Amish Friendship Bread: Skipping the Ziploc bag.
I'd never heard of Amish Friendship Bread, apparently the chain letter of baking, before receiving this bag of starter from my co-worker Jo Anne last week. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was, it's a yeast starter that each person nurtures and "feeds" (adding flour, sugar, and milk on days 6 and 10) for 10 days, then, after quadrupling the original amount, divides it up, making bread with one part and passing the remaining three to friends who will repeat the process (and hopefully not give it right back to you.)
The thing is, the starter recipe that's been circulating through my office requires that each portion be placed in its own Ziploc bag. Each day, the starter is kneaded through the bag until day 10. But certainly the Amish people (if they are indeed the ones who came up with this recipe... that fact is apparently in doubt according to a few Internet sources) wouldn't have started out using plastic bags. I decided to find out the truth.
And the truth is that you can use any kind of non-metal container and instead of kneading, stir the starter with a wooden spoon. Great! I accepted the mission and that night, emptied the plastic bag into a glass bowl. Jo Anne has kindly agreed to take back the plastic bag to reuse.
This bowl doesn't have a lid, so I used a ceramic plate on top to keep it covered, and every day stirred it up. Monday night, I made the bread (which is actually more like a heavy, rich cake) and it rocks. I'll give my recipe below, which contains almost all ingredients bought from bulk bins without any disposable packaging. And as you can see, the remaining portions are in re-used glass jars instead of plastic bags. The lids are, of course, metal. But I think that's okay as long as the jars remain upright.
Oh, and one other little cheat: if you can't find friends to give it to on day 10, don't worry. Apparently, you can actually refrigerate or even freeze the starter to slow or halt the growth process. Supposedly it will start right up again once the starter thaws out. Anyone else have experience with this?
So, here are the directions as I have adjusted them to eliminate plastic. I have two takers for my starter. I need one more. Anyone else in the SF Bay Area who wants it? Please come take my little yeastie boyz!
Amish Friendship Bread
Check with the person who gives you the starter to find out what day they are giving it to you, if it's not Day 1. Begin where they left off.
Day 1: Do nothing with the starter.
Days 2-5: Stir with a wooden spoon.
Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. (I used whole wheat flour and nonfat milk, simply because those are what I had in the house.) Stir with a wooden spoon.
Days 7-9: Stir with a wooden spoon.
Day 10: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Stir. Take out 3 cups and place 1 cup each into three separate non-metal containers. Give one cup and a copy of this recipe to three friends.
Making the bread:
To the balance (a little over one cup) of the batter, add the following ingredients and mix well.
2/3 cup oil (Believe it or not, I used olive oil because it was the only kind of oil we had and I didn't want to go shopping.)
3 eggs
2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon (I did not add cinnamon because I don't like it that much. I did, however, add granola and chocolate chips. Per note below, you can add pretty much anything you want.)
1 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In mixing bowl, combine all ingredients.
Grease and flour well 2 9″x5″ bread pans. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. (I actually used one bread pan and baked for 55 minutes at a lower temp.)
Variations: Add 1/2 cup of one or more of the following - raisins, chopped apples, crushed pineapple, candied fruit, coconut, chopped dates, nuts or chocolate chips. Add to batter just before baking.
The possibilities are endless. Maybe I'll keep the remaining batch of starter for myself and make more.
Labels: recipes, sweet treats
posted by Fake Plastic Fish @ 1:51 AM
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21 Comments:
Dude, now my stomach is growling. Thanks a lot Beth. :)
You can also "feed" it less on the 10th day and not have so much starter. I cut it down to 1/4 the recommended amount and have enough for the batch I'm baking and one starter for next time. I use a glass Pyrex baking dish with a glass lid. Also if you do an Internet search you can find a lot of other recipes that use the same starter. I use a "Herman bread" recipe to make a regular sourdough bread with the starter. I have some starter frozen for when the weather turns cooler. So I do not yet have proof that it works after freezing.
--Ave
Yay, Beth, for ditching the ziplock.
It can't be good to keep live, wet food in plastic! My German and Dutch friends keep sourdough starter in terra cotta or ceramic pots. Glass jars are the perfect solution for local giving ~ I'm feeling anti mail lately.
My mom used to have a sourdough starter and she kept it in a glass jar.
Beth,
My mother made Amish Frinedship Bread almost every 10 days for most of childhood--this really brought back memories. She never used a ziplock bag either. She had a pretty terra cotta container with a lid (which I can picture now sitting on the counter in the kitchen). It just goes to show how 'plastic convenience' wins out for most people. Of course the Amish didn't use plastic bags and how friendly is really to give a ziplock to a plastic reductionist friend! Way to make this Friendship bread more friendly.
can anyone tell me, can you sub rice milk or soy milk for milk for those with a lactose problem?
Also, can you omit the sugar and use applesause or brown rice syrup instead? If so, how much would you reduce the oil? Do you think it would taste terrible?
I have a diabetic lactose intolerant son so I alter recipes.
I admired the photo of your Amish Friendship Bread, and beautiful Arya, and now publicly acknowledge my strength of character in saying "no" to your offer of starter. I've had A F B before and really, really liked it, way too much. After seeing your loaf with its crunchy-looking top and the added goodies inside, I know that if I had starter, I'd go make an AFB right now, whether or not the starter was ready, and eat the entire thing in less than 45 mins.
I was introduced to AFB in the '70's, when people stored it in a Best Foods Mayonnaise jar with a metal lid.
Just wondering if you had heard about Maggies Pure Land?
I'm just wondering if anyone knows how well it works. I read about it on Allie's website.
Thanks!
How can anyone give me the exact measurement to cut the recipe down till I just have one start left each time?
Thank you in advance
Holly
If you want to make it REALLY yummy, "dust" the sides of your baking pan with a cinnamon/sugar mix instead of flour. That's the recipe I was given. I haven't made it in probably over a year, and my kids still ask for it.
Doesn't this bread ROCK?! I am glad you showed me that I can use glass instead of plastic next time I get this treasure. Good day!
I have never even heard of a starter in a bag. I've always seen/made them in class jars...usually old jelly jars. Makes for a much nicer presentation to your friends than a bag o' goo. You could even put a little ribbon around it and be extra fancy.
I would like to know if you miscount the days, will it make a difference?
I added the sugar, flour and milk on day seven instead of day six, thinking I was doing it on the right day. Does anyone know the answer?
Anita
Anita, I don't think it matters if you miscount the days. This recipe seems to be pretty forgiving.
If you don't have any friends to give starter to on day 10, you can use it to make more bread. Just dip out a cup of starter for yourself and then use the rest and double the recipe to make 4 loaves of bread. You can freeze the extra loaves.
I have miscounted the days or just didn't have time to make the bread on day 10 and it has come out fine.
Hello
Do I have to use all that sugar and the fruit?
I'd just like bread that I can use for tuna sandwiches. And the like.
I also do not understand why, if it's a yeast starter, soda and baking powder are used.
I just found the answer to my question, and operating on the principal that if one person is confused there will be others, I'm posting it here.
This recipe begins with a sourdough starter, and uses that for bread bread, and also for the cake bread which is what the Amish Friendship Bread really is.
Both starters were developed by a flour milling company. King somebody.
I'm going to try this for both starters:
http://www.texascooking.com/features/may2000starters.htm
Hi Anonymous. The sugar is "food" for the yeast. You could probably omit the last bit of sugar from the part that you are using to make your bread, but you do need to keep feeding sugar to the starter to grow the yeast.
Fruit is not required. None of the "variations" ingredients are required. That's why they are under "variations." They are just options.
But also, please note that this "bread" is more like cake. You're not going to get the kind of bread we normally think of for sandwiches, although I don't know why you couldn't eat it with tuna. It would just be an interesting experience.
I am so glad I googled this today. I received a starter a few months w/a copy of the recipe and was shocked to see how much the recipe had changed from when I first received a starter close to 20 years ago and hadn't made it in about 10 years. I had to go online and see if there were some simpler recipes. New recipes include a packet of pudding mix (more sugar than necessary), extra sugar, brown sugar and chocolate chips. I also received the ziploc bag; in the past I received a jar. And the metal utensil/bowl thing is a surprise. I used a metal bowl the last time (covered with another bowl upside down) and there was no difference in taste between that and the plastic or ceramics. I don't know how safe the metal is, that's what I used to do, but I now use a cermic bowl (I poured the mix out of the ziploc as soon as I got it home).
I have made dozens of loaves and have answers to many of the questions asked, mainly because I have many allergies and have had to recently alter the recipe.
Yes, you can use soy (I'm lactose intolerant too) and lactose free milk (since I've found out I'm allergic to soy too). Applesauce works too to break up some of the sugar and gives it a very "fall" flavor. I've also added nuts, pecans and walnuts work best. I've miscounted and it comes out fine. Frozen batter is OK too. Wheat flour works out just lovely and truly makes it taste more like a bread and is excellent warm w/butter, preserves, or apple butter on it.
Thank you for such an inspiring website!!
Vic
Hi Vic. I too received a recipe that included pudding mix. I try not to use pudding mixes, opting for ingredients I can purchase from bulk bins using my own containers to avoid packaging waste. Also, who knows what chemicals are in pudding mix these days.
Thanks for stopping by! It's nice to get back the original way things were done before the "convenience" of plastic packaging.
Hi- I came across this entry when I googled Amish Friendship Bread. As far as the question as to what to do with the starters you inevitably can't figure out who else would want one, I just made an extra couple cakes. armchairworld.com lists a lot of friendship bread recipe variations and they require 1 c. of starter- perfect if you aren't sure of who else wants another starter- you end up with more bread or muffins and I don't know anytime that's been too bad of a thing :)
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