Amish Friendship Bread

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe – The most delicious bread I’ve ever eaten. The recipe starts with making a sweet sourdough starter. You can get 10 loaves with one batch! Great for gift giving! If you don’t need 10 loaves of bread, you can freeze the starter in plastic bags and make bread later. Yeast, water, flour sugar, milk, eggs, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, vanilla pudding, baking powder and baking soda. We LOVE this quick and easy sweet bread!

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Cinnamon Sugar Quick Bread

A few months ago, my Mom gave me a ziplock bag of Amish Friendship Bread Starter. Believe it or not, this was the first time I had heard of Amish Friendship Bread. I took the bag home and squished and fed it. When it was baking day, I whipped up a batch and it was amazing!

I know most of you are all like “I don’t want to fool with a sourdough starter”. I totally understand. It can be a hassle. The good thing about this starter recipe is that it freezes well. You can also opt to just make all the bread instead of keeping the starter alive. I like to give homemade gifts to friends and neighbors. This Amish Friendship Bread makes a great holiday gift. You will get 10 loaves of bread with one batch of starter (if you don’t save any to keep feeding). I think it is totally worth the 10 days of squishing and feeding to get 10 presents knocked out. Everyone I have given this bread to has loved it!

How to Make Amish Friendship Starter

This bread is very easy to make with only a few simple ingredients. The only problem is that this is a 10-day process. You need to plan ahead when making this recipe. Don’t worry, this isn’t a 10 days hands-on process. It is mostly hands-off.

To make the starter recipe, in a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water for 10 minutes. Stir well. In a large bowl, combine all-purpose flour and sugar. Mix thoroughly. Stir in the milk and yeast mixture. Pour the starter into a ziploc bag. Date the ziploc bag so you know what day is “Day 1”. Store the bag on the kitchen countertop at room temperature.

  • Store the starter at room temperature. Remove any excess air in the bag daily.
  • Feed the starter directly in the bag on Day 6. Add flour, sugar, and milk to the bag and squish until mixed together.
  • On the 10th Day, pour the starter into a large glass bowl. Feed with flour, sugar, and milk, and separate out 1-cup portions into four Ziploc bags and make the bread with the remaining cup of starter.

How to Make Amish Friendship Quick Bread

To make the bread, in a small bowl combine sugar and cinnamon. Spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. Dust the pans with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Set aside. In a large glass bowl, add 1 cup of starter, egg, oil, milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt, all-purpose flour, and instant pudding mix. Mix well. Pour the batter into greased loaf pans. Top with remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick comes out clean.

Helpful Tips & Frequently Asked Questions

  • For best results use glass bowls and non-metal spoons. A wooden spoon or rubber spatula works best.
  • Write the directions for the starter on the bag of starter so you don’t have to find the directions every day.
  • You will end up with about 5 or 6 cups of sourdough starter.
  • You can give away extra starter bags to friends along with a copy of the recipe and instructions. If you can’t find anyone to take the starter, freeze the bags for later.
  • When ready to bake the bread, remove the starter from the freezer and treat that as Day 1 and start the 10-day process.
    • If you don’t want to keep the sourdough starter going, you can use that cup to bake loaves of friendship bread!
  • I use instant vanilla pudding mix. Feel free to try different flavors of pudding mix. Chocolate pudding, banana pudding, or pistachio pudding are delicious!
  • Can bake the batter in muffin pans or a 9×13-inch pan for an Amish Friendship Cake.
    • You will get 24 muffins with one batch of batter.
  • Store baked bread in an airtight container.
sliced cinnamon bread on a plate

Homemade Coffe Cake Recipe

This coffee cake is absolutely DELICIOUS! I like to refer to this recipe as an edible chain letter since you are forwarding the starter on to more people. Now, don’t worry if you don’t want to keep the starter going. Just freeze it for later or toss it. No biggie! You can always make a new starter.

The bread is super soft and moist and packed full of cinnamon sugar flavor. We love this one-bowl, no-rise, quick bread recipe. Our favorite way to eat this bread is slightly warm with honey butter.

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sliced cinnamon bread on a plate with text overlay

Amish Friendship Bread

Yield: 10 loaves
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Amish Friendship Bread – AMAZING bread!!! It starts with a starter. You can get 10 loaves with one batch! Great for gift giving!!!! The starter freezes well. Yeast, water, flour sugar, milk, eggs, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, vanilla pudding, baking powder and baking soda. We LOVE this bread! #bread #dessert #amishfriendshipbread

Equipment:

Ingredients:

Starter

Feeding

Bread

Topping

  • ½ cup sugar
  • tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

To make starter:

  • In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for 10 minutes. Stir well. In a large glass bowl, combine flour and sugar. Mix thoroughly. Stir in the milk and yeast mixture. Pour starter into a ziplock bag. Date ziplock bag so you know what day is “Day 1”.
  • Day 1: Do nothing. This is the date you made/received the bag. Squish the starter in the bag.
  • Day 2: Squish the bag – remove any extra air from fermenting
  • Day 3: Squish the bag – remove any extra air from fermenting
  • Day 4: Squish the bag – remove any extra air from fermenting
  • Day 5: Squish the bag – remove any extra air from fermenting
  • Day 6: Add to the bag 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Squish the bag
  • Day 7: Squish the bag – remove any extra air from fermenting
  • Day 8: Squish the bag – remove any extra air from fermenting
  • Day 9: Squish the bag – remove any extra air from fermenting
  • Day 10: Baking Day!

Making the bread:

  • Pour the entire contents of the ziploc bag into a large glass bowl and add: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Mix well.
  • Reserve one cup of the starter to make bread. Divide the remaining 4 cups of the starter mixture between 4 ziploc bags. Make sure to date the bags. Keep one bag for yourself and give 3 bags away with the instructions.
  • Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
  • In a small bowl combine ½ cup sugar and 1½ tsp cinnamon. Spray two 9-inch bread pans with nonstick cooking spray. Dust the pans with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Set aside.
  • In a large glass bowl (the one you made the starter in), add one cup of reserved starter and ingredients for bread. Mix well. Pour batter into prepared pans. Top with remaining cinnamon sugar.
  • Bake for 1 hour.

Notes:

Each batch of bread uses 1 cup of starter.
If you want to make all 10 loaves of bread instead of keeping the starter going, use one cup of starter per recipe. One recipe makes 2 loaves of bread.
You can freeze the starter instead of giving the bags away. Just thaw and start by adding the ingredients for the bread.
To keep a portion of the starter going for more bread, start over at “Day 1” after baking the bread.

Steph

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Comments

  1. My starter overflowed the bag one nite! Any idea how much starter should be in the bag on end day so I can compensate the add in before dividing? Doesn't seem like I should have to waste it all because some slipped out of the bag!

  2. If I freeze the starter, when I make more bread do I take it out of the freezer and make the bread or start from day 1?

  3. Im confused. I made the starter tonight and I was going to divide it but there wasnt enough for 4 bags. Do I wait till I add again before dividing it?

  4. Im confused. I made the starter tonight and I was going to divide it but there wasnt enough for 4 bags. Do I wait till I add again before dividing it?

  5. I used to make this and sell it. I would make chocolate using chocolate pudding, lemon using lemon pudding and can add poppy seed, butterscotch with butterscotch pudding and coconut using coconut pudding. OMIT the cinnamon in the batter and on top. Chocolate and lemon were my favorite.

    Charlotte Moore

  6. I'm not familiar with this concept … why can't I just mix it all together on day one and bake it then? Why does it have to be a starter first? Thanks for any advice 🙂

  7. I can't believe you posted pictures of the best bread I've ever eaten on your blog today. Blerg. Seriously. I think that loaf lasted fewer than 24 hours at our house. It was AWESOME!

  8. I was actually fixing to email my fellow teachers today to see if someone had any starter. So glad I checked my email first–Now I can make my own!!! Thanks for sharing.

  9. Thanks for posting! I love this bread, it is SO good. Like, I couldn't stop eating it the one time I made it. It's been awhile since I was given that starter bag so now I can start one up on my own and pass the rest out to friends 🙂 Thanks!

  10. Should the starter be kept in the refrigerator or should it live someplace warmer? I've never done anything with a starter before and don't want to kill it with cold by mistake.

  11. I have made these for years. One way to mix it is to use butterscotch pudding & add butterscotch chips, skip the cinnamon/sugar though. There are all kinds of variations. I've added peanut butter & made peanut bread.

    1. OK, this is a long shot since I’m replying to a comment that is nearly 7 years old, but here goes. You said you’ve added peanut butter to make peanut bread. How much peanut butter did you add? Did you still use the cinnamon? Did you make any other revisions to the basic recipe? Was vanilla pudding the flavor you used? Thanks!

  12. Confused. On day ten, if you dump the whole bag in to make sure the bread it makes two loaves, correct? But further down it says something about ten loaves. And where and when do you add the I cup of starter. Clearly I not meant to make this bread. Lol

    1. At the end of 10 days you will have 5 cups of starter. Use one cup to bake 2 loaves of bread. You can then either make more bread with each of the 4 remaining cups OR give away 3 cups of excess starter to 3 friends (each given 1 cup of starter in a ziplock bag) and keep one for yourself and repeat the10 day process.

  13. Assuming I'm using 1 cup of the starter to bake 2 loaves of bread, I understand that I'll have the remaining starter to use again (if I don't give any away). If I don't want to freeze the remaining starter, do I then treat it with the 10 day process again…and then bake more bread in 10 days? OR once the 10-day starter has been completed, I must then make the bread or freeze the remaining starter until I'm ready to bake the bread?

    Thanks!

    Ruth

    1. Yes. You can repeat the process with all 4 batches of starter. That is way too much starter for me, so I toss or freeze the extra starter. I keep one going and freeze/giveaway/toss the remaining three cups of starter.

  14. When I have a starter I reduce the amount of flour, sugar and milk I add on day 6 and baking day to 1/4 or 1/2 cup each instead of the 1 cup listed. That way my starter is still fed enough to keep going and I'm not scrambling to find 4 friends to share it with every 10 days. It keeps it going just enough so I have enough to bake with. You really can bake with it any day you choose. It is wonderful with chocolate chips thrown into the batter too!!

    1. Good to know you can bake it any day. I throw the extra starter in the freezer. I will try reducing the "feeding" next time.

  15. Stephanie, I am one of those people who are intimidated by starters. But this bread looks fabulous. Clearly, I have to get over my fear!

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