I did it last year and I can tell you it is so delicious you will want to keep the starter for yourself and make it again. very very delicious.

Gemini, does this thing keep growing so much that I have to give 3 cups away every 2 weeks? I'm going to run out of people in a hurry!!

Naw, I didn't give all that stuff away. I just used all but a cup for the next batch when I baked. Adjust the moisture content for your recipe a bit.

Worked GREAT for me. Right now, I would love to have a new starter. Mine got neglected between the move, and my long bike ride, and I ended up tossing it.

Moni

You can give away the starters or you can use them yourself for more loaves.
The theory is to give a starter with a loaf of bread, but you don't have to.
We gave away about 15 loaves this year.
You can throw out what you don't want to give away.
You can also make your own starter.

I got a cup of the starter before Christmas and when it was done doing it's thing, I made 2 loaves of bread. Nobody liked it, so I threw out all the starter and the 2nd loaf that I made. What a waste.........

years ago, I made friendship muffins. They were to die for and you got a LOT from one recipe. now that it's just DH and me at home, I can't see making that many anymore.

i remember that starter all too well!!!!

jasdip, and anyone else that's interested, you don't have to keep the starter going. you can use it in one of the amish friendship bread recipes posted below. the first one makes either 2 loaves or 24 muffins.

RECIPE #1

1 cup starter, at room temperature
3 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teapoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped english walnuts or pecans*
2 medium apples, peeled and finely chopped*

Preheat oven to 350
grease two 9x5 loaf pans
mix dry ingredients, set aside.
in a large mixing bowl, beat the starter, eggs, oil and vanilla. add the dry ingredients and blend well. fold in the nuts and apples and then transfer the batter to the prepared pans.
bake for 50 minutes and remove from the oven. allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.
(If making muffins, spoon into greased tins and bake for 25 to 30 minutes)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
RECIPE #2

BATTER:
1 cup starter
3 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teapoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

TOPPING:
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 granulated sugar
1/2 brown sugar
1/2 cup quick oats
1 cup walnuts or pecans
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

preheat oven to 350
in a large mixing bowl, beat together the starter, eggs and oil. add the rest of the batter ingredients and mix. set aside.

combine the topping ingredients in a small mixing bowl.

put half the batter in a greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle with half the topping. put the remaining batter on top and sprinkle the rest of the topping.

bake 35 to 40 minutes.

Both recipes are from Marcia Adams cookbook "Heartland -The Best of the Old and the New from Midwest Kitchens" and are quite enjoyable.

Personally, in recipe #1, i've omitted nuts and/or apples and have also added 1/2 teaspoon of cardamon to the batter.

Maryanne

I was given the starter years ago. I don't remember the recipe for the loaves, but I know it included pineapple tidbits, peaches and maraschino cherries. It was scrumptious.

When I had too much for making bread I used it heated for sauce on ham, and it also is great on ice cream.

Don't know why I finally quit making the bread.

Sue

I heard so many good things about it, I tried it last year. I wasn't impressed. Now I can't really remember why? I did feel a little overwhelmed at first, yes, it can continue on and on and on IF you want it to! lol, but it was fairly easy, but follow the directions closely!

My recipe also had an option for adding chocolate, (pudding I think) but I never tried that one. Mine did not have cherries or pineapple at all.

Those recipes really helped MaryAnne! The recipe I have that came with the starter calls for instant pudding, and applesauce, and I can add chocolate chips, cranberries, nuts etc, if I like. It must be similar to teresava's recipe.

Yours sound much better.

I'm just on my second day of mushing the bag. On the 6th day I add flour and milk and sugar and mush some more for a couple more days. On day 10 I'll do your recipe instead of the one that came with it.

The ones I used to make years ago called for a package of any flavor pudding. Those were very good but.........I received a loaf of friendship bread at Christmas that was strawberry flavored (I'm guessing Jello?), and it was TO DIE for!!!

We really like the butterscotch one and the chocolate one and a few others. They say you can't freeze the starter but you can. It eventually loses its strength but you can do it several times with no problem.

I hadn't thought about making them into muffins. I like that idea but will have to start by making up a batch of the starter.

I have problems with my shoulders so I tried using a hand stainless steel mixer and that didn't harm it at all either.

My first one was called Herman. here is that recipe:

Herman Cake

Feed Herman on the 1st and 5th days. Bake on the 10th day.

1st day: 1 c Herman starter
1/2 c sugar
1 c flour
1 c milk
Keep in large covered bowl in refrigerator. Stir daily.

5th day: 1/2 c sugar
1 flour
1 milk

10th day: You will have 4 cups of Herman. Use 2 cups for baking, 1 cup for giving and 1 cup for growing.

Beat together:
2 c Herman 2 c flour
2 beaten eggs 1/2 t baking powder
1 c sugar 1/2 t baking soda
3/4 c oil 1 t ginger
1 t nutmeg

add last:

1 c nuts 1 c raisins or other fruit (or 1 c applesauce)

Pour in to greased 9X13 cake pan (I often baked it in a bundt pan, and I even made cup cake sized muffins. I laove it with nuts, raisins and craisins.

Sprinkle on before baking:

mixed together:
1 c brown sugar 1 T flour
1/4 c melted butter 1 T cinnamon

Bake at 350 for 30 to 45 minutes

DO NOT OVERBAKE.

Then I got a starter from a friend of my daughters, and this is the recipe that came with that:

Amish Friendship Bread

Note: Do not use any type of metal spoon or bowl for mixing
Do not refrigerate
If air gets into the bag, let it out
It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble and ferment

The datelines below can be used to help you keep track of the date or day you are at. If you keep the starter for yourself, you will be baking every 10 days. The bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the amish know how to create a starter.

Date: Day 1- Do nothing. This is the day you received the batter
Day 2- Mush the bag
Day 3- Mush the bag
Day 4- Mush the bag
Day 5- Mush the bag
Day 6- Add to the bag: 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1 cup milk & mush the bag
Day 7- Mush the bag
Day 8- Mush the bag
Day 9- Mush the bag
Day 10- Mush the bag and follow the directions below

Pour the contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl and add 1 ½ cups flour, 1 ½ cups sugar, 1 ½ cups milk. Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each and put into gallon ziplock bags. Keep one for yourself and give the other 3 to friends along with a copy of this recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To the remaining batter in the bowl (approx 1 ½ - 2 cups) Add:

3 eggs
1 cup oil
½ cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 large instant vanilla or chocolate pudding mix
optional: 1 cup chopped nuts or raisins

Grease 2 large loaf pans. Mix ½ cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with half of the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Pour the batter evenly in to the pans and sprinkle with the remaining sugar mixture. Bake 45min to 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from the pan and turn into a serving dish. Serve warm or cold. You can also make muffins using the same temperature but bake for 25 mins. (makes 2 dozen)

Should the recipe not be passed on to a friend on the 10th day, be sure to tell the recipient which day the bag is on when presented to them.

Now, I have a Kitchenaid mixer, and used it, and the stainless steel didn't seem to bother it at all. I also liked the Herman recipe from the past, and used it when I baked the batch I got from Andrea.

Moni

The Amish Friendship Bread starter circulated through my office before Christmas. I brought a starter home and both myself and my DDs enjoy making it and mashing the bag everyday.

I'm on my third set of loaves (I have a starter at home on my counter now) and I enjoy giving them away to friends and family. The last batch, I sent to women at my DH's job. They all love it! Plus, it's fun for children to help with. Everyone loves how easy and tasty the bread turns out.

BTW, the recipe we follow is the last one given by Oklamoni. It's a very cake-like bread. Scrumptious!

I was given a starter a few weeks ago and I couldn't keep up with it, I was so busy. I finally refrigerated it and I ended up baking a chocolate version on Monday, which I blogged about today. I don't know if it turned out right but it was really, really good.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chocolate Amish Friendship Bread

I did it one time and never again. Too much of a pain to keep fussing with.

I made it and we thought it was very good...I did put the rest of it in the freezer and you guessed it, I forgot I had it....I'll have to dig it out and see if it's still good.....

I don't know if it was just the particular starter that was given to me, but after several days of remembering to do this or that and adding some ingredients, I didn't think it was worth the effort and wished I had just used one of my own "tried and true" cake recipes and not bothered with purchasing the ingredients needed for the Friendship Cake.

I have done all 3 of the above mentioned atarters.

The one of Sue-va's
The Amish one
And Monis

And which do you like best????

Hi Ont Gal,

How about commenting about, even rating the three, please?

Iva Mae gave me some last year and I made some two or three times, but had trouble finding takers. I didn't know how to rejig the recipe when giving away one instead of three, and what to do with the other parts.

I enjoyed them - they were quite a lot like cake, I thought.

I've thought that I'd like to make them again.

ole joyful

I made MaryAnne's Recipe #2 last nite. I forgot to buy a pudding mix. It makes a huge cake! It was okay, but not as good as I was hoping. I did overcook it a teeny bit though. I was thinking it should have had baking powder in it, but it wasn't in the ingredients, and I was panicking. I thought cakes had BP, but I'm wrong, obviously.

I have away the starters on Freecycle.....had lots of requests for it. I was surprised. I think I'll wait a while and maybe try it again with another recipe, one moister.

We had more of your cake tonite MaryAnne. Warmed up with ice cream, was delicious! It seemed to taste better to me tonite.

Has anyone made this with the pudding mix?

the Amish one and the other one,cant recall what it was called, I do not remember

The fruit one...oh I remember that one very well...LOVED it!!

the more fruit the better...as far as I was concerned I didnt have enough starter!

Hey Ont Gal,
Did you put applesauce, nuts, raisins and a pudding mix in the one you liked? I saw a recipe that called for all of that.

The starter went around our cafeteria back before Thanksgiving. I think we all juts burned out on making it.
Ours called for a box of pudding any type and then something else..like fruit or choc chips. I made my first 2 with mini choc chips and used cho. chip pudding. It was too die for..
The next ones I made with vanilla pudding and cinnamon..no fruit and the last two I made with bananas, pecans and banana pudding..they were all good..
Reading this makes me wish I had anothe starter.