Several months ago I became interested in trying to make whole wheat sourdough bread. I searched through books that I already had on my computer (please tell me that I’m not the only one who buys those book bundles and then forgets what is in them😕) and found Sourdough A to Z from Traditional Cooking School.
I started reading through the information in the book. It is very well written, and a great place for beginners. I made a sourdough starter of my own and started trying recipes. We love the english muffins, cinnamon rolls, and impossible brownie pie. I have tried, but not had much success with pitas and bread. I’m going to keep trying though. I am determined that I will master the art of sourdough bread. Wish me luck.
My family absolutely loves Amish Friendship Bread. It’s a delicious sweet bread that is always a crowd-pleaser.
A friendship bread starter is a wild-yeast culture, similar to sourdough, but it’s fed with flour, sugar, and milk rather than the traditional flour-and-water mixture used for sourdough. Because it’s sugar-fed, it’s used for sweet breads instead of tangy sourdough loaves.
It takes 10 days to get a starter going, and once it’s established, you can bake a new batch of bread every 10 days if you keep feeding it.
To make your own starter begin by mixing 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk in a glass container. You can use a plastic container, but metal is not recommended for storage because some metals will react with the acid in the starter and cause the flavor or color to change. Stirring with a stainless steel utensil is fine. I like to use an old Adams Peanut Butter jar with a plastic lid. I like these jars because they are glass and have a nice, wide mouth. A wide mouth quart jar will also work, or a glass bowl with a lid.
10 Day Schedule
Day 1: mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk
Days 2-4: stir
Day 5: add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk
Days 6-9: stir
Day 10: add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Baking Day!!
Since you added ingredients on Day 10 this now becomes Day 1 of the cycle for your remaining starter.
On baking day, after feeding your starter with flour, sugar and milk, use 1 cup of the starter to make your bread. Save at least 1 cup of starter for yourself, to continue your bread-making cycle. Divide the rest of the starter into 1 cup portions and give it to your friends with a loaf of bread, instructions on caring for their starter, and the recipe so they can make their own bread in 10 days. Thus the title Friendship Bread!
People often get turned off to Friendship Bread because they end up with so much starter, and no friends left to give it to. There are a couple of ways to solve this problem:
1. Double, triple, or quadruple your recipe to use up more of your starter (saving 1 cup for your next 10 day cycle, of course). This is great if you have a party or get together planned and you want to stock up.
2. Don’t make so much starter. Instead of adding 1 cup of everything just add 1/2 cup. That way on baking day you have just enough to take one cup for baking and leave some starter to begin the next 10-day cycle.
3. Starter can be kept in the fridge for a while if you want to take a break, but still have some starter left. I’ve kept it in the fridge for as long as two months. (I try to remember to stir it once a week and occasionally add a tablespoon or so of flour, sugar, and milk, just to keep the starter active.)
4. I’ve made this bread with whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour and it tastes great either way.
I like to add raisins, my husband likes to add chocolate chips, and my mother-in-law adds grated carrots. All variations taste good, and it’s great with frosting too. Friendship Bread is great to slice up and serve at parties. I usually keep some in the freezer for unexpected company. It freezes beautifully and even tastes good straight from the freezer.
P.S. I have discovered that this works well in the bread maker, I put mine on the ‘Sweet Breads’ setting and set the crust to medium. The recipe normally makes 2 loaves, but when I use the breadmaker I put all of it in to make a bigger loaf. This works well on the days that I need to make bread but don’t want to heat up the whole house, or just don’t have the time. If you’re using the breadmaker though, you might want to leave out the chocolate chips and other additions, we’ve discovered that it doesn’t cook right with the extras added.
Things I've Learned So Far 