You may also have noticed its remarkable similarity to the chain letters that are always showing up in your email box. Cleverly disguised as an act of friendship, so-called "Amish Friendship Bread" is an edible chain-letter that tastes surprisingly good and is somewhat less annoying than your average "John Smith broke the chain and died beneath a combine" letter—you know, the one that makes you want to throw the guy who forwarded it to you beneath a combine.
Amish Friendship Bread is pretty prolific these days, and chances are if you know someone who bakes you'll end up with a bag of starter at some point. When you receive it, you could save yourself a lot of hassle by throwing it in the garbage. Or you could have some fun and follow the instructions, but just be aware of what you're getting yourself into.
Is Amish Friendship Bread Really Amish?
It’s unlikely that the Amish Friendship Bread starter your friend gave you actually originated with the Amish. Syndicated columnist Elizabeth Coblentz, herself a member of the Amish community, said that among the Amish a kind of “friendship bread” is often taken to elderly people and those who are unable to cook for themselves—but that doesn’t sound very much like the stuff that arrives in the form of a chain letter. This means it’s very unlikely that your starter originally came from the Amish—it’s much more probable that it came from someone in your local area.
Beware of Amish Starter Recipes that Contain Milk
Some of the recipes floating around are a little questionable, such as the ones that require you to add milk while the product is fermenting on your countertop. Use these recipes at your own risk—while the starter is only supposed to be a breeding ground for yeast, leaving milk out at room temperature invites more unsavory organisms to take up residence (such as Salmonella).
Most recipes that come with the starter are sweet and would probably be more accurately described as “Amish Friendship Cake,” such as this popular Amish Friendship Bread recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Amish starter
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 5.1 oz box instant vanilla pudding
- 1/2 tsp salt
Directions:
- Combine the starter with the oil, milk, eggs and vanilla.
- Mix the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon.
- Grease a loaf pan with butter and dust with cinnamon and sugar.
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.
The catch is that prior to baking this bread you need to spend time nurturing your Amish Friendship starter according to the directions that came with it. This usually involves adding ingredients, stirring, or just watching while your starter grows to epic proportions. After 10 days you end up with about four times as much starter as you actually need for the recipe. So, you can either bake four loaves of bread or you can give three batches of starter away to your friends, thus perpetuating the chain.
Unfortunately, unless you throw some of your starter in the garbage at some point you are going to be stuck baking Amish Friendship Bread and pawning it off on people you know every 10 days for the rest of your life. So don’t be afraid to try, but don’t be afraid to toss some of it in the trash, too, to save yourself a lot of grief. Don’t worry, you won’t get thrown under a combine for breaking this chain.
