Has anyone ever made "friendship bread"?

[HopeHoops]

Instead of giving someone a loaf, you give them part of the batter from your last loaf along with instructions. The dough serves as the seed so you don't add yeast to the new batch. You can keep doing this damn near forever as long as you save out some dough for yourself. We were given some in NH and it actually worked quite well! Weird concept though. Sort of like a chain letter, but stickier.

[VenusRising]

1. I have two bags of starter in my freezer right now.

My favorite to make is cinnamon pear bread. I made a triple choclate that got raves, but I didn't care for it.

Freezing the starter has saved me from constantly having to keep making bags to give away.

[Major Nikon]

2. It was more common in times gone by before commercial yeast was readily available

If you take a cup of yeast and add enough water to keep it moist, then place it on top of the fridge for a few days, you can make your own sourdough starter. Once the batch gets going, all you need to do is keep adding flour and water periodically. The resultant sourdough will be unique because natural yeast is different from place to place. Some bakeries have kept their sourdough culture going for over a hundred years.

[Kali]

3. you mean a cup of flour!

a cup of yeast would give you a heck os a lot of starter:P

[HopeHoops]

4. Wasn't that an "I Love Lucy" skit? The 8' loaf of bread coming out of the oven?

I KNOW I saw that somewhere when I was a kid.

[Major Nikon]

15. Oh hell yeah

I find as I get older my fingers are much faster than my brain.

[Kali]

5. as mentioned, basic soursough starter

I first heard of the "friendship" concept from my sister - she had a ziplock bag of something fermenting on her counter and I asked her WTF?

Looked pretty much like my sourdough starter - which is now two years old! Hey I wonder if it could get a late November milestones post?:think: :rofl:

I got some good advice for keeping it going in cooking and bakeing. The original was started with a bit of store bought yeast and I used a cup of potato water with the flour but all I do now is switch out a cup of starter for another cup of cold water and a cup of flour. If I don't bake for a week or so I dump a cup out and feed it the same way, stir good (wooden spoon only, no metal) and leave it out overnight then back into the back of the fridge. I do an overnight sponge before making dough the next morning and baking so it is almost a 24 hour process, although the actual working time is like 5 minutes and 25 for baking.

[HopeHoops]

6. We keep a jar of yeast in the freezer and my middle daughter loves the bread machine.

Sometimes she'll use a boxed mix, but she's just as likely to make a loaf from scratch. Check out http://www.hungrymonster.com/recipe/recipe-search.php?C=Bread%20Machine&ttl=549 for more recipes than you can imagine. Every one we've tried has worked great.

[Kali]

13. I actually got the recipe from a bread machine cook book.

you can make sourdough on the longest rising settings. You still need to use a little jarred yeast but not as much. My main reason for trying it was becasue the yeast was getting too damn expensive. Then my bread machine broke and I started using the oven and could go ahead and just use the starter. I get a kick out of doing without that pricy ingredient. And the bread is so good now. I had a few dull loaves in the beginning but now it works consistently. And while the machine loaves (of all styles) were good, baking in the oven is even better.

[Phentex]

10. Don't think I didn't see this!

LOL! Do you happen to know the EXACT date of birth for the starter? :)

The method you use is pretty much the same for the sour dough starter I get from my neighbor. Somebody usually throws it out by accident though.

[Kali]

14. hee hee

I wish I could remember. I know it was a little before Thanksgiving in 2009, but I stupidly didn't record it anywhere.

[Major Nikon]

17. That's how it's done

You don't necessarily have to start it with commercial yeast, although it will get you off to the races faster. I prefer to do it without because it cultivates the natural yeast in your kitchen, but it takes a few days if not a week or two to really get it going.

[freshwest]

7. Like sharing the starter on sourdough bread. I read in the 70's there'd been a batch that was..

Kept alive and passed on for a hundred years in a community in the Rocky Mountains from the mining days. Sort of amazing, that kind of continuity. Like people passing starts of African violets, ivy, etc. Not that much different from maintaining a bloodline when breeding an animal, really. Yeast would be easier, but have a much shorter life span. Ugh, need coffee.

[freshwest]

8. Good grief, a half a dozen people replied while I hashed that out. Need strong coffee.

[freshwest]

9. I think the computer is asleep too, it just posted a dupe. Leaving now. Good stories.

[Phentex]

11. My neighbor has one more than 20 years old...

I've been using hers for at least 11 years but I always fail at keeping up with it. She is methodical!

[freshwest]

16. Sounds like a stable community there. I haven't lived anywhere for twenty years. Nice neighborhood.

[Phentex]

22. That neighbor has been there since the 60's...

She's only the second owner of her house. I think we are only the 4th to own ours. People tend to stay a long time. There's a guy on the street who grew up in the house he's in now. Got it when his parents died. A couple down the street recently retired to a senior center and they'd been here 47 years.

[Kali]

18. wow!

I am not real good about keeping it going either - especially in the hot summer. I've had to rescue it from mold a couple times (turkey baster is good for this if it is pretty liquidy) but it keeps going. I haven't tried freezing any yet. I tried freezing an unbaked loaf and that didn't come out very well. I am hoping to try some more of that this winter. My starter is built up enough now to split so maybe I can make 4 loaves at a time instead of the two I do now - that we eat too fast to try freezing baked!

I was a pie baker most of my life, kind of afraid of yeast until we got the bread machine - it was the perfect set of training wheels to finally teach me real bread. I wish I could find some rye flour around here - I am dying to try sourdough rye for patty melts!

[Phentex]

23. I still don't have a bread machine...

although I talk about getting one all the time. :)

I tend to make Italian loaves using store bought yeast.

I really love the flavor of the sour dough and you can make some mean cinnamon rolls out of it but I am very forgetful when it comes to feeding and maintaining a starter.

[Phentex]

12. It can be too much pressure for some people...

unless it's someone new to baking, many will run from you at the words "friendship bread" :D

[freshwest]

20. And there is that whole yeasty, moldy, mildewy connotation. But better than baking powder goods.

I can't eat anything with baking powder and not get a headache very quickly. Which means no cake, etc. for me. Some claim eating yeast bread also infects the body, but that's gotta be nonsense. It's thoroughly dead by then. Might be that too much starch causes some people to have an imbalance. Too much of anything does that, though. Interesting baking tales here.

I haven't made bread since the seventies, when I made it with whole wheat, cornmeal and rye flour into what we called 'cottage loaves.' Used safflower oil and honey and went to work kneading it over and over. It was a heavy, very satisfying bread, just one slice and you were full.

Also learned the pleasures of making whole wheat French brioche at that time, with all those eggs to make it light. Would make braided loaves of that with egg white and sesame seeds to take to holiday gatherings as an offering to the cook. People loved it.

:hi:

[Phentex]

24. Just reading this makes me want bread...

I could eat it every day. But I don't.



MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[raccoon]

19. And for enemy bread you add lots of dried plums? nt

[freshwest]

21. Um, better to give them some of those chocolate ex-lax brownies, I'd think. But don't do that...

[City Lights]

25. Yes, and I absolutely loved it!

Haven't had any in quite a few years now. It was delicious! :9

[murielm99]

26. That brings back memories.

I had friendship bread in the nineties. I made it for my family for about five years, and passed on the batter to several people. My husband brought the bread and the batter to work many times.

I just stopped making it when I got too busy. It was good, though.