Amish Friendship Bread - Minus the "Friendship" (starter)

Who doesn't love Amish Friendship Bread, buttttt, you have to admit dealing with the "starter" mix is a bit of a pain! And you just get stuck with it going on and on and on, until you finally throw the stuff out, which always makes me feel a little bit guilty for some reason!

So not to sound "unfriendly" but I went searching for a non-starter Amish Friendship bread recipe and this is what I found. I just made this bread this morning and sampled it a little bit ago....soooo good!!!!!


Ingredients:

Starter-

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup flour

Bread:

1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 whole eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 boxes instant vanilla pudding (the smaller ones or 1 large one)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 F. Mix "starter" ingredients, then add oil, milk, eggs and vanilla, mix well.  In a separate bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, vanilla pudding and nuts.  Add dry mixture to the liquid mixture and mix thoroughly.

Pour into two large well greased loaf pans, one bundt pan or 48 muffin tins.  Bake for one hour or until done, muffins will take 30-35 minutes.

Short Bread Cookies

This is my favorite short bread cookie recipe, very easy, only 3 ingredients!  Awesome cookies that will melt in your mouth. Watch them carefully while cooking or they will burn!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup stick margarine or butter, softened (I use butter)
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour

Heat oven to 350.  Mix butter & sugar in large bowl, stir in flour.  Roll dough 1/2 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into small shapes by hand or use cookie cutters.  Place 1/2 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for 12-15 minutes WATCH CLOSELY TO AVOID BURNING! Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Yields 1 dozen cookies.