Amish Friendship Bread Starter

This is the Amish Friendship Bread Starter recipe that you will need to make Amish Friendship Bread.  It is ideal if you receive the starter batter from a friend because it will save you a lot of time – 10 days, to be exact! That is, if you are going to use it to bake your 2 loaves right away.  If you want to share your starter batter with friends, then you will have to go through the 10 Day Regimen yourself. Adding a cup of starter batter after it has matured for ten days, to any sweet bread recipe makes it yeasty and delicious. The texture of the resulting bread is unbelievable! 

After making this Starter batter, follow the instructions in the 10 Day Regimen.  At the end of 10 days you will have enough starter batter for 4 friends, along with extra batter for making 2 loaves of sweet bread for yourself. If you keep a bag of starter batter for yourself (and give the other 3 away), you will be making 2 loaves of sweet bread every 10 days. What a treat!

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when handling the starter batter:

1. Avoid using metal utensils and containers. It is very important to use plastic or wooden utensils and plastic or glass containers.

2. Do not refrigerate the starter batter at any time during the ten days. Leave it at room temperature so that it can mature.

3. It is natural for the batter to bubble and rise as it matures.  Work the air away from the batter towards the lip of the Ziploc bag and unzip it to remove the build-up of air in the bag.

4. When the Ziploc bag is opened to release the air, the batter should smell sweet and yeasty. If it is at all malodorous or if the batter is at all discolored at any time during the ten days, throw the bag and its contents in the garbage.  Start the process over and don’t try to salvage the spoiled batter.

Ingredients:

1 (¼ oz.) pkg. Fleishmann’s active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110°F)

Directions:

1.    In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water for 10 minutes and stir.

2.    Sift flour and sugar into a 2-quart glass or plastic container.

3.    Slowly stir in the warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture.

4.    Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap until bubbly.

Consider this Day 1 of the 10-day cycle. For the next 10 days, handle starter batter following the 10 Day Regimen.