Questions about Amish Friendship Bread.

[amselby81]

I already did a search to see if I could find the answers, but I couldn't, even though there were quite a few threads about the AFB.

So, a friend gave me a baggie with the starter in it, along with a recipe. There's already a cup in the bag, when I get it. The recipe calls for the addition of the cup of milk, cup of flour, cup of sugar on day 6. Then on day 10, before dividing the starters up, you add another cup of each. This recipe tells me to take out 4 1 cup starters. There didn't look like there was a whole lot left in the bowl, but I followed the directions. The bread came out very dense, and it didn't rise much. Most of the recipes that I find online call for the same directions about adding a cup milk, cup of flour, and cup of sugar, so they should have the same amount of starter near the end. But most ask for you to only take out 3 1 cup starters. You would have an extra cup of starter in the bowl. Would this make the bread rise more? Which would you recommend; taking 4 1 cups out or only 3 1 cups?

My other question is whether it makes a difference whether I add the 1 cup milk, flour, and sugar on the 5th day or the 6th day? Like I said, my recipe calls for the 6th day, but most of the ones that I've found on the net say to add them on the 5th day. Does it matter?

Thank you

[todao]

Friendship Breads, all of which I've seen are batter bread recipes, are not all the same. Even AFB recipes differ to some degree. Your description of the process you followed doesn't include what you added in the final stages. Or, if it does, there are a few steps/ingredients missing AFB typically use baking powder as a leavening agent and, because I don't see that in your description, that may be the single most important ingredient that might have eliminated the absence of rise.
Looking at "High Heels in the Kitchen", I see a recipe for AFB that appears to be better than the one you used. Perhaps that's one you might want to follow, or adapt to fill in the blanks for the one you're currently stuck with, to improve the quality of the bread you're trying to make.

[Sophia.]

my friend did an intensive report on her experience with AFB on her blog, and in addition to being hilarious and quite well-written, it is rather comprehensive:
http://highheelsinthekitchen.blogspot...

[janetms383]

The instructions I had said to take out 4 1-cup starters. Give 3 away and keep one for yourself. Use what's left in the bowl to make your bread on the 10th day. The bread is dense. Like a cinnamon coffee cake.

This is the bread that doesn't die and if someone else gives me a starter.. it's going right in the trash (the bread is good though).

[greygarious]

It's a shame to toss your bag o' goop! Keep it in the fridge, or freeze it, and use it to bake a single loaf.

[chowser]

When I did it years ago, I cut it in half so I'd bake one loaf and have enough starter to continue. It lasted a few months and then I got tired of it. It's like a quick bread and I played around with variations of quick bread with it.

[greygarious]

There should be a law that the giver has to also give the recipient a piece of the baked "bread". I use quotation marks because apparently there are different versions, some more like bread and some are coffeecakes baked in loaf pans. The latter is what I have made. Different versions have different yields - it sounds like you didn't have enough left to bake with. You can run out of friends pretty quickly - if you like the finished product and suspect your friends won't actually follow through, you can freeze your cups of goop and thaw one out whenever you want to make a loaf.

[Lenox637]

I've seen AFB make the rounds every once in a while. I believe that you are supposed to pass along 3 starters and bake the rest yourself. I have some friends who did it a few years ago and the bread did in fact turn out somewhat dense. It was nice toasted with butter but nothing to write home about.