Amish Friendship Bread

I mentioned in my last blog update that the starter for the Amish Friendship bread wouldn't be ready till this Sunday. Well it is ready and I just thought I would bring you up to date on how it turned out. First it took 10 days for the starter to be ready. And no it isn't a sour dough. But it is more like a cake than a bread. In fact when you mix everything together it's more like a Banana bread dough. In fact if I was just looking at the batter, and not knowing, I would say it is Banana bread dough. However instead of Banana's it has apples in it. I'm passing on this recipe, because it is so good and so easy to make, If you decide to try it, you'll be  pleasantly surprised.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

Yield 4 cups of starter
Prep Time: 30 Min
Ready In: 9 Days 40 Min

Ingredients

    * 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
    * 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
    * 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
    * 3 cups white sugar, divided
    * 3 cups milk

Directions :

   1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or flour  will lump when milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly. Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.
   2. On days 2 thru 4; stir starter with a spoon. Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Days 6 thru 9; stir only.
   3. Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Remove 1 cup to make your first bread, give 2 cups to friends along with this recipe, and your favorite Amish Bread recipe. Store the remaining 1 cup starter in a container in the refrigerator, or begin the 10 day process over again (beginning with step 2).
Note: Once you have made the starter, you will consider it Day One, and thus ignore step 1 in this recipe and proceed with step 2. You can also freeze this starter in 1 cup measures for later use. Frozen starter will take at least 3 hours at room temperature to thaw before using.

And now for the recipe for the bread. The easy part.

Amish Friendship Bread

Prep Time: 20 Min
Cook Time: 50 Min
Ready In: 1 Hr 10 Min

Ingredients:
    * 2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 1 cup white sugar
    * 2 teaspoons baking powder
    * 1 teaspoon baking soda
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    * 1 teaspoon salt
    * 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
    * 3 eggs
    * 2/3 cup vegetable oil
    * 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    * 1 cup chopped walnuts
    * 2 apples - peeled, cored and finely chopped

Directions:
   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon,    baking soda and salt, set aside
   2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the Amish Friendship  Starter, eggs, oil and vanilla. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Finally stir in the chopped nuts  and apples. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
   3. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

I didn't have any fresh apples to put in my bread so I just put in a 10-oz. can of apple pie filling.  It turned out great. I don't know where it got the brown color from. I did bake it for 60 minutes instead of 50, But that might just be my oven characteristics.

Hope you all give it a try.  It was wonderful.

Till the next time keep healthy and safe. From Tiger and Stu