Chocolate Banana Amish Friendship Bread
If you have ever received a starter of Amish friendship or cinnamon bread, you know that it is a treat. If you aren't familiar with these Amish breads they are simply starters for a sweet bread. You have to feed it sometimes, and when it is time to bake you save some of it for starters to give your friends or to keep yourself. Sounds good doesn't it?
Well the bread is good, and there are a few different varieties of it that go around. The main difference seems to be whether the recipe uses a box of instant vanilla pudding when baking. Personally, I think the recipes with the instant pudding produce a better bread. You also can add fruit, nuts or other goodies to the basic batter to create variations of the bread.
The other day when I went to bake the loaves, I discovered I was out of vanilla pudding. I did have chocolate pudding, however. I also had some bananas that needed used before we went out of town. I made the recipe using the chocolate pudding. Nolan (3) smashed up three bananas with a fork, and we added them to the batter. Instead of making loaves we made muffins. They were so good; moist and flavorful!
The biggest problem with Amish Friendship Bread is the quantity it produces. If you follow the instructions given with your starter you will be producing 2 loaves of bread every ten days. That really isn't that much, but you will also produce four starters to find something to do with. Surely you will want to keep one, but what do you do with three more every ten days? Soon your friends will be running the other direction when they see you coming!
I was given some starter awhile ago, and had no problem using it and giving it away over the holidays, but now that the holidays are over I am looking for ways to keep it with out letting it take over the house or scare away my friends and family. So far I have been freezing my extra starters, but there are some ways to manage the starter to reduce the production. One way is to feed it less. You can see an article explaining this at The Myths of Amish Friendship Bread.
Don't have any starter? You can make your own: Amish Friendship Bread Starter. I have several in the freezer. I wonder if they would make the trip through the mail?
Works For Me Wednesday
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27 comments:
The starter definitely mails well. I've sent it to friends in Georgia & Pennsylvania (from Indiana) and it arrived just fine. Mailing frozen starter might be a better plan, since an active, thawed starter tends to inflate whatever bag it is in, and could result in a mess. (Trust me, I know.)
Well armed with that knowledge, I'd be happy to send starter to any who would like to try it until I run out! Just email me!
Oh yum! I haven't had starter for years. I might just have to make some now!
I once left a forgotten bag of Friendship bread on a shelf over one of our heating vents. Two days later the bread exploded everywhere. Gah. It was years before I would accept another one, but I finally did and love the whole process. Thanks for the starter plan!
You can do all kinds of things besides the quick bread. I've made pancakes, biscuits and lots of other things as well. Try looking here for more information:
http://www.armchair.com/recipe/amish/amish.html
Grace,
Pancakes? You know I'm going to try that! Thanks for the link!
I haven't had friendship bread forever!
Once its frozen and thawed out, what day is that concidered?
Aren't their all kinds of recipes of what you can add to it when you get ready to bake it?
Just curious!!
Dana
Dana,
After you freeze and thaw the starter consider it day one.
I think you can add just about anything to the dough. I am looking forward to trying pancakes!
thanks for the link to MYO starter! I am currently feeding several sourdough starters which got me craving the Amish Friendship bread I've had in the past! Guess I'd better go get some zip top bags!
If you don't want to give away starter you can use it to make extra loaves of bread. Just dip out a cup of starter to keep for yourself, then use the rest and double the recipe to make 4 loaves of bread. You can freeze the extras loaves or give them away. People would much rather you give them bread than starter :-)
I have 4 starter kits that I couldn't get rid of. They are on day 3. Can I combine all these kits together and continue with the days until ready to bake and just use all of the batter?
Annon.
I've never tried doing it like that, but I can't think of any reason it wouldn't work. You also could freeze them for later if you want.
Thank you Stephanie, I'm going to do that-combine and bake and then freeze just one startr kit.
I'm getting a little scared now. My husband just told me he that one of the girls in the office was sending some home with him. Is this really going to be a never ending cycle?
Shawnie,
It can be if you let it. :) I still have mine going. Here is how I keep it manageable. I dont follow the 5 and ten day rule. I kind of feed it when I think of it and bake when I feel like it. When I do feed it and do get ready to bake it, I only feed it half of the recomenned amounts. Then I take out one cup starter to let grow and the starter that is left is enough to bake 1 1/2 batches of the bread recipe. (3 small loaves or two big ones)
If we are tired of the bread. I freeze my 1 C of starter and then pull it back out when we want some more.
Or of course you could stop the whole process by making dough with all the starter and not saving any. :)
I am on the 10th day of my very first starter and can't wait to bake! I do, however, have a question about freezing the starter. I'm wanting to give loaves of bread to teachers as Christmas gifts. If I take the frozen 1 cup increments of starter out of the freezer, do I have to use that as day 1 and go through a whole 10 day process, or can I just use that to bake a loaf of bread? I hope that this makes sense! Thanks in advance for your help!!
Tater;
I've used the frozen starter straight out of the freezer for baking day, just make sure to let it thaw until room temp, or about 3 hours. The only caveat is that if you don't have other starters in the freezer that you can use, you will be out of starter. I always save at least one to feed if I think I'm going to want bread anytime soon.
I'm at 4 days past the bake day (Day 10). Is the batter still good? Does it ever go bad?
Annon.
Bake away! I'm sure the batter could go bad, but I've not had any do so yet.
I have been growing the friendship bread starter anew after Halloween every year, then baking about 500 loaves to hand out to friends, family, and my church. I coat the pans with cinnamon sugar. I also add in different "fruits" and nuts, depending what is in the pantry that I want to get rid of. This year, I am going to try chopped dates.
I sometimes think of my starter as a pet and that way, when I feed the dog and cat, I knead the dough.
I have never had any go bad. But, this all started one year when I received the gift of starter and it took on a life of it's own and grew out of control.
I am on day 6 of my very first Amish bread "experience" and can't wait to bake! Mine was given to me in a large Ziploc bag so I will keep it in that until I bake but I have been reading about using glass jars that let the mixture "breathe" a bit more so think I might try it that way the next go round.
I'm ready to make my bread and need to mail it out in a few days. Does the bread itself (not the starter) freeze well? Frozen seems the best way to ship bread as well. Thanks for you input.
I have a question. I have been making amish friendship bread for about 3wks. However, this last batch, I forgot about it is now day 13 and haven't done anything with it. It has been sitting on the counter. Is it still good?
it should still be good. Feed it and it should be fine.
Believe it or not, the starter is amazingly hardy. I had taken to freezing the "gift" portions, and using them one at a time until I reached the next to the last one, then "reviving" the starter. Got busy and forgot the frozen starter for over a year. SURPRISE! I took it out, and if anything, that yeast is more lively than ever! "Blew up" the zip lock it was in, and I still had enough starter to use and to store!
Thanks for an idea, you sparked at thought from a angle I hadn’t given thoguht to yet. Now lets see if I can do something with it.
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