My Amish Friendship Bread
By: Alisa Escanlar
Published: Friday, December 4, 2009 - 3:04am

Ingredients




1 cup Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Oil
1/2 cup Applesauce
1/2 cup Milk
3 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 cups Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking powder
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
1 lrg Box instant pudding mix
1 cup Chopped nuts, (optional)

Preparation

1 Make the Starter (the bread's rising agent) by combining 1c flour, 1c milk and 1c sugar in a large food storage bag. Mix well.
Store this bag of Starter in a cool, dry place - NOT in the fridge. 2 Let the mixture develop for 24 hours in it's cool, dry spot. Do not touch! 3 On day 2 to 5, mush the bag 1-2 times per day to mix the Starter 4 On Day 6, add to the Starter 1c flour, 1c sugar and 1c milk. Mush bag again to stir content well. 5 Continue to let Starter mixture develop on Days 7 to 9. Continue to mush the bag 1-2 times per day to stir the mixture. The Starter will start to release gases - let the gas out of the bag when mushing. 6 The Starter is ready on Day 10! 
Pour Starter into a large bowl (ceramic or glass). To the mixture add 1c flour, 1c sugar and 1c milk. Stir well. 
Divide Starter into 4x portions (approx 1c each) and put 3x portions into separate food storage bags. 
Give 1x Starter bag + the below recipe to 3 different friends... this is the 'Friendship' of this recipe! 
The 4th portion is yours. If you don't want to bake right away, the Starter can be frozen for up to 6 months (do defrost thoroughly before use) 7 To 1x portion of Starter, add Oil, Applesauce, Milk, Eggs, and Vanilla. Mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together 2c flour, 1c sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, pudding mix and nuts. Mix dry ingredients to wet a little at a time, stir and combine well. (see the 'About' section for possible variations you may want to try) 8 Pour into 2x large greased and floured or sugared loaf pans (or four small loaf pans or one large bundt pan). Bake at 325F for 1 hour.

About


The idea of an Amish Friendship Bread is that you make the Starter (rising agent), and share the recipe + starter with 3 of your friends so they can bake the same bread i.e. friendship through food 
Alternative recipe ideas;
1) Substitute 1c whole wheat flour instead of the white wheat flour
2) Use 1c applesauce instead of oil and applesauce
3) Use 1c oil instead of oil and applesauce.
4) Instead of nuts, use raisins, chopped dried apricots, fresh berries, chocolate chips etc. 
Some pudding + texture combination that work well;
- Chocolate pudding + nuts, chocolate chips, or peanut butter chips
- Pistachio pudding + nuts or chocolate chips
- Butterscotch pudding + nuts or butterscotch chips
- My Favorite is Vanilla pudding with 1/3 cup raspberries, 1/3 cup blueberries, 1/3 cup blackberries
- You can also vary the spices i.e. nutmeg, grated citrus peel, etc.