Need advice on Friendship Bread Starter

[Linda in MO]

A friend gave me a starter for this and I need some advice. OK, the 1st day you do nothing; days 2-5 you squish the bag 2 times during the day; day 6 you add 1 cup each of flour, sugar, and milk; days 7-9 you squish the bag 2 times during the day; and day 10 you add 1 cup each of flour, sugar, and milk; then you measure out starters to give away and you use your starter to make the bread.

Here's my problem, I screwed up and didn't add my flour, sugar, and milk until day 7 when I should have added it on day 6. Did I ruin it? And should I go ahead and make the bread on day 10 or should I do another day of squishing the bag and make it on day 11?? Help!! After days of "baby-sitting" this stuff, I want it to turn out good.

Also, does anyone have any tried and true recipes they make with this stuff. I have found many on the internet and some on this site too, but I would love to see some that people have made and loved.

Also, I read a comment somewhere that you can freeze the starter. Has anyone actually done this. Thanks!

[MKSquared]

Wait a day after its last feeding. :D Don't make your bread on the day you fed it last -- give it time to ferment, mingle, whatever. You didn't ruin it. Smell the bag -- does it smell kinda yeasty? You should be fine.

No tried-and-true recipes. I always stuck to the one that came with it.

[Linda in MO]

Thanks, yes it smells yeasty. I guess I shouldn't sweat it. Anyone else have any comments or recipes? :)

[Dawn G]

One of my friends also gave me the starter. However, I was curious do you refrigerate it? I thougt it was kind of gross to leave milk out for several days.

[sal]

I've fed up to 3 days late, and the bread tasted fine when baked. sally

[Linda in MO]

Dawn, no you do not refrigerate it. I guess this is how it ferments. :eek: :D I think it is similar to makindg sourdough starter.

sally, thanks for letting me know. I feel better now.

[ISAIAH30_18]

I've never heard of Amish Friendship Bread before, but the Cinnamon bread sounds yummy!!!
I went back and did a search for Amish Cinnamon Friendship Bread and found some threads, even some other recipes, but not for the Cinnamon bread......am I crazy?????
Could someone post that if it's not already out there somewhere?

Thanks everyone!!
Kim

[Linda in MO]

Kim, here is the bread recipe I was given. I have not made it yet though. I've seen some recipes calling for 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup of oil. Also I read on here where someone used plain yogurt in place of the oil.

Amish Cinnamon Bread

1 cup friendship bread starter
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1/2 tsp salt

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until done.

Here's a recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Amish Friendship Bread...
http://bread.allrecipes.com/az/lemonpoppyseedamishfriends.asp

Here are some other recipes that use the starter...
http://www.armchair.com/recipe/amish/amish.html

Here's how to make the starter...

Starter:

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar

NOTE: DO NOT USE METAL BOWLS OR SPOONS AND DO NOT REFRIGERATE.

PROCEDURE TO MAKE THE STARTER:

Dissolve yeast in small amout of warm water (about 1/4 cup). Mix all ingredients together in ample size bowl or jar (it will grow) This is day 1 of the recipe , then the next day go to day 2 and so on.

DAY 1 Receive fermented starter in ziplock bag. Do nothing! Put bag on counter.

DAY 2 Squeeze bag several times.

DAY 3 Squeeze bag several times.

DAY 4 Squeeze bag several times.

DAY 5 Squeeze bag several times.

DAY 6 Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup of milk. Squeeze bag several times.

DAY 7 Squeeze bag several times.

DAY 8 Squeeze bag several times.

DAY 9 Squeeze bag several times.

DAY 10 In a large non-metallic bowl, combine batter with 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix with wooden or plastic spoon. Take four one gallon ziplock bags and pour 1 cup of starter in each. Give these four starters with a copy of instructions to family and friends.

[MKSquared]

Oh, Kim -- don't go down this very dangerous road. This isn't bread: it's a pet you end up eating. :eek: Seriously, you feed it, you groom it, it has offspring, and then you bake it. I've never started a starter, and everytime I volunteer to take one of the offspring home, I regret it!:rolleyes:

[ISAIAH30_18]

Originally posted by MKSquared
Oh, Kim -- don't go down this very dangerous road. This isn't bread: it's a pet you end up eating. :eek: Seriously, you feed it, you groom it, it has offspring, and then you bake it. I've never started a starter, and everytime I volunteer to take one of the offspring home, I regret it!:rolleyes:

teehee:p
What a vision.....I will tread with caution..... :) :D

[sal]

When I'm ready to bake, and separate into four baggies (for friends), if my friends are not interested at that time, I freeze my baggies of starter. When I'm ready to go at it again, I take one out, bring to room temp and start all over. It works! (did that make sense?) sally

[ISAIAH30_18]

sally,
yep!!! made perfect sense to me! Thanks for the tip.

[Linda in MO]

sally, can you defrost one of the starters and just make something with it, instead of going through the whole 10 day process again. I'm guessing yes, but wanted to ask. I'm sure I'm making this harder than it needs to be. :o

[ISAIAH30_18]

Originally posted by Linda in MO
sally, can you defrost one of the starters and just make something with it, instead of going through the whole 10 day process again. I'm guessing yes, but wanted to ask. I'm sure I'm making this harder than it needs to be. :o

I was going to ask the same thing! Am I a slow study or what???

[sal]

Yes, I have done that too and it seemed ok to me. This is what I noticed: my recipe calls for measuring out 1 c. for each giveaway baggie, what remains in my bowl seems like less than 1 cup (this is what I add my ingreds. to and make my 2 loaves). So I may have more liquid than normal when defrosting and not going thru all the steps, but it's not too much. I bake my loaves until they are "done", so I suppose I am adjusting the baking time. That is the only thing different when I don't do all the steps. sally

[ISAIAH30_18]

Well, I have several friends who have never heard of this so we are going to give it a try.....but I have one more question...
does it matter if you only use 1% milk? I'm assuming the 1 cup of oil :eek: will more than take up the slack, but wanted to be sure.

when I try something new I like to be sure I'm the only reason it doesn't come out right. :D

[sal]

hope no one minds if I keep piping up here...1 % milk is all I've ever used. sally

[ISAIAH30_18]

great!!! thanks Sally!!!

[Linda in MO]

Just thought I'd post my results for anyone who is interested. OK, I decided to just experiment with all the starter instead of giving it away. I took one cup and froze it. I took one cup and made whole wheat soudough bread with a brown sugar/cinnamon filling. I took another cup and made the above recipe for Amish cinnamon bread subbing a scant 1/2 cup of partially drained unsweetened applesauce for part of the oil--to half the batter I added about a 1/3 cup of golden raisins and baked it in an 8 inch loaf pan and the other half I added about 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries and made 9 muffins. I still have 1 1/2 cups of starter and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I might make cinnamon rolls or pancakes with it and maybe use the remaining 1/2 cup and keep it alive! :D

The sourdough bread was a flop. The dough hardly rose in the bread machine, so I had a feeling it wasn't going to work, but I went ahead with the recipe anyway. The experiment was a disaster--brick bread! It went into the trash. I want to try this again with real sourdough starter though and I think it would be wonderful then.

The quick bread and the muffins turned out very well. They are both quite tasty, but pretty sweet. The muffins were so moist they were falling apart when I went to remove them from the pan. Next time I will grease the pan better or use paper liners. With the bread I sprinkled pumpkin pie spice over the batter. I had to bake it for 1 hour 5 minutes. It is very moist and tender and you would never guess that I tried to lighten them with applesauce (usually I'm not a fan of doing this because it can make the final product too wet and/or tough).

Anyway, just thought I'd pass this along. :)

[ISAIAH30_18]

wow!!! Linda you were BUSY!!! thanks for posting your results!!! i can't wait to birth my bread babies!!!! :p

i've never made any kind of bread before so this will be interesting!!!!