Amish friendship bread

A loaf of Amish cinnamon bread, fresh out of the oven

Amish friendship bread is a type of bread or cake made from a sourdough starter that is often shared in a manner similar to a chain letter. The starter is a replacement for baking yeast. It can be used to make many kinds of yeast-based breads, shared with friends, or frozen for future use. The sweet, cake-like Amish cinnamon bread is a common bread that is made from this starter. It is a simple, stirred quickbread. It includes a large amount of sugar and vegetable oil, with a mild cinnamon flavor. It has characteristics of both pound cake and coffee cake. The flavor of the finished product can be changed by not using cinnamon.

A common recipe using this starter uses one cup (240 ml) of it to make bread. A second cup is saved to start a new cycle. The remaining two cups are given to friends. The process of sharing the starter makes it somewhat like a chain letter. One cup of starter makes one standard loaf of bread.

It can also be called German friendship cake, or "Herman" the German friendship cake.

The starter mix can be made from a recipe of flour, water and yeast. One cup of the mixture is then passed to other people who get instructions on how to keep it alive, usually just saying to give it more ingredients as time passes.