How To Make Amish Friendship Bread Starter
This is a recipe for the starter to make Amish Friendship Breads and Cakes. The downside is it takes a total of 10 days for the starter to be ready for use.
I received a loaf of chocolate friendship bread from a friend years back. It was the most delicious snack bread I had tasted. I wanted more! It took me several years searching on and off to find a recipe. This is that recipe. I don't remember where I finally found it (thank goodness for the web now!).
Ingredients:
1 - 0.25 ounce package of active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water - 110 degrees F
3 cups all purpose flour
3 cups white sugar
3 cups milk
Directions:
You will need a 2 quart container with a lid. Do not use a metal container, use plastic or glass.
Dissolve yeast in the water in a small bowl and let it stand for 10 minutes.
Combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar in the 2 quart container. Mix thoroughly so the flour doesn't lump when the milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup of milk and the dissolved yeast. Cover loosely and let it stand at room temperature. Do not snap the lid on. I just set the lid on top of the container and leave it. This is day 1 of the 10 day cycle.
Day 2: Stir the starter.
Day 3: Stir the starter.
Day 4: Stir the starter.
Day 5: Stir in 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of milk.
Day 6: Stir the starter.
Day 7: Stir the starter.
Day 8: Stir the starter.
Day 9: Stir the starter.
Day 10: Stir in 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of milk.
On day 10, after stirring in the flour, sugar, and milk, it is ready for use. Remove 1 cup to make your bread. You will have 3 cups left. You can give 1 cup each to friends, along with recipes, or make the bread yourself and give the bread to friends. You can store 1 cup in the refrigerator, or begin the process over again making more starter. If you start the process over again, begin with step 2 above.
If you give friends the starter make sure you also give them recipes to use it in. When I first made this starter, and over the years, I would be so excited to give some starter to my friends! Some friends don't like to bake and some have had the starter before. I have had a couple of friends almost run from me when I tried to give them some starter! I'm not quite sure why! And they never really told me why they didn't want it, they just refused to take it. When I give (or try to give) starter to friends I put one cup of the starter in a small plastic bowl with a lid that snaps on. Some people use plastic resealable bags, but I find it hard to squeeze all the starter out of bags.
Most people prefer to receive the baked loaf of bread!
I only have two recipes for using the starter in and have not looked for any others. There are a lot of websites that have recipes, so finding more should be pretty easy.
