Sunday, December 07, 2008

Friendship--does not have to be Amish!

On Saturday I made a trip to Wichita to Christmas shop, get a haircut, see my parents, Shawn, Mindy, and cute nephew Wilder. Well at my brothers house I received an Amish Friendship Bread starter from Mindy. I love this bread! This morning I looked online to get the 10 day recipe.

Getting this recipe also got me thinking of when I was little and my mom making this bread. She NEVER received it in a Ziploc bag. She always had it in a glass bowl and stirred it with a wooden spoon(instead of mashing it in the plastic bag). So, I dumped my starter into my Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl and loosely put the plastic lid on it! As you know, I am trying to be more "Green" and so I will start giving my starters in glass jars instead of the commonly used plastic bags.



If you are interested in one of my starters and live in the Salina area, just let me know! If you dont live in Salina and want to start making Amish Friendship bread, here is the starter recipe and the 10 day instructions:

Starter Recipe
* 1 package active dry yeast
* 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
* 1 cup flour
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup milk

Day 1:
1. Dissolve yeast in water. Let stand ten minutes.
2. In 2 quart glass, ceramic, or plastic container (remember: no metal!) combine
1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will lump when milk
is added.
3. Slowly stir in milk and dissolved yeast mixture.
4. Cover loosely and let stand at room temperature till bubbly.

Days 2-4:
Stir starter with a wooden spoon. (no metal!)

Day 5:
Stir in one cup flour, one cup sugar and one cup milk.

Days 6-9:
Stir starter with a wooden spoon. (no metal!)

Day 10:
Stir into the starter: one cup flour, one cup sugar, and one cup milk. Now your starter is ready to bake into bread! *note: at this point you have 6 cups of starter total

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Then mix the following well:

* 1 cup starter
* 2/3 cup oil or applesauce
* 3 eggs
* 1 tsp vanilla

In separate bowl combine:

* 2 cups flour
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Combine the wet and dry ingredients thoroughly. Grease two medium sized bread loaf pans well; or one large and two-three miniature pans. If desired, you could mix up some additional cinnamon and sugar and shake it into the greased pans to coat bottom and sides. Pour mix into pans. Again, if desired, shake a little cinnamon-sugar on top. Bake in the 325 degree F oven for 1 hour or till toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, allow less time for the miniature pans. Cool completely before freezing.
**Some recipes call for instant pudding mix---this size recipe you can add 1 small box of instant pudding mix if you prefer plus any of your favorite variations, nuts, butterscotch chips, etc.


Here is another recipe I found using the starter:
Regular or Belgian Waffle recipe

* 2 cups Starter
* about 1 cup flour
* 1/4 cup oil
* 2 eggs
* 2 tbsp. sugar (or less if you prefer less sweet)
* 1 tsp. salt
* 1 tsp. baking soda

Combine starter with enough flour for your preferred consistency. Add oil, eggs. sugar, salt and baking soda to the starter. Mix thoroughly with wooden or plastic spoon. Let the mixture rest for a little bit, maybe 10 minutes. Cook in your waffle iron. Serve with Syrup. Makes six fluffy Belgian waffles.


Enjoy! Thanks Mindy for the starter!

2 comments:

  1. Andrea - do you suppose the reason that I had the friendship bread in a glass bowl was because they hadn't invented zip-loc bags yet? Surely not! Well, I looked it up and this is what I found. "Zipper storage bags, were patented by Robert W. Vergobbi on May 18, 1954.[1] In the same year, Minigrip licensed them as pencil bags.[2] Not until 1968 did Dow Chemical Company (already known for Styrofoam and Saran Wrap) begin marketing for them. Design alterations have allowed for applications beyond household food storage.[3] The bags are known more commonly under the genericized trademark Ziploc." Wikipedia
    So I guess I used glass to be green before my time! HA!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good research, thanks for the information. Way to go on being green before your time. Actually I think that back then people weren't as wasteful as they are now!

    ReplyDelete

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