Learn how to make this super easy Amish Cinnamon Bread, commonly known as friendship bread, a classic cinnamon sugar sprinkled coffee cake perfect traditionally shared amongst friends! Learn how to make Amish Friendship bread starter and cinnamon bread too!

Somewhere in my childhood I recall sipping tea and eating friendship bread. I remember the bag of starter on the counter and avidly following the instructions leading up to the exciting day when it was ready to separate, share and bake!

It wasn’t until I started baking my own bread that I recalled this. I made up some starter, and shared it with my friends and family and they too started sharing their memories of making friendship bread.

Go ahead and bring back this old fashioned traditional sourdough cinnamon bread recipe to your regular baking and share the starter with friends and family.

In this post I’ll share with you how to start your own amish friendship bread sourdough starter so you can make 4 or more loaves of tasty cinnamon amish bread.

AMISH CINNAMON BREAD

Amish cinnamon bread is a basic loaf recipe using the friendship bread sourdough starter as the yeast activating ingredient. The 10 day sourdough starter is made to share amongst friends and family, as its divided into four starters to be used to make cinnamon bread or fed to continue to grow.

Friendship sourdough bread starter consists of a few ingredients, yeast, water, flour, sugar and milk.

The starter is fed and kept for 10 days, then divided into four portions to make the cinnamon bread.

Three of these portions can be gifts for friends and one you use to make THE BEST cinnamon sugared bread!

Pass along the recipe to those friends and so on.

TIPS FOR MAKING AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD STARTER

When making the Amish Friendship Bread starter, you’ll need to make sure you use the correct utensils and storage containers for dealing with a sourdough starter.

It’s important to not use any metal bowls or utensils and to store your friendship bread starter in an airtight container. I suggest storing the “mother” of sourdough starter in a large freezer bag.

The starter is stored at room temperature. It can also be frozen and once thawed reactivated as Day 1 of the starter cycle. The fermentation process can also be slowed down by half when stored in the fridge.

Tell your friends, you can bake and freeze the bread by wrapping it tightly with plastic wrap and foil and placing in a heavy-duty freezer bag.

I prefer to gift my friendship starter by shoving the starter bag into a cute little mason jar as above. It’s important to note that not to use just a mason jar with a metal screw lid as it will interfere with the sourdough starter.

FRIENDSHIP BREAD STARTER RECIPE

amish friendship bread starter jars sitting on window sill

To make the friendship bread starter you will need the following items,

Two bowls, a large and a small bowl. Remember, don’t use metal!

SEPERATE MIXING BOWLS

These are the perfect bowls for sourdough starters!

Wooden spoons

Gallon Plastic Bag

AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD STARTER PRINTABLE

DAY 1: AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD RECIPE

Make the friendship bread starter for the amish cinnamon bread by combining milk, flour and sugar in a gallon sized plastic bag. Write the instructions using a black sharpie on the bag to remember what to do each day.

DAY 2

You’ll need to allow some air to escape and mush the bag.

DAY 3

Mush the bag.

DAY 4

Mush the bag.

DAY 5

Mush the bag.

DAY 6

This is an exciting day! Mix 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of sugar in a bowl. Remember to use a glass or plastic bowl, anything but metal. Mix with a wooden spoon and add to the bag.

DAY 7

Mush the bag.

DAY 8

Mush the bag.

DAY 9

Mush the bag.

DAY 10

This is the most exciting day.

Combine the starter along with 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of sugar in a large bowl. Stir well and divide into 4 starters.

Add 1 cup of the mix into a 1 gallon bag. Keep the excess for yourself and use with the Amish Cinnamon Bread recipe below.

You may find other recipes that include Amish Friendship Bread starter here.

AMISH CINNAMON BREAD RECIPE

amish friendship bread starter in mason jar and loaf sitting on a teacup on the window sill

This is one of those recipes that takes over a week to complete but is worth the long wait. Cinnamon Amish Bread is absolutely delicious served as a coffee cake for brunch or with afternoon tea.