'Amish Friendship Bread' (along with 'Amish Cinnamon Bread') is a type of bread designed to be baked and sent along in a manner similar to a
chain letter. The idea is very simple: a
friend gives you a cup of
yeast culture (also known as "starter") and a copy of instructions. Following the instructions, you add
sugar,
flour and
milk and it rises. Eventually, you end up with 4 cups of the starter. You use one cup to make
bread (the instructions provide you with the
recipe), keep one cup to start a new cycle and give two cups to your friends. Each of your friends also gets a copy of the instructions for what to do with the yeast starter. The latter part makes it somewhat like a
chain letter. Of course, Amish Friendship Bread does not come with any promises of riches for those who spread it on or curses for those who don't.
The first time "Amish Friendship Bread" was discussed on
Usenet was in a
posting on
February 5 1990. It was
an experiment by Girl Scout Troop 15, c/o Emilie Manning
in
Oswego, NY and was posted by Patrick Salsbury.
The results yielding from a traditional Amish Friendship Bread recipe is a sweet
quickbread with a taste and crumb very similar to a
cake. The starter, however, may be used to make lots of different types of bread.
A similar recipe, named "" has existed in
Germany since the
1980s.
See also
★
Coffee cake
★
Sourdough
External links
★ Some
online versions of the Amish Friendship bread instructions:
http://www.armchair.com/recipe/bake002.html
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-friendship-bread-starter/detail.aspx
http://breadnet.net/friendship.html
★
Early online posting - the first on
Usenet,
February 5 1990