PrintAmish Friendship Bread?
Today the local paper features an article about Amish Friendship Bread. If you compliment the baker after sampling this stuff, s/he is obliged to gift you with a bagful of starter that requires 10 days of labor-intensive cultivation, along with stern instructions to pass along three portions of starter after you've baked your bread. For me, that would put the end back in friendship...but maybe that's just me. Have any of you encountered this wacky ritual?
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12 Comments:
Yup! And the recipes I've received are quite addictive (to eat). Mine have turned out more like a coffee cake--a cinnamon streusel topping, very sweet and more cake than bread-like for sure.
As far as the labor-intensity, it's really not too bad. Place the bag of starter on your counter and just be sure to mash it up a bit everyday. Keep track of the starting day, and it's really not too difficult. Definitely worth it in the end!
luswim06 at 10:20PM on 02/28/08
I was given Friendship Bread when my husband and I moved into our first home - about 15 years ago. I remember it as a quick bread - I don't think it was that memorable, but liked getting the "gift." My son just brought up the idea of Friendship bread and asked if we could make some. I guess it is back again.
eatmyfood at 10:32PM on 02/28/08
Wow - 30 some years ago Friendship Cake culture with recipe was being passed around in NJ. No Amish attached and it wasn't bread, per se. I think it had fruit and/or nuts? Too long ago to remember. You were supposed to keep some of the culture for yourself, and I eventually tossed it. Anyone else remember that?
PerkyMac at 11:32PM on 02/28/08
The version I'm familiar with was basically a sourdough that you used to make a fairly sweet bready cakey thing. It was one of those things that when it first came around, everyone really, really wanted to make some but after a while, everyone had tried it once or twice, and didn't want to get stuck babysitting yet another batch of dough. But of course, no one wanted to just throw it away. I'm thinking that it must have been mid-70s when it was touring around Chicago.
dbcurrie at 12:02AM on 02/29/08
I had that too, in the late 90s. It was okay - all the recipes that came with my starter were far too sweet. Before long, between that and graduating high school, it got neglected for too long and tossed
Peasantwench at 9:51AM on 02/29/08
I got a batch of it last summer and made a few loaves with it, but we'd just moved, so I didn't really have any "friends" to give it to, so we gave up on it.
jmoilanen at 10:23AM on 02/29/08
@ eatmyfood - it never really went away. My recollection is the same as yours - a quick bread - kind of crossed with a sourdough. The whole notion of "feeding" it created more batter which you gave away as a gesture of "friendship" and not to be wasteful.
@ Peasantwench - I remember it being "the fruitcake of the 90's" to the point where you couldn't give the stuff away. I think by then everyone who wanted it had a taste of it. I remember having some and using a lot of it for baking small quick breads which I gave out at Christmas. After that, I didn't have much use for it.
It seems like an awful waste to toss some out if you don't use it and it needs feeding but the truth is, that happens with a lot of sourdough bread starters too. You can have this friendship bread starter and if you pour a little out each time you feed it, you will not have to bake with it every day, nor burden... I mean gift your friends with it either.
chiff0nade at 10:43AM on 02/29/08
I got a batch last summer...I LOVED eating the bread. The first time. I couldn't find enough friends to give it to (sad, I know!) so I ended up making everything, starters and all, into bread. I think it's still in the bottom of my freezer! That much oil in one loaf pan is nothing to sneeze at!
Teahlo at 4:06PM on 02/29/08
The new version going around makes you add instant vanilla pudding. I've had a straight up non sweet sourdough one that isn't bad at all. I've turned down the new one several times because it is overwhelmingly sweet and tastes chemical-ly besides. People who are good friends know better than try and foist it off on me!
Figlet at 4:33PM on 02/29/08
The new version going around makes you add instant vanilla pudding.
@ Figlet... Oh, for crying out loud! Is nothing sacred??? Has Sandra Lee infiltrated the realm of Amish Friendship Bread??
chiff0nade at 7:49AM on 03/01/08
Sounds like the culinary version of a chain letter/e-mail.
beth1 at 4:39PM on 03/02/08
@chiff - here we go again! SL is like a haunting.
crazyspice at 4:45PM on 03/02/08