Recipe for Making Amazing Amish Friendship Bread (2024)

FAQs

What's the recipe for friendship bread? ›

In a large bowl, combine the Amish bread starter with oil, eggs, 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix well. Pour into prepared loaf pans. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes.

If too much moisture escapes, the bread could dry out. Check expiration dates and use fresh ingredients. For Amish Friendship Bread in particular, you'll want to make sure your yeast (if starting a starter from scratch), baking soda, and baking powder are fresh.

First of all, one of the most common reasons quick breads (and layer cakes as well) sink is that the pan is overfilled. If the batter reaches the top of the pan and still needs to rise, it will collapse.

Keep it warm!

Cold kitchens are a bane to any Amish Friendship Bread starter or sourdough starter, especially if you're trying to rise dough. Keep the dough warm and draft-free.

A Herman starter or Amish Friendship Bread Starter is typically made with milk, flour, sugar and commercial yeast. A sourdough starter is generally made only of flour and water. A Herman starter will be sweeter and more mellow flavored than a sourdough starter.

As fermentation gasses build up in the container , let it out or the bag will go BOOM! It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble, ferment and smell like good beer or alcohol. Smelling like nasty feet is bad and means that your starter died and you need to toss it an start again.

why can't you use metal when making amish friendship bread? They say use wooden or non metal, as the Amish always used wooden spoons. It's also said by using metal in the batter it could spoil the fermenting process of the batter as well. Some say it will even change the color, change the taste as well.

If it's properly cared for, Amish friendship starter can be maintained indefinitely. "It is heartier than most sourdough starters because the sugars in the added milk and sugar give the yeasts extra food to survive, but other things like ambient temperature and contamination could alter your starter," Gee says.

Feed your sourdough starter with a high protein bread flour, rather than all purpose flour. Add some rye flour to your sourdough starter - this is a great way to strengthen your sourdough starter and introduce some whole grains into your wild yeast colony. Rye starters will often produce those big, mousse like bubbles.

Is this normal? Yes, this is a normal byproduct of the fermentation process. If your starter smells like acetone, it usually means that it has consumed all of the available food and it needs to be fed.

Why is my homemade bread dry the next day? ›

Since no preservatives are used in home baking, baked products tend to dry out quickly and should be consumed in 1 to 2 days. Do not refrigerate. Refrigeration pulls moisture from bread, which speeds up the staling process and causes bread to dry out.

Making Friendship Fruit Cake Starter

To make the starter, you combine apricots, peaches, maraschino cherries, and pineapple with brandy and sugar in a large jar or bowl. You stir the mixture a couple of times a week, and by day 20, your concoction is ready.

When you've made your bread, you can give your friends a sample and the starter that made it! Then your friends can make their own and pass it along to their friends. This is why the bread is called "friendship bread".

You should store your starter in the fridge if: You plan to bake 2-4x a month. If you don't have a plan to regularly bake, then freeze your starter. Refrigerated starters still have to be fed regularly, and if you are not using it, you'll need to discard some starter regularly as well.