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
10 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!
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