Recipe: All-Natural Amish Friendship Bread

A year ago, my friend Loni handed me a recipe and a plastic bag filled with batter. "It's Amish Friendship Bread," she said. "It's delicious."

Being the committed foodies we are, Loni and I avoid using artificial or packaged ingredients whenever possible. With the Amish Friendship Bread, this was a problem: the original recipe called for a box of instant pudding. Ever read the ingredient list for instant pudding? It's basically sugar, cornstarch, preservatives, and artificial flavors and colors. Ugh. She decided we could do better and replaced the pudding mix with dry milk powder, cornstarch, and more sugar. The result? A lovely, all-natural "bread" (I honestly think it's better categorized as coffee cake) with a moist interior and a crispy top. And yes, it's delicious.

In the course of the last year, I also ended up dispelling many of the myths about Amish Friendship Bread and figuring out how to take control of the starter. More on that in a later post! (Update: The post is up! Amish Friendship Bread Myths.)

All-Natural Amish Friendship Bread

Servings: 2 loaves
Active Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 75 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 3/4 cup cornstarch

For dusting loaf pans:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325° F. Grease two loaf pans.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Dust the greased pans with half of the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Mix all remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Divide the batter into the loaf pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top.

Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.