to make a kind of sourdough bread.
Why was he giving this to me? The recipe is actually designed so that the ingredients must be multiplied and then the larger mixture divided up so it grows among friends exponentially. Pretty much the culinary equivalent of a chain letter. This recipe didn’t warn me about being struck by lightning if I failed to pass it on, however:
** Do not use any type of metal spoon or bowl for the mixture
** Do not refrigerate the mixture
** As air gets in the bag, let it out. It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment.DAY 1 – Do nothing
DAY 2 – Mash the bag
DAY 3 – Mash the bag
DAY 4 – Mash the bag
DAY 5 – Mash the bag
DAY 6 – Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk – then mash the bag
DAY 7 – Mash the bag
DAY 8 – Mash the bag
DAY 9 – Mash the bag
DAY 10 – Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 1/2 cups milk and stir with a non-metal spoon.
Measure out 4 separate 1-cup portions of batter into gallon bags. Keep a starter for yourself and give the others to friends with a copy of the recipe. If you keep a bag for yourself, you will be making bread every 10 days. This bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create the starter. If you should give all of them away, you will have to wait until someone gives you one back. If a starter is not passed on to a friend on the 1st day, be certain to tell them which day the bag is on when you give it to them.
BAKING DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
To one batch of starter add:
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 large box instant pudding mix (vanilla or another flavor)Optional: 1 cup raisins, chopped nuts or shredded coconut
Grease 2 large non-metal loaf pans. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with mixture. Pour batter evenly into pans. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top. Bake for one hour. Cool in pans approximately 10 minutes. Turn over onto serving dish.
I’m not really sure why an Amish recipe would as for instant pudding mix but I don’t know any Amish bloggers to ask. The bread turns out to be a sweet, cinnamon cake that’s good for breakfast with coffee or as a dessert.
I like this recipe because not only does it encourage goodwill toward friends and opportunities to make new ones, but it also provides extra incentive toward sharing: the survival of the culture depends on it.
I’ve offered a few of my starters to friends and some local bloggers. Let me know if you’d like your own.
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Measure out 4 separate 1-cup portions of batter into gallon bags. Keep a starter for yourself and give the others to friends with a copy of the recipe. If you keep a bag for yourself, you will be making bread every 10 days. This bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create the starter. If you should give all of them away, you will have to wait until someone gives you one back. If a starter is not passed on to a friend on the 1st day, be certain to tell them which day the bag is on when you give it to them.
Grease 2 large non-metal loaf pans. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with mixture. Pour batter evenly into pans. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top. Bake for one hour. Cool in pans approximately 10 minutes. Turn over onto serving dish.
Amish Bloggers. I love that. Might make a good band name.
Hey, you still need to get your starter!
Yes, Maya took one of your starters (who knows where or how far back this batch started tho, right?) from the front desk at KBOO a few weeks ago, and now we’re on the second go round of baking– curious how many of us are on the same schedule, then? (today-Sunday, 2/22 is Day 1 again) When she was at the store getting more flour, they bumped into a woman getting some for her Amish Friendship Bread (!!)
Btw, this time we used chocolate pudding mix and it smells great! (it’s still cooling–we’ll see…)
~daniel
We just received our first gift of Amish Friendship Bread. I’m excited to try it out! Just realized that I’ll be out of town for my second batch. I guess I’ll try bringing it with since I’ll have access to a kitchen. My friend seems to have given me my batch sans pudding mix, so we’ll see how that goes. I do like the idea of chocolate…
Hi,.
Is it ok to use a metal measuring cup to separate 1-cup of starter into each bag?
Hi,
It’s me again. I did it with the metal measuring cups and it came out ok. Thanks.
what happens if you leave out the dough after you divide it, add the ingredients, and are ready to bake it?
not sure… why don’t you try it and report back!
I was given a starter and I was very excited to get it. Today, my sister asked me if I was supposed to do something with the bag that was on the cabinet. Well guess what? It was my starter; six days old; had not been touched since the first day. Is it still good? I don’t know if I should toss it of add the ingredients. Does anyone know? It doesn’t look as if it has changed since the first day, so that makes me think that it may not be good since I read that it should be growing or bubbling or something. This is my first time to have this starter, but I have tried the bread at a church that I had visited and it was awsome. I was looking forward to haveing some of my own.