Amish Friendship Bundt

It's been 10 days since my last batch of Amish Friendship Bread. This time I decided to stick to the original recipe with minor changes. I used butterscoth pudding instead of vanilla, simply because we didn't have vanilla pudding mix. I reduced the oil and salt and bumped up the vanilla. I added 1 cup of toasted, chopped pecans. Also, I decided to bake it in a bundt pan, instead of two loaf pans, because I was feeling vintage! Something about a bundt pan makes me want to vacuum in pearls and heels! ;D I'd say out of the three versions I've made, this is definitely my favorite so far. The butterscotch pudding didn't add any noticeable butterscotch flavor, but it helps to keep it moist. And the crunch from the cinnamon/sugar coating is the best part! I recommend baking your Amish Friendship Bread according to the original recipe first. Then if you don't like it, try a variation.

This is what my starter looked like on day 10 before the last addition of sugar, flour, and milk. The bundt...
...the mess!
Mmmm... but it was soooo worth it!
I think I'll have a slice right now!

This is my adapted version. You can find the original recipe AND the starter recipe here.

Amish Friendship Bundt
Serves about 16

You will need:
Leftover starter from day 10 in the basic Amish Friendship Bread recipe

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a bundt pan.

Mix in a small bowl:
1/4 cup sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
Dust your pan with this mixture. Tap out the excess and save it to sprinkle over the top.

In a large measuring cup, mix together:
3 eggs
3/4 cup of oil
½ cup of milk
1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, sift together:
2 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup of sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 box instant butterscotch pudding

Toast and chop:
1 cup pecans

Stir the mixture of wet ingredients into the bowl containing your leftover Amish Friendship Bread starter. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients. Slowly add the wet mixture while stirring with a wooden spoon. Fold in chopped pecans. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top. Bake 60-70 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool until bread loosens from sides, about 10 minutes. Invert bread onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Amish Friendship Bread w/ Two Variations

As most of you know by now, I was recently given a starter for Amish Friendship Bread. Along with the starter, I received two loaves of the bread. One was the original cinnamon bread. The other was a banana variation. They were both delicious, but afte a week of eating them, I knew I wanted to try something different with my starter. I decided to make a chocolate pecan loaf and a lemon blueberry loaf. First, for both of the loaves I substituted apple sauce for half of the oil. I felt like the loaves were almost gummy in texture. It could be because of the applesauce, or it could be that I only baked them for 55 mins instead of 60. Either way, they were still yummy! For the chocolate one, I omitted the cinnamon, replaced the vanilla pudding with sugar-free chocolate fudge pudding, added 3 oz. of chopped bittersweet chocolate, and 1/2 cup chopped pecans. This one was my favorite!
For the lemon loaf (made especially with Josh in mind!), I omitted the cinnamon, used sugar-free lemon pudding, added 1 teaspoon of lemon extract, and 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries, thawed and drained. This was Josh's favorite, but I thought that it definitely needed the 5 extra minutes of bake time. The moral of my story is... DEFINITELY bake these puppies for 1 full hour. Then test them and make sure a toothpick comes out clean... NO crumbs! That was my mistake!
If you are interested in getting a starter, leave your e-mail address in a comment or e-mail me. I'll add your name to the list that I'm sending to the 3 girls who got my starters. They'll contact you about sending one of theirs! If you'd like to make your own starter, here's a recipe I found via Google. Below that is the recipe for the Amish Friendship Bread once you already have the starter. For more info about AFB and for variation recipes, click here.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup milk

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2-quart 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.

Amish Friendship Bread
Please note the following:
* Do not use any metal spoons or bowls
* Do not refrigerate
* If air gets in the bag, let it out
* It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment

Day 1: Do nothing, this is the day you receive the batter, the bag is dated
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 of flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of cold 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:

* Pour entire contents of the bag into a NON-metal bowl
* Add 1 ½ cups of flour, 1 ½ cups of sugar and 1 ½ cups of milk
* Write the date on 4 gallon size Ziploc bags
* Measure out 4 separate batters (1 cup each) and put into the 4 Ziploc bags
Keep a bag for yourself and give the other three bags to friends along with a copy of the recipe.
NOTE: If you keep a starter, you will be baking every 10 days. However you can freeze a starter. The cycle begins when the starter is thawed.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 2 large loaf pans.

Mix in a separate bowl:
½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
Use half of mixture to dust greased pans.

To the remaining starter in the bowl add:
3 eggs
1 cup of oil (or ½ cup oil & ½ cup applesauce)
½ cup of cold milk
1 cup of sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding (can be any flavor you want)
Optional: 1 cup of raisins or chopped nuts

Pour batter into pans. Do not fill past ½ full. Sprinkle remaining sugar and cinnamon over the top. Bake 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from sides, about 10 minutes. Enjoy!

UPDATE ON: Who Wants a Starter for Amish Friendship Bread?

Wow! I got an overwhelming response for the Amish Friendship Bread starter! I feel bad that I was only able to share three. So I'm asking the girls that got mine if they'd like to pass along the extra starters that they'll end up with to some of the people who were interested in mine. Anyone who left me their e-mail address will be added to the list. I'll send the list to the original three, and they can contact you about getting a starter. It would be totally cool if everyone wrote their hometown on the original recipe I mailed. We can see just how much of America our starters can cover! :D Once again, for postage pricing reasons and because of the perishable nature of the starter, US residents only please.

Last week, I was given a starter for Amish Friendship Bread. If you aren't familiar with Amish Friendship Bread, click here for some info. Essentially, it's the "chain letter" of the baking world. From what I gather, someone somewhere made abundant amounts of the starter and shared it with some of his/her friends. Then those friends "fed" it and shared some of it with their friends. And so on and so on... until a bag of it ended up in my hands! Now it's my turn to feed it and pass it on to three of my friends. That's where my dilemma lies. I don't know three people who bake! The ones who DO bake already got a starter from the same person who gave me mine. So I'm offering them up to three of my readers. According to the recipe, the starter does not need to be refrigerated and needs to be fed every five days. If I mail it the same day I feed it, it should be okay in the mail for the next four days. It does need to be "mashed" every day, but I have a feeling the US Postal Service will take care of that, if you know what I mean! If you're interested in continuing the cycle, you can contact me via e-mail or leave your e-mail address in a comment. Please don't leave your mailing address in a comment. We can exchange mailing information via e-mail, and I'll send you a starter. My starter will be ready to bake tomorrow (Monday), so if I get your mailing address before 5pm (Monday) I'll try to send it immediately!

Because of the perishable nature of the starter, U.S. residents only please!