A FRIENDSHIP BREAD KITCHEN COOKBOOK Quick & Easy Amish Friendship Bread Recipes An Amish Friendship Bread Primer with Over 50 Recipes to Bake and Share with Others Table of Contents Welcome to the Kitchen: A Note from Darien Gee! 7 What is Amish Friendship Bread?! 8 The Original Amish Friendship Bread Recipe! 9 Pantry Essentials! 10 PART 1: THE BASICS Amish Friendship Bread Starter! 12 Amish Friendship Bread! 13 Vanilla Pudding! 14 Chocolate Pudding! 15 Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture! 16 Cocoa-Sugar Mixture! 17 PART 2: THE RECIPES Apple Cranberry Amish Friendship Bread! 19 Apple Flax Amish Friendship Bread! 20 Apple Raisin Amish Friendship Bread! 21 Apple Spice Amish Friendship Bread! 22 Banana Nut Amish Friendship Bread! 23 Banana Split Amish Friendship Bread! 24 Berry Cheesecake Amish Friendship Bread! 25 Blueberry Mango Amish Friendship Bread! 26 Blueberry Oat Bran Amish Friendship Bread Muffins! 27 Blueberry Walnut Amish Friendship Bread! 28 Butterscotch Amish Friendship Bread! 29 Café Mocha Chip Amish Friendship Bread! 30 iv Caramel Apple Amish Friendship Bread! 31 Carrot Cake Amish Friendship Bread! 32 Chai Latte Amish Friendship Bread Cupcakes! 33 Cherry Almond Amish Friendship Bread ! 34 Cherry Cheesecake Amish Friendship Bread ! 35 Chocolate Cherry Amish Friendship Bread! 36 Chocolate Chip Almond Amish Friendship Bread! 37 Chocolate Mint Amish Friendship Bread! 38 Chocolate Turtle Amish Friendship Bread! 39 Coffee-Toffee Amish Friendship Bread ! 40 Cranberry Orange Amish Friendship Bread ! 41 Cranberry Upside-Down Amish Friendship Bread Cake! 42 Cranberry Walnut Flax Amish Friendship Bread Muffins! 43 Double Chocolate Amish Friendship Bread! 44 Girl Scout Thin Mint Amish Friendship Bread Cupcakes! 45 Hazelnut Cappuccino Amish Friendship Bread Cake! 46 Lemon Poppyseed Amish Friendship Bread Muffins! 47 Mandarin Orange Amish Friendship Bread! 48 Mandarin Orange Chocolate Amish Friendship Bread! 49 Mexican Hot Chocolate Amish Friendship Bread! 50 Mocha Fudge Amish Friendship Bread Cake! 51 Morning Glory Amish Friendship Bread! 52 Peaches and Cream Amish Friendship Bread! 53 Pineapple Carrot Cake Amish Friendship Bread! 54 Pineapple Macadamia Nut Amish Friendship Bread! 55 Pistachio Amish Friendship Bread! 56 Pumpkin Spice Amish Friendship Bread! 57 Raisin Bran Amish Friendship Bread! 58 Raspberry Ginger Oat Bran Amish Friendship Bread Muffins! 59 Rhubarb Walnut Amish Friendship Bread! 60 Rosemary Lemon Olive Oil Amish Friendship Bread! 61 v Strawberry Amish Friendship Bread! 62 Triple Chocolate Coconut Amish Friendship Bread! 63 Triple Lemon Amish Friendship Bread! 64 Vanilla Caramel Latte Amish Friendship Bread! 65 White Chocolate Almond Craisin Amish Friendship Bread! 66 White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cheesecake Amish Friendship Bread! 67 Zucchini Amish Friendship Bread! 68 PART 3: TOPPINGS AND GLAZES Caramel Glaze! 70 Cream Cheese Frosting! 71 Easy Lemon Drizzle! 72 Easy Vanilla Frosting! 73 Nutella Buttercream Frosting! 74 Simple Streusel Topping! 75 Vanilla Glaze! 76 Sharing and Gifting Your Amish Friendship Bread! 77 Frequently Asked Questions ! 78 Index: At a Glance! 83 PART 4: BONUS RECIPE FROM Amish Friendship Bread Recipes for the Holidays Christmas Stollen Amish Friendship Bread! 88 PART 6: BONUS RECIPE FROM Amish Friendship Bread Recipes with a Twist: Artisan Breads, Biscotti, Cookies, Pancakes and More Rustic Potato Amish Friendship Bread! 90 Other Titles by Darien Gee! 91 Acknowledgments! 92 vi "FRIENDSHIP IS THE BREAD OF THE HEART." MARY RUSSELL MITFORD Welcome to the Kitchen a note from Darien Gee The Friendship Bread Kitchen was born in 2009 while I Quick and Easy Amish Friendship Bread Recipes: Over 50 Amish was doing research for my novel, Friendship Bread Friendship Bread Recipes to Bake and Share with Others (Ballantine Books). The mission was simple: meet like- contains many of my favorite Amish Friendship Bread minded people who loved Amish Friendship Bread as much variations, plus a few glazes and frostings. Many of the as I did, and maybe even swap a few recipes. recipes offer an “At-a-Glance” feature, which means that finding your next Amish Friendship Bread recipe is super As the weeks progressed, the Kitchen started to grow. You quick and easy—just glance at the short list of know how Amish Friendship Bread starter bubbles and substitutions, additions or omissions as indicated to decide froths and then almost doubles in size? That’s what was which recipe is right for you. happening in the Kitchen. New people showed up every day. I posted literary quotes about friendship, found funny Every recipe yields two loaves, so consider keeping one and videos and inspiring blog posts about all things Amish sharing the other with a friend, family member, co-worker, Friendship Bread. I met lots of terrific people. I added postal carrier, teacher, even a stranger! The spirit of the more recipes and pictures of the bread. I met even more bread is what’s kept it going all this time, and sharing what terrific people. we have with others is part of what makes our human experience great. We kept growing and growing. So pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and have fun We now have an online and Facebook community that’s choosing and experimenting with a recipe that may be new over 75,000 Kitchen Friends strong. I’ve gone on to write for you. Welcome to the Friendship Bread Kitchen! more novels in the bestselling Friendship Bread series, and our website has become the go-to place for all things Amish Friendship Bread. It’s my goal to make sure you have lots of choices on how to use your one cup of starter, whether it was passed on to you or if you made it yourself. 1 "THE BIRD, A NEST; THE SPIDER, A WEB; MAN, FRIENDSHIP." WILLIAM BLAKE What is Amish Friendship Bread? Amish Friendship Bread is about friendship and sourdough starters, Amish Friendship Bread can literally be community. It’s about connection, it’s about fun. It’s about passed around indefinitely; in fact, the longer it has been sharing what you have with others, about nurturing other around, the better. The original recipe is a delicious people. It’s about not taking anything too seriously, but cinnamon raisin loaf that is still one of my favorites. But finding the simple joy and pleasure in every moment. what I love about the starter is that you can bake almost Amish Friendship Bread is, in short, a recipe for living. anything with it. If you were to look up Amish Friendship Bread on If you’ve received a starter from someone, there’s a little bit Wikipedia, you’d find this: “Amish Friendship Bread is a of flour and love from their kitchen, as well as all the other type of bread or cake made from a sourdough starter that is kitchens before it. It’s a bit like the children’s fable of stone often shared in a manner similar to a chain letter. The soup, where everyone ends up contributing something to a starter is a substitute for baking yeast and can be used to meal that is shared by all. make many kinds of yeast-based breads, shared with Is Amish Friendship Bread really Amish? That’s the big friends, or frozen for future use.” question. There’s no evidence to support this claim and a If you were to ask a real live person who has made Amish similar recipe can be found circulating in Europe under the Friendship Bread, you might hear something like this: “It’s name Herman bread or cake. But it makes sense that the a gloopy, unappetizing substance in a bag that you mash for starter is kept at room temperature (since the Amish don't ten days before baking the most heavenly bread in the use electricity) and the only fresh ingredients are those that world.” they can easily procure from their own farms (eggs, milk, butter). Then again, the most popular version circulating Amish Friendship Bread operates on a similar principle as a around North America includes instant pudding, which (culinary) chain letter–“pass it on”–but with no threats or doesn’t seem very Amish. negative repercussions if you choose not to participate. You receive a bag of starter (which usually equals 1 cup) and stir I’ll leave it to the pundits to debate the question, but or mash it for 10 days. On Day 6 and Day 10, you “feed” it there’s no doubt the bread embraces the Amish principle of with flour, sugar and milk. At the end of the ten days, you sharing what we have with others. In my mind, it’s no divide it into equal portions of 1 cup each, bake with one coincidence that each recipe yields two loaves. This recipe portion, and give the others away along with a copy of the was designed to be shared. Every recipe yields two loaves, recipe. This usually hums along nicely for the first cycle or so consider keeping one and sharing the other with a two, but eventually people will start running in the other friend, family member, co-worker, postal carrier, teacher, direction if you keep showing up on their doorstep with a even a stranger! The spirit of the bread is what’s kept it fresh batch of starter. You have been warned. going all this time, and sharing what we have with others is part of what makes our human experience great. The starter is a sourdough starter, a yeast-based starter with a lactobacillus culture. Because there’s so much sugar in most Amish Friendship Bread recipes, the result is sweet, rather than sour, but if you have a discriminating palate you may be able to pick up a tangy twist. Like most 2 The Original Amish Friendship Bread Recipe This is the recipe that has circulated through the United States and Europe for several decades. Since the version I received read a bit like a Chinese fortune cookie, typos and all, I’ve modified it for clarity. A PDF printable version of this recipe is available on the Friendship Bread Kitchen website: http://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/amish-friendship-bread. NOTE: Do not refrigerate the starter. It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment. If air gets into the bag, let it out. Day 1: Do nothing. Day 2: Mash the bag. Day 3: Mash the bag. Day 4: Mash the bag. Day 5: Mash the bag. Day 6: ADD to the bag: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Mash the bag. Day 7: Mash the bag. Day 8: Mash the bag. Day 9: Mash the bag. Day 10: Follow the directions below: ’1. ’ Pour the entire bag into a nonmetal bowl. ’2. ’ Add 1½ cup flour, 1½ cup sugar, 1½ cup milk. ’3. ’ Reserve 1 cup of starter in the bowl if you plan to bake today. ’4. ’ Divide the remaining batter into 1-gallon Ziploc bags with 1 cup per bag. Your starter may yield 4 to 7 cups depending on how active your starter has been. Give the bags to friends along with a copy of the recipe and several slices of the bread. Label your Ziploc bag with the date, making your Day 10 their Day 1. If you aren’t able to give it to them on Day 1, be sure to tell them which day it is when you present it to them. BAKING INSTRUCTIONS 1. Preheat oven to 325° F (165° C). 2. To the one cup of batter in the bowl add the following: 3 eggs 1 cup oil 1/2 cup milk 1 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 cups flour 1 or 2 small boxes instant pudding (any flavor) 1 cup chopped nuts or raisins (optional) 3. Grease two large loaf pans. 4. In a bowl mix an additional 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. 5. Dust the greased pans with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. 6. Pour the batter evenly into loaf or cake pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar-cinnamon mixture on top. 7. Bake for one hour or until the bread loosens evenly from the sides. 8. ENJOY! 3 1 The Basics 5 Amish Friendship Bread Starter 1 (0.25 ounce) package active dry There are two ways to get an Amish Friendship Bread starter: receive a bag or jar yeast
 of starter from a friend, or make your own. If you haven’t received a bag of Amish 1/4 cup warm water (110° F/45° C)
 Friendship Bread starter but would like to make the bread, this is the recipe for 1 cup all-purpose flour
 starting your starter. For other starter variations including gluten- and casein-free, 1 cup white sugar
 visit the website. 1 cup milk SMELL: It should smell like yeasty, Directions fermenting batter. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. COLOR: It should look like the In a 2-quart glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. color of flour, an off-white to Mix thoroughly with a whisk or fork. creamy color. The starter may Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. separate (which is normal) so mix it well before evaluating its color. Cover loosely and let stand at room temperature until bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the 10-day cycle. For the next 10 days handle starter according to the instructions for Amish Friendship Bread. 6 Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture Prep Time: 5 minutes
 Directions Yield: 1 cup In a small bowl, stir ingredients together until well-mixed. Store in a cool, dry space. 1/2 cup granulated sugar
 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon Kitchen Notes Use whenever an Amish Friendship Bread recipe calls for “cinnamon-sugar mixture.” 10