Friendship Bread

10 days before baking!

Have you guys heard about Friendship Bread? Amish Friendship Bread to be exact. Last week I was invited to go to my friends’ house and before that we went out together to the Nature Market at one of the interesting park in Lincoln. We went with another my close friends (Malaysians). She told me that she wanna to show me how to prepare a Friendship Bread. Well, initially I was really though that she was making a joke on me. Then I realized that, she mean it. Where it comes from? One of her close friend gave it to her 10 days ago and there is something really interesting in the steps of making this bread. 10 days ago? Can we still make that bread? Does it harmless to us? Pretty nasty questions! And on that day, the yeast was already matured, from the 1st day it was prepared. On the other hand, she’s keen to make her own bread with hers own recipe and I'm one of hers follower.

Later on, she showed me a pack of yeast, not in a normal way though. She opens the yeast and pour in the large plastic bowl. Then mixed with some sugar and also just little bit of water. I was the one that helped her to do stir thing…. EASY! Hahhaha. Not expert enough to mix the entire ingredients. Still fussy to me…I guess, nothing special in the ingredient, as I always saw when my mom prepares for the kuih raya. I bet, this bread is much simpler than that. The yeast was kinda already mixed with flour and another ingredient but the main thing here is the yeast; to make bread. Then, after adding the sugar into the original yeast, she separates the initial ingredient into three different zip-tag bags. After several steps, the ingredient was full of an entire needed ingredient and it’s just ready to bake in the oven for 45minutes - 1hr.

She started to write down the date and gave one portion to me… What should I do? Let see next 10 days after this… huhu I need to refer to the recipe either. Hopefully it not turn to “lempeng” Fuisshhhh..

No Steel or refrigerator!

Its kinda eccentric for me when she told me “While preparing the bread, do not use any steel spoon or any bowl made from steel, even do not keep the yeast in the fridge” Why? I have no idea behind that. May be like Malay culture called ‘pantang larang’. No basic sciences behind that. The Amish Friendship Bread was traditionally from the Amish group. Who they are? Normally, Amish people tend to make their own bread, and when they start making bread, they will give the balance sample (another portion of yeast) to another friend, as one way of the friendship bones. And your friend can makes their own and again pass it along their close friend. That was the basic chains for the Amish Friendship Bread. Sound very interesting to me. BUT… here I am pretty sure that it’s not comes from Amish people (No Amish people in NE!). It has been made by another person... and I am still wonder of the content of it! Huhu So I did some reading on that. It’s HALAL, (baca Basmallah banyak2)

Below is the recipe that probably we can do on our own. Let’s create our own version. If I want to make my own way, maybe I can start to call it as Nebraska Friendship Bread. Who knows it can reach not only in other part of USA, but also until to Belgium or UK, even Malaysia though… Cheersss

About the Amish people, who really are they? This people avoid the direct confrontation to the people, avoid use the latest technology, do not used any car, (use only the horse drawn “kereta kuda”) and a lot of information we can read here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish

The Recipe

Important Note: Don't use metal spoons or equipment. Do not refrigerate. Use only glazed ceramic or plastic bowls or containers.

Required Main Ingredient
1 cup live yeast starter


Day 1:
Do nothing with the starter.
Days 2-5:
Stir with a wooden spoon.
Day 6:
Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Stir with a wooden spoon.
Days 7-9:
Stir with a wooden spoon.
Day 10:
Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Stir. Take out 3 cups and place 1 cup each into three separate plastic containers. Give one cup and a copy of this recipe to three friends. To the balance (a little over one cup) of the batter, add the following ingredients and mix well.
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well:

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
1 cup nuts

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.