Amish Friendship Banana Bread

So you may be wondering why this recipe has a picture of cupcakes instead of a loaf of bread. That was not a mistake. I waited the full 10 days on my friendship bread starter this time, and when it came time to bake, I had a LOT of starter to be baked. One of my dearest friends had a birthday coming up and I knew she liked the banana cupcakes I blogged about a couple months back, so I decided to use my starter to make a version of them. I used half the batter to bake cupcakes and half to bake a loaf for my grandparents. Both turned out awesome!

Since Amish Friendship Bread calls for pudding mix, I considered using banana pudding mix, but I wanted the authentic banana flavor, so I decided to use real bananas and replace something else. I thought of replacing some of the oil with banana, but I read that they could replace egg too, so I decided to take out one egg and add two bananas. It wasn’t an exact ratio replacement, but I wanted the extra moisture. Besides, if the recipe flopped, I had plenty of starter to try again!

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I also wanted to add butterscotch chips since I was doing a cookie butter frosting and I felt that the banana bread needed something that wasn’t nuts in it. Of course, I used my trick of coating the baking chips in the dry ingredients to keep them from sinking to the bottom. Works like a charm!

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I am so glad that I started my starter at this time. With the world situation taking away a decent portion of my income, baking has been a wonderful way to give people a meaningful gift that will make them smile and feel loved without having to spend a ton. Sometimes, something homemade really is the best. Plus, it has the added benefit of not cluttering their house!

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My starter has one more cycle and then I will be baking Christmas gifts with it. I am hoping it will have even more of that yeasty tang by round two, and I can give people a truly rare and delicious treat.

The loaf was lovely and moist and the cupcakes were too. They got a glowing review from the birthday girl and I was really proud of how they turned out. Despite not really being able to replace a specific ingredient with starter, I have had some luck with tweaking recipes that use starter to make them into what I want.

All in all, I am declaring the banana friendship bread a success! The recipients of these goodies were also on board. I am so excited to try other variations of this in the near future (next week) and I can’t wait to show off the Christmas treats.

Banana Bread using Amish Friendship Bread Starter

• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 c. starter
• 1 c. oil
• 1/2 c. milk (or almond milk)
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 (3.4 oz.) box vanilla instant pudding mix
• 2 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 c. butterscotch baking chips

Preheat your oven to 350

Thoroughly combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and baking chips in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas and mix in all the rest of the wet ingredients, including the sugars and pudding mix. When everything is well mixed, add in half of the dry ingredients and gently combine before adding the rest of the dry ingredient mixture. Being careful not to over mix, make sure everything is thoroughly combined.

Once your batter is complete, you can make cupcakes, a loaf, or both. This will make 22-24 cupcakes or two loaves. I went half and half and I baked 11 cupcakes and a loaf of bread.

For the cupcakes, I lined the tin with cupcake papers and I baked them for 25 minutes.

For the bread, I sprayed a silicone baking pan with baking spray, and instead of flouring it, I coated it with cinnamon and sugar. I also topped the batter in the loaf pan with some extra cinnamon and sugar mixture. This took about an hour to bake through.

Enjoy your delicious treats or take them to your loved ones to bring a smile to their faces!