I've Got Amish Friendship Bread Starter--Now What?

If you are one of the fortunate few who have received an Amish Friendship Bread starter from me or from anyone else, you're probably thinking, "Now what?"

day 1:
Set it on the counter and watch the bubbles.
Note: DO NOT REFRIGERATE this starter. If you do, the little microbes will go to sleep and not make those nice gas bubbles and you'll have flatbread, which is a whole different recipe. Ha ha.

days 2-5:
Mush the bag a little and let out the air.

day 6:
Add 1 cup self-rising flour*, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Mush the bag a little and let out the air.

days 7-9:
Mush the bag a little and let out the air.

day 10:
Add 1 cup self-rising flour*, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Stir. You've now got just over 4 cups worth of starter. You could:

  • Make 4 bread recipes, each of which calls for about a cup of starter and each makes about 2-3 loaves OR
  • Make 3 bread recipes and have one cup left over that you can use as a starter for next week OR
  • Make 2 bread recipes, have one cup left over that you can use as a starter for next week, and give one starter to a friend OR
  • Make 1 bread recipe, have one cup left over that you can use as a starter for next week, and give one starter to 2 friends OR

    You could reduce the day 6 and/or day 10 additions to 1/2 cup each and have less starter on day 10. I personally find it hard to find time to bake every 10 days, so I shifted day 6 to day 3 or 4, and bake every 7th day. It seems to work fine.

*I use homemade self-rising flour because the recipe I received said to use it. It's just 1 c all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. I don't suppose you have to use self-rising, which some purists may consider cheating, but I figure if you've got it you might as well give your bread every advantage you can.

Now, you'll be wanting recipes. You can Google Amish Friendship Bread Recipe, or you could look up the recipes I've used for Chocolate Bread, Banana Bread, and Plain Sourdough.

Comments

Christina said…
Oooo...I did get to do this several years ago. It was actually a lot of fun. Thanks for the recipe.

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