Ok, my first attempt with bread was this Amish Friendship Bread!
A wonderful cake like bread, you know like in Banana Nut Bread, not really earthy sourdough bread, but a sweet bread.
A colleague of mine, from my previous life as a Speech-Language Pathologist, was getting ready to move halfway across the country so she shows up at work with all these ziploc baggies full of yellowish mush with instructions for 10 days worth of mushing!!!
So of course I jump on it! I am always up for cooking and delighted to have my very own bag of homegrown yeast mush!
Well, that bag of yellowish mush was the result of her starter. So, unless I decided to make bread every 10 days for the rest of my life or hold on to the one special bag of yellow mush in my fridge forever I needed a different game plan. Luckily, another colleague came up with the entire recipe from starter (ha! ha!) to finish. (sorry, I couldn't help myself!)
So, let's begin with making our starter for our Amish Friendship Bread (trust me this is well worth it!).
If you have never made bread before please be forewarned, bread is usually made in stages, especially those with starters! This particular bread is 11 days from start to finish. Sounds like a lot, I know, but it is just the time more than the work. And it is a treat you can look forward to every ten days! And this recipe makes an infinite amount, one reason it is called Friendship bread, once you have made a starter at the end when it is time to bake you will end up with two loaves of bread and 4 starters, one to keep for yourself and 3 to share with your friends (or enemies, whichever way you want to look at it, I guess it depends on if they like to cook or not! :0) )
Amish Friendship Bread Starter
- 2 C. warm water (105-115 degrees F)*
- 1 pkg. active dry yeast
- 2 C. all-purpose flour
Day 1: In a non-metal (non reactive) bowl, mix yeast and water and let it sit for about 5 min. Then add two cups of flour. Let stand overnight in a warm place (80 to 85 degrees) covered with a towel.
*note most tap water turned all the way to max hot is 105 to 115.
Day 2: Time to feed the starter!!! They sure are hungry little boogers!
You will need:
- 1 C. flour
- 1 C. milk
- 1/2 C. sugar
After the starter has sat overnight, add 1 C. flour, 1 C. milk, and 1/2 C. sugar. Once mixed place in a large ziploc baggie. (a namebrand sturdy ziploc baggie, this baby has to last 10 days in this bag, being mushed every day and if you have little kids to help you mush, this bag needs to withstand the test of time or else you will have yourself a nice mushy, yeasty smell and disaster in your kitchen!)
Ok, so, hopefully now you are ready to make your Amish Friendship Bread starter! So head to the kitchen and get your starter started (sorry I had to do it again) and tomorrow I will bring you up to speed on the rest of the days of your friendship bread, including baking!
Trust me on this one, it is worth it, so don't wait until tomorrow to see the rest of the story...Go ahead and make your starter and we will pick up where we left off and you will be right on track to mush for 9 days and then bake on the 10th!! So don't be a day behind. I like to know what everyone is doing every 10 days :0) !
Until Next time,
Happy Baking,
Lynn aka Loco Cocoa
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