- Hey, everyone, it's Dorothy with crazyforcrust.com,
and welcome back to my kitchen.
Tell me if you remember Amish friendship bread?
That's that bread that has a starter
that grows on your counter, and then every 10 days
you get to make a loaf of quick bread with it.
Who remembers that?
Back in the 80s, we had starter
on our counter for months.
I think I ate more of this bread
back then when I was a kid than I ate vegetables.
Today I'm going to walk you through how
to make your starter from scratch
and how to raise it on your counter,
how to make the quick bread out of it,
and how to share it with your friends.
(upbeat music)
We've all been stuck at home for what seems like forever,
and from my analytics, you all
are loving making your own starters,
and so I'm going to show you how
to make this Amish bread today from beginning to end.
I'm going to show you how to make the starter,
how to grow it, how to make the bread out of it,
and how to share it with your friends.
You're not going to want to miss it.
Let's get in the kitchen.
Before we get started, be sure to subscribe
to my channel for more delicious and easy recipes.
We're going to start with active dry yeast.
In a pinch you can use instant yeast,
but there are slightly different directions,
so be sure and read the recipe.
You're going to use one packet,
which is two and a quarter teaspoons.
Dissolve your yeast in hot water
and let it sit to bloom and activate.
Then add one cup each of flour and granulated sugar
to a plastic or glass bowl and stir.
And then add one cup of milk, any fat content,
and whisk to combine that.
Then you're going to add the bloomed yeast and stir it.
Now here's a note.
Don't use metal whisk like I show.
That was a mistake on my part.
Just this whisking is fine, but ongoing use
of metal will hurt the chemical reaction of the starter,
so don't use metal utensils or metal bowls
when you're making or stirring your starter.
Stir it all together, and then cover it
with a kitchen towel.
You're going to set it on your counter.
Don't refrigerate it.
Once you've made your starter, it's time to raise it,
and so it's going to take 10 days
from day one when you first make your starter
until it's ready to bake with it,
and over that 10 days, we're going to babysit it a little bit.
Once a day on days two, three, and four,
stir the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Again, don't use the metal like I did.
Then recover it every day.
Now that it's day five, we're going to feed our starter,
and you're going to feed it with a combination
of flour, sugar, and milk, stir it,
and then you're going to continue babysitting it
for another five days until it's time to bake with it.
To feed your starter, add one cup each flour,
sugar, and milk, and then stir it.
Cover it, and let it sit again.
On days six through nine, you're going to stir
and cover it, also.
Just like you did on the other days.
It's finally day 10.
Our starter has been growing for 10 days.
We're going to feed it today,
and then we're going to bake bread with it,
and then I'm going to show you how to share it
with your friends.
On day 10, you're going to feed it again,
adding one cup of flour, one cup of milk,
and one cup of granulated sugar.
Then you're going to stir it together.
Make sure, again, to use a wooden spoon or a spatula.
It might end up being slightly lumpy, but that's okay.
Today's the day we're going to bake with it,
and we're going to divvy it up to give it to our friends.
So cover it until you're ready to bake.
To bake the bread, whisk together two cups of flour,
one and quarter teaspoons of baking powder,
one teaspoon of baking soda, a half teaspoon of salt,
and one teaspoon of cinnamon.
Whisk it all together, and then set it aside.
Then you're going to measure out one cup of your starter.
Make sure not to use any metal measuring cups or bowls.
Add your one cup of starter to a glass or plastic bowl,
then add 2/3 of a cup of oil and one cup of sugar.
Stir it together until it's smooth.
Then you're going to add three large eggs, one at a time.
Make sure to stir between each egg addition.
After the third egg, you're also going to add
one teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Stir it together until it's nice and smooth and combined.
Once the eggs are all mixed in, add your flour mixture
and stir it together.
It's going to be a nice, thick quick bread dough.
At this point, once it's mixed together,
you can add chopped nuts or chocolate chips.
I'm dividing my dough in half and baking them
in two four by eight pans or nine by five pans
sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
I'm going to bake one with cinnamon sugar on top,
and one that has chocolate chips in it.
You can do it both the same, or two different.
Bake at 325 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes.
Then it's time to prepare your starter
to give away to friends.
Measure out one cup of starter per person,
and add it to a plastic bag.
You're going to seal the plastic bag
and remove all the air, and then you can
just give it to your friends.
Make sure that you include directions
on feeding and on baking the bread.
I usually give away two starters, keep one,
and bake with one, but sometimes you'll have
one extra cup of starter left,
so you can give it to a third friend
or bake a second batch of bread.
And when you're all done baking your bread,
this is what you get, a gorgeous
and really, really fragrant loaf of quick bread.
Now you can do anything that you want to this.
This is the cinnamon sugar loaf.
I made it in the big loaf pan,
but you can make smaller loaves.
You can add chocolate chips to this.
You can add nuts.
Believe me, once you start your starter,
you're going to get very familiar
with this quick bread recipe.
All right, everyone leave me a comment
and let me know what your memories
of Amish friendship bread are.
Keep watching.
I have my starters all packaged up.
I'm going to go drop them off at my friends' houses.
(soft music)