Day 7 Amish Friendship Bread

It seems reasonable that while I'm waiting for my starter to mature that I should try out the other recipes I have floating around for sourdough starter.  I was reminded of this Friendship Bread recipe by a student on the first day of our Bread 101 course who shared a friendship bread as one of her early bread memories.

I was reminded of receiving a bag of starter from a friend's Mom along with a recipe to make this recipe.  Her recipe was almost identical to several available on line include this from this website devoted entirely to "Amish Friendship Breads."  The instructions included 5 days of mushing the bag, day 6 adding flour, sugar and milk to the starter and then allowing it to be in the bag for another 3 days before baking.  The quantities are large enough to give each of 3 friends a bag of 1 cup of starter and make 2 loaf pans each time this bread is baked.  My friends were experimenting with how to make a recipe that calls for 2 cups of sugar, a box of instant vanilla pudding, and all while flour could be more healthy with less oil, whole wheat and soy flours, and applesauce.    I find it really fascinating that this starter seems to rely very heavily on sugar and milk especially since discovering just how easy it really is to begin a starter with just flour and water.  There are warnings in many places about not refrigerating this starter and never touching it with metal. 

For this version, I decided that I didn't need to spend an extra 9 days mushing a bag of starter because mine is very active already.  I also wanted to experiment more with reducing the sugar and using whole grain flours.  The recipe suggests baking in either 2 loaf pans or a bundt pan. I found it easier to just use the one pan.  It's a sweet bread, and I like the addition of the blueberries and nuts.  I cannot imagine adding in another 1 cup of sugar as called for in the recipe because I think the sweet would just be overpowering.

Amish Friendship Bread

1 c starter

1/2 c flour

1/4 c milk

1/2 c canola oil

1/2 c applesauce (our tree)

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c milk

3 eggs

1 1/2 c Red Fife Wheat (from Lonesome Whistle Farms)

1/2 c rye flour (from Lonesome Whistle Farms)

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

2 t cinnamon

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 c chopped filberts (from Thistledown Farm)

1 c blueberries (from Thistledown Farm)

Mix all the ingredients together.  Preheat oven to 325.  Grease one bundt cake (or 2 loaf pans).  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Bake for one hour.

It still tastes good even if a cat jumps onto it while chasing a fly...