Amish Friendship Bread
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amish Friendship Bread is a type of sourdough starter that is often shared in a manner similar to a chain letter.[1] The starter is a substitute for baking yeast and can be used to make many kinds of yeast-based breads, shared with friends, or frozen for future use. The sweet, cake-like Amish Cinnamon Bread is a common bread that is made from this starter; it is a simple, stirred quickbread that includes a substantial amount of sugar and vegetable oil, with a mild cinnamon flavor. It has characteristics of both pound cake and coffee cake.
A common recipe using this starter suggests using one cup (240 ml) of it to make bread, keeping one cup to start a new cycle, and giving the remaining two cups to friends. The process of sharing the starter makes it somewhat like a chain letter. One cup of starter makes one standard loaf of bread.
There is no reason to think that the bread has any connection to the Amish people.
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[edit] Obtaining starter
Starter can easily be created from scratch with a package of regular baker's yeast and the ingredients that are used to maintain it. It is also possible to create it in a baker's kitchen through natural wild yeasts. Typically, however, a friend shares a cup of the liquid yeast culture with people who would like to make this bread. The starter is typically maintained by adding sugar, flour and milk every few days, although any source of water and food for the yeast will work.
[edit] Controlling the starter cycle
A common cycle is based on the addition of one cup each of sugar, flour, and milk every five days, with bread baked and extra starter shared every tenth day. The ten-day cycle produces five cups of starter, which must be either used to bake bread, given away, or used to start a new cycle. A common suggestion is to bake one loaf of bread, give away three cups of starter, and to save the remaining one for the next cycle.
It is not necessary to wait the canonical ten days before using one cup of starter: a cup of starter can be used as a yeast substitute at any point. However, using starter on earlier days will result in a smaller quantity of starter at the end of the cycle. To avoid running out of starter, it is normal to feed the starter (add milk, sugar, and flour) before removing a cup for use, and most recipes assume that starter is always fed immediately before being removed. A five-day baking cycle feeds the starter every fifth day and uses the resulting mixture on that day to bake one or two loaves of bread (one cup per loaf). The remaining starter is reserved to begin the next five-day fermentation cycle.
Despite common instructions to the contrary, the starter can be frozen for later use,[1] and the cycle begun anew after thawing. The cycle can also be slowed to about half the normal fermentation rate by refrigerating the starter instead of allowing it to ferment at room temperature. Refrigeration is usually recommended if a few days' delay is desired.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b newsminer.com • Amish Friendship Bread comes with a commitment. Retrieved on 2008-03-18.
[edit] External links
Some online versions of the Amish Friendship bread instructions:
- Armchair recipe
- Amish Friendship bread
- A 1990 Usenet posting which may be the first mention of this bread on the Internet
