Has anyone ever given you (or tried giving you) Amish Friendship Bread starter dough? My friend at work got us hooked on it. It’s a yeast concoction that you feed every few days with flour, sugar and milk until the day you use it for baking. It’s kept in a ziplock bag and will expand, therefore needing to be “burped” every so often. (Which means letting the air out of the bag.) On the day you use it to bake, you feed it some more and then measure out 1 cup of the mixture into 4 different ziplock bags to give to 4 friends (or keep one for yourself). Give your friends the feeding schedule and recipes to use along with their bags of starter dough.
My friend gave me the starter a few months ago along with two different recipes. I made the Cinnamon Coffee cake that was very good, but didn’t have a chance to take photos so haven’t posted it. She made the other recipe, Cinnamon Bread, that I think is even better! My stomach is growling just thinking about it.
Last Monday, when it was time to bake with my starter dough again, I wanted to search the internet for something different that wasn’t cinnamon this time. My favorite recipe site, AllRecipes, came to the rescue once again. I found this recipe for Amish Friendship Chocolate Bread and decided to follow a few of the reviewers’ comments and made them into muffins. I’m so glad I did, because they turned out fantastic!! Very moist and chocolaty! They served as my breakfast for the week. I also brought in a batch for my coworkers and they scarfed them down.
The original recipe calls for 1 cup of oil, but I decided to use 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup oil instead. I only had cinnamon applesauce on hand….so much for avoiding cinnamon this time! 🙂 It wasn’t even really noticeable. I still pretty much only tasted chocolate…mmmmm!! I also stirred in some mini chocolate chips and sprinkled some on top.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 (3.9 oz) package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter (sourdough starter)
- 1 cup vegetable oil (or 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup applesauce as I did)
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with 24 baking cups.
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In a large mixing bowl, stir together all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and chocolate pudding mix. Make a well and add the Amish Friendship Bread Starter, oil (and applesauce, if using), milk, eggs and vanilla extract; mix well. Stir in about 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of each cupcake (optional).
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Bake for 20-25 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test. Allow to cool on rack.
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Source: Adapted from AllRecipes
Penny Says: Want to create your own Friendship Bread starter dough? Follow this recipe and start passing it along to your friends. The great part is, you should have everything on hand!
I’ve never heard of Amish Friendship Bread starter dough but it sounds really neat! Great post. Those muffins look delicious too!
These look amazing! I never knew you could make something like this from the starter. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
My friend and I baked the cinnamon coffee cake together a few days ago and it is divine! Now I’m guarding and nursing the four new starters and trying to convince people to take them, bad timing right before passover. But it’s so worth it, Amish Friendship bread is the best!!!!
Thanks for the link to making our own starter!
Btw, the cookie bouquet is super cute! Your friend did a nice job!
~ingrid
Thank you for sharing the recipe. Am doing a streusel muffin with the starter mix. I clicked here looking for cook times for a muffin and was wowed by your chocolate muffin pic. Will have make some chocolate, too. : )