Amish Friendship Bread

[DanaT]

Hi. I have a question about Amish Friendship bread. On the 10th day when I'm done with the starter, and I'm ready to give a cup to my friends....do they start on day one and do the whole 10 day process again or do they have to bake the bread right away? I am so confused about this part. Any body who knows the answer would be a great help to me. Thank you. :D

[Ambs]

What you give them is a new starter like what you would have received in the first place. So they follow the same directions you did. They will not be making the bread until day 10 like you did. Hope this make sense and helps.

[DanaT]

Yes, that is what I thought in the first place, but thank you for verifying it for me! I feel better now.:D

[Unregistered]

I recieved my starter bag of friendship bread & it had a VERY strong smell that was unpleasant & kind of burned my eyes. Is this normal or is this a "bad" batch?

[Steve Echols]

My starter Batch has a beery smell. I'm sure that you can get another start if you want. SE

[Unregistered-Debi]

Just wanted to let you know, the beery, bubbling weird smells ARE NORMAL FERMENTING. I am almost 50 years old and my family, friends, co-workers, and a few strangers, who became friends, have been passing this starter and recipe cards around for years. If you want some more variations like cinnamon, chocolate and butterscotch bread try allrecipes.com, it's a wonderful site. Just remember NOT TO USE ANY METAL UTENSILS OR BOWLS. Read a lot of the reviews at allrecipes.com to learn more about the fermentation process and variations.

[Amanda]

I noticed that you said not to use metal utensils or bowls. We talked about that in another thread about the Amish Bread. Could you tell us if there is some type of reaction the ingredients in the bread have with the metal.

[help me please]

i was wondering if you recieve a starter and on the tenth day your supposed to start cooking and you didn't and waited until the eleven day. will that be a problem. If you recieved a starter and want to keep a cup instead of giving to a friend can you cook that right away or do you have to wait ten days? Thanks

[Unregistered]

i was wondering if you recieve a starter and on the tenth day your supposed to start cooking and you didn't and waited until the eleven day. will that be a problem. If you recieved a starter and want to keep a cup instead of giving to a friend can you cook that right away or do you have to wait ten days? Thanks

Interestingly, I was in the same situation as you just in the past couple of days. I mushed the bag on day 10 (or stir with wooden spoon if you have it in a bowl) and followed the recipe on day 11 and it worked out okay for me. Good luck to you!

[Unregistered]

I did the same thing. Waited an extra day and it did fine.
Does anybody know if you can freeze the starter. Someone told me you could but I'm not so sure.

[Kimberly]

I have read in a few places that the starter can be frozen. Sites state that it takes approximately 3 hours at room temp to thaw.

My question is -- does the starter have to be frozen on day 1? Can it be frozen during any of the 10 days? If so, when it thaws, would you pick up with the day it was left off at when it was put in the freezer or do you start back from day 1?

[Unregistered]

I'm experimenting with the Friendship Bread too. I would think you freeze it on day one before any fermenting process begins. I'm only guessing. I also read somebody froze it for 2 months. If I get a definite answer elsewhere I'll come back and share.

Bfragrant

[Unregistered]

You can freeze it whenever you want. Just make sure that it gets the full 10 days to grow and ferment again. I don't always wait only 10 days. It depends on my schedule... I've done 11, 12, or even 14 days. It always comes out great! I've been doing this for the entire summer,and have not made the same kind twice. I have the recipe that calls for vanilla pudding mix, so I have used every flavor of pudding out there (the lemon was very good, but the chocolate was amazing!). I even tried using one box of vanilla pudding with 1 box of strawberry jello... turned out yummy again! Good luck, and enjoy!

[Unregistered]

HELP! Whenever i mix everything together for the starter, i placed the ziploc bag on the counter and it busted. How can I keep this from happening because my kitchen smells awful now.

[Robert Fogt]

It expands when it rises, you'll need to leave the bag open somewhat so that air can escape.

[Kelsie Rose]

This may be helpful for those who love the bread but have no one to pass on starters to. The recipe that I was given creates six cups of starter by the time you are ready to complete the recipe on day ten. The directions tell you to take one cup of starter, put into four separate ziplock bags and then give three away and keep a starter for yourself to keep making bread every ten days. If you do this, you will have two cups of starter in your bowl, will follow the remaining directions for the recipe and this will give you two loaves of bread (for the recipe that I have, I know there are variations). In the past, I have just thrown out the extra starter. This time, I did not put starter into baggies but used two cups of starter and then made the breads. I did this three times (therefore using all six cups of starter; two cups for each recipe of bread). In one day, I made six loaves of bread, using all of the starter. I gave some loaves to family and have frozen the extra loaves of bread. So, instead of making bread every ten days, I have loaves already baked in my freezer that just need to be thawed when needed!

[MACooker82]

This I know is a more obvious question. Why is it that you cannot use any metal utensils while making this bread? Now, I am nto afraid of a little labor and I like making this bread because it is sooo yummy. I would however like to point out that if I could use my mixer I would love it even more.

I am half tempted to have the metal mixer parts coated with silicon or enamel. Might this help?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Z

[JohnS]

This I know is a more obvious question. Why is it that you cannot use any metal utensils while making this bread? Now, I am nto afraid of a little labor and I like making this bread because it is sooo yummy. I would however like to point out that if I could use my mixer I would love it even more.

I am half tempted to have the metal mixer parts coated with silicon or enamel. Might this help?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Z

The starter is a basic sourdough starter, and all such recipes recommend not using metal containers and utensils. The starter gets quite acidic as it ferments, and may react with the metal, both damaging it and resulting in an "off" taste.

You might get away with enamelled metal or stainless steel, especially if you move it to a non-metal bowl after mixing. But every recipe I've ever seen for sourdough says "no metal."

There are plenty of yeast breads with shorter rise times (an hour or so) that aren't so fussy, but they don't have that sourdough flavor either.

[Papa Sue]

I want to reduce the sugar in this recipe, so the bread is not really a sweet bread. I am pretty sure I can leave out the final cup of sugar mixed in right before baking, but, I heard that the sugar is needed to feed the yeast. Does anyone know if this is true, or can it live on the natural sugars in the flour. Does anyone know if I will need to add something to replace the sugar for the balance in the recipe? I will probably add some salt as well. Has anyone had any experience in converting the sweet Amish recipe to a less sweet bread?