Amish Friendship Bread

[Buttercup Chillin]

keljonma or anyone,

Do you know if or how this works with other flour as I don't use wheat or yeast anymore?

Years ago I had Friendship bread, number 1 version I think, will have to look in my files. I used it for years even moving with it aross the country. But at some point I got to busy and let it go. That sourdough starter was kept in the refrigerator in a quart pitcher and I baked weekly with it. But I was using wheat then. Now I am allergic to it and I make my own flours from other grains.

A neighbor called me and asked if I wanted an Amish Friendship Bread starter, I said sure. She just dropped of a cup in a bag. I asked her what was that? How things change.

Well, I'm going to turn it back to a sourdough starter and try using my alternate flours.

 

[VickiLynn]

You can freeze starter?!? I wish I had known that!

I remember the day my friend, Lucille, came over with those innocent-looking cups of goop. "Take one," she said, "It's easy - just stir it every day for 10 days and feed it on the 5th and 10th day." I should have known it wouldn't be that easy when she handed me a full page of instructions!

The first batch worked well. I fed it when I was supposed to and stirred it every day (well, almost). The muffins were delicious! The problem was finding three suckers (I mean "friends") to give the new globs to. Lucille had already gotten to them all.

I ended up growing all three batches in my kitchen. Out of defiance, I let it go three days without stirring. It rebelled by growing over the sides of the bowls and attacking the microwave. I never did get it all cleaned out of the vents.

There must be a 2nd page of instructions she forgot to give me. They probably say something about not feeding it after midnight, keeping it out of bright lights and never getting it wet.

I vowed never to allow that stuff in my house again. But now that you say I can freeze it maybe hmmm....I might go call Lucille.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Nope, years ago I had Herman, a sour dough starter that was from very old starter. It is a little diffrent and because it was already an aged starter was kept cool in the frig or could freeze it for a few months.

I searched the net and found that I can use alternate grain flour with Zanthum Gum with sour dough starter. So I am off to change my Amish Friendship Starter into Herman Starter.

 

[keljonma]

Nope, years ago I had Herman, a sour dough starter that was from very old starter. It is a little diffrent and because it was already an aged starter was kept cool in the frig or could freeze it for a few months.

I searched the net and found that I can use alternate grain flour with Zanthum Gum with sour dough starter. So I am off to change my Amish Friendship Starter into Herman Starter.

Buttercup - Please post and let us know how that worked. I have some friends that would love to do sourdough/Amish bread, but are gluten intolerant.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

keljonma
It should work fine. I have to waite a month though. My Daughter in law wants both starters and they will be coming from Missouri end of July. So I'm going to keep this going as is for now (but using brown rice flour, I don't buy wheat flour). This won't be entirely wheat free, because of the original wheat flour, but I can tolerate it. I have more of a problem with yeast. To make it more sourdough I will just feed one of the bags 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of milk. By the time they get here, the Herman s/b basically gluten free by then and will give her an idea if she really wants a sourdough starter. Heck, she works at a bakery. Maybe I should just start a Gluten free sourdough for her to take back?

For Celiac's or Wheat Free people they can start a herman sourdough using 1 package of yeast, 1 cup of a gluten free flour, (Brown Rice, Buckwheat, Millet, etc.), 1 cup of water (preferably potato water) and 1 tsp to 1/2 cup of sugar. Depending on how sweet you want it. Herman used 1/2 cup and it used milk instead of water. Herman was refrigerated in a 1 quart jug with cheese cloth over the small open cap area. Stir daily or you will have a mess. Herman was much more active than the friendship bread I received. Feed on day five. On day 10 use one cup to bake. Feed Herman, then measure out one cup to give away . I usually baked once or twice a week though. Bread one day deserts another. Use as you would the Amish friendship starter.

Of course, the older starter gets the better it gets.

I still have a problem leaving a milk product on the counter. Our old sourdoughs used water, they were kept in the cupboard. The milk ones were always kept in the cool house or later refrigerated. But I'll try it.

NOTE to Self: Get sourdough cookbook back from my son in law.
edited to add better Herman feeding instructions.

 

[mamaluv321]

Just curious, anyone try using whole wheat flour in this? Maybe a blend...

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

keljonma

Buttercup - Please post and let us know how that worked. I have some friends that would love to do sourdough/Amish bread, but are gluten intolerant.

Ok, I used 1 C. Brown rice flour, 1 C. milk and 1/2 C. sugar to feed the AFS that I was given. I even used buttermilk once to feed it and that as added to the sourness. Today I added buttermilk again and B Rice Flour but no sugar as I still find it to sweet for us. I have made drop biscuits twice and buttermilk pancakes this morning. I used your biscuit recipe but used 1 1/2 -3/4 C gluten free flour to make drop biscuits.

I found the batter a bit runny with the gluten free flour so added a bit more flour thus the 3/4 c next time or I may not add the eggs or use smaller ones. The pancakes were perfect and delicious. I measured out the sour dough added one egg and topped it up to 2 C with buttermilk. I used 1 1/4 C GF flour along with 1tsp Zantham gum.

It works. Have your GF friends start up a batch of sourdough starter and start using it. I am going to start a buckwheat starter that is GF and is supposed to be really good. I use a lot of buckwheat. I think I'll alternate the starters and freeze one in between uses. Say one month use rice starter that is not truel GF and the next month use Buckwheat starter that is GF, or something. Once DL gets hers though I may just use up the BRice Flour one. More than likely as time goes on, it will get fed with whatever I have ground and ready.

 

[urban dreamer]

Im gonna prtend to be Amish now and go make some bread!