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Tuesday

Amish Friendship Bread Starter and 10 Day Steps to Fresh Bread

Winter time is a great time to bake bread.  One of my favorite old standby recipes is Amish Friendship Bread.  It is as easy as having the starter, feeding it and then on Day 10 bake and pass the starter on to someone else. I've been making this bread for years and it is so easy to do!

Have you ever been given the starter?  If not, here is an easy way to make your own starter.


This is the Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe. I didn't create this recipe. It is one that I have been using for years passed on to me by someone else as that is the tradition of this recipe. Use this recipe if you do not already have an established starter.  *IF* you already have a starter then that is considered your 1st Day!

As tradition has it, ONLY use plastic or wooden utensils and only glass or plastic containers.  Ziplock bags are great to use.  Do NOT use metal. The metal will react to your starter and discolor it. I tried it and it is really true. 

FRIENDSHIP BREAD STARTER (click to print recipe)

Ingredients:
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup milk

Directions:
1. Use a measuring to dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well. After 5 minutes if you are not getting a lot of reaction, sprinkle in 1 tsp sugar.  This is my trick to give the yeast a good kick!

2. Use a medium glass or plastic bowl to combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or your milk will cause it to get lumpy.

3. Slowly stir in milk and  then the yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap.  You can dump it all in a ziplock bag at this time, too.  This is Day 1 of the starter cycle, or the day you receive the starter. Follow the below daily schedule.

4. Once you have your starter establish you can bake with it, pass some on to a friend or freeze it!
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Click on each link below to get the daily schedule and see pictures of the starter on each day. Yours could easily vary from my photos. Feel free to take photos and share with me!

Day 1 - receive the starter (the recipe for the starter is above)
Day 2 - stir
Day 3 - stir
Day 4 - stir
Day 5 - stir
Day 6 -Add 1 cup each of flour, sugar and milk
Day 7 - stir
Day 8 - stir
Day 9 - stir
Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and a recipe for baking the bread. I will share some of these recipes soon!

Follow along as we take photos of our Starter and bake bread!

Check my Amish Friendship Bread Recipe Box all the tasty variation you can make with this starter!  Happy Baking, friend!



14 comments:

  1. Just a quick note that you can successfully freeze the starter and thaw it out for later use should you not a a willing recipient to share it with. I done it many times without failure.

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  2. Thanks! I linked up. Good luck with your bread recipe!

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  3. I added all of my Amish friendship bread recipes to your list! (I especially recommend the butterscotch one!)

    I've also frozen and then thawed my starters and had good results.

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  4. Thank you for your tips and links!!! Hope you share it so we can get more links! This is great! Susie

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  5. Thanks so much for posting this! I've had a starter before but I threw out what I had kept frozen and I would love to make some more.

    Thanks for following, I'm now following you on Networked Blogs, Twitter, and GFC. I'm excited to read your homeschool posts because I'm going to be teaching my children at home as well!

    http://tripledutymomma.com

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  6. This look delicious! I can't wait to try it out!

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  7. I love this recipe! This is the greatest bread! I'm going to have to see if I can find some people that are willing enough to take starter batches -- although I see they can be frozen!!

    blazesandbubbles @ gmail DOT com

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  8. all these amish breads look amazing! is this friendship bread starter the same as a sourdough starter??

    http://mummyicancook.blogspot.com/2011/06/farewell-my-little-hero-and-how-to-make.html

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  9. I have always wanted to trry this! I''m going to start it next week. I am a new follower...love your ideas! Patsy

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  10. I love Amish friendship bread,but I don't have anyone to pass starters onto (at least not after the first round...is there a way to not grow as many starters??

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  11. I love Amish friendship bread,but I don't have anyone to pass starters onto (at least not after the first round...is there a way to not grow as many starters??

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  12. When it says one pack of active yeast....how much exactly is used?

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  13. HI, my mom received a starter and loved it, she made it every 10 days just to keep a starter bag because she did not know you could freeze them. Long story short she stopped making them and wanted another starter, I found this one on pinterest. She started it the other day and asked me today to post a question to you. She said that the mixture has separated in her ziplock bag and it smells like 100 proof alcohol--it is really strong, I smelled it myself. She wanted to know is this normal? Maybe its because its the original starter? She just wants to make sure the mixture is still good and not gone bad so she doesn't waste ingredients. Thanks.

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  14. I am so excited about my starter (starters) I did two of them because I don't think I did one right, well to be truthful I did 3 and I'm sure the first one wasn't working, the first two I put in bags, the 3rd one in glass, I could tell with in 8 hours that #3 was working well, today is day 6 to feed, I had to put it in a lager glass cookery, I also put #2 into a glass cookery to see if it's going to work, I'm having a hard time being able to tell if it's going to turn out. I'm new to baking, never really cared much for it, but now all I want to do is bake a good loaf of bread. I tried all kinds of recipes for bread this week I have thrown out so much dough it's not even funny, I'm not sure if I had bad yeast or water was too hot but I just couldn't do it, the one batch that did halfway work, I baked too long :( the crust was Way to Brown! I'm hoping that these starters are going to work and I can turn out some good Friendship bread. Thanks for your page.

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