Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is Amish friendship bread starter the same as sourdough starter? ›

A Herman starter or Amish Friendship Bread Starter is typically made with milk, flour, sugar and commercial yeast. A sourdough starter is generally made only of flour and water. A Herman starter will be sweeter and more mellow flavored than a sourdough starter.

Starters are usually kept at room temperature for the first 10 days or so to help them grow. Once they've matured, they can be stored in the fridge or freezer and fed every week or two to keep them alive.

Yes, AFB starter is hardy, but it needs to be fed. If your starter turns pink or has pink splotches, throw it out. After feeding it, nothing happens. Again, every starter (and kitchen) is different so you don't want to be impatient.

If your sourdough starter smells strongly of yeast and alcohol, it's likely that it has become over-fermented. This can happen if you've been feeding your starter too much or too often, or if the temperature in your kitchen is too warm.

If it's properly cared for, Amish friendship starter can be maintained indefinitely. "It is heartier than most sourdough starters because the sugars in the added milk and sugar give the yeasts extra food to survive, but other things like ambient temperature and contamination could alter your starter," Gee says.

Blackley's sourdough starter, created from 4,500 year-old yeast, is considered the oldest sourdough starter, per Oldest. Other starters like the Saint Honoratus Wheat also are quite old. A bakery called Chrissi's Farmhouse Bakery uses it and said, “This noble starter dates back 900 years.

Keep the oven door closed while your Amish Friendship Bread is baking. You may be tempted to peek, but sudden temperature drops can result in the bread collapsing in the middle.

Can You Freeze Amish Friendship Bread? You can freeze both the starter and the baked the bread. If you freeze the starter, it will last for years in the freezer. Stick it in the freezer and write the date on the bag.

Just smear some fresh sourdough starter in a thin layer over a piece of parchment paper and let dry. Once dry, the starter will easily separate from the paper and can be ground up into small pieces and placed in a plastic ziplock bag. Store your starter in the freezer for as long as you like.

If you missed one feeding

Don't worry — your starter is fine. Just pick back up with your typical routine and your starter will settle in easily. To be safe, give it one or two feedings before you bake with it to make sure it's at full strength.

Why does my friendship bread starter smell like alcohol? ›

A layer of grey liquid on top of sourdough starter usually occurs after the yeasts and bacteria have consumed the food in a starter. A few hours at room temperature may be enough time for the starter to consume the food fed to it and to show a layer of hooch (alcohol).

And you guessed it..the more starter you use, the faster your dough will ferment - resulting in a less sour loaf. Using less starter in your recipe will help slow down the fermentation process.

You can perform a float test to check if your starter is ready. Take a small spoonful of the starter and drop it into a glass of water. If it floats, it indicates that the starter is sufficiently active and ready for use.

Is there a way to fix it? A. When the sourdough starter isn't fed often enough or feedings are skipped, it is common for an alcohol odor to develop. Increasing feeding frequency can help; however, if the starter has been neglected for a while, it may require more effort to revive it.

Generally, you can substitute a packet of yeast for 100g of sourdough starter. If your recipe uses less than a packet of yeast, you can use less sourdough starter, however it won't make too much difference because of the way wild yeast works.

Starter. The preparation of sourdough begins with a pre-ferment (the "starter" or "leaven", also known as the "chief", "chef", "head", "mother" or "sponge"), a fermented mixture of flour and water, containing a colony of microorganisms including wild yeast and lactobacilli.

But what if you're craving that distinctive tang and don't have a sourdough starter on hand? Enter yogurt — the unexpected substitute that can give your bread that familiar zing while creating a unique twist on the classic.

“It depends also on the recipe of the sourdough, the parameters of the culture.” Stiffer starters — that is, those made with a lower proportion of water — trap more oxygen within the dough, and this encourages lactic acid bacteria to produce sharper-tasting acetic acid; in runnier starters, the same bacteria produce ...