PrintCan bread starter be frozen?
Approximately one week ago, my SO arrived home from the office bearing a small bag of goo. We had apparently been gifted with Amish Friendship Bread starter (friendship being the questionable term) and after several days of squishing the bag, I felt somewhat committed to the project. Tomorrow will mark the entire fermentation period and today I now have quite a large bag of bubbling goo.
Long story short - I know one person who may be interested in receiving a bag of starter, but what do I do with all the rest? Can it be successfully frozen in time or should I just bake up loaves and freeze them? I can't just throw it away - it's ALIVE!
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9 Comments:
You can freeze sour bread dough starter, so I imagine (but don't bite me if I'm wrong) you should be able to freeze it...
waterreflecting at 12:54PM on 04/12/08
Loaves should freeze alright, but the cold could kill the bacteria in the starter that give the bread its flavor and texture.
Also, it's called Amish friendship bread, but calls for instant pudding mix? (I don't know if yours does, but every one I've ever gotten has) That doesn't seem like a very Amish ingredient, so friendship isn't the only questionable part of the name.
sarahj at 12:56PM on 04/12/08
Granted, it's been about a hundred years and my memory could seriously use a sharpening, but I don't think the old "Friendship Cake/Bread" had anything instant. No pudding whatsoever that I can recall (but my blade is truly dull). I don't know when somebody added Amish and instant crap to the mix. I don't think I'd freeze it, but you don't need to keep a lot. I eventually threw mine out, although I did feel a wee bit guilty.
PerkyMac at 1:10PM on 04/12/08
These comments are funny...mostly because I had the same thoughts the other week when someone handed me a bag of goo and instructions that included instant pudding and other sorts of crap like that, under the heading "Amish" (etc). I looked at the person, reminded them that I am from a county in PA with a great number of Amish folks (Mifflin, if anyone cares) and in no uncertain terms informed this person that instant pudding and Amish recipes do not mesh.
We got a good laugh out of it, but I also remember wondering about the freezing of the goo. I ended up chucking the stuff in the trash and calling my folks to have then send me some actual Amish baked goods from back home. :)
jcmeloni at 2:23PM on 04/12/08
You should check this out - it's a video on how to care for and maintain your starter. It's really easy. breadtopia. Unless you want to only use the starter once, freezing it is fine, but if you want to maintain it for future use, you probably want to feed it instead.
chisai at 3:03PM on 04/12/08
Thanks for the memory jolt chisai. Now I remember, it was like a pet I never asked for or wanted, but I had to constantly FEED it! It wasn't for a fabulous bread I'd want to bake every few days for my family, it was some kind of pseudo fruit cake bread, but the instructions guilted you into guilting others and keeping some for yourself to prove genuine friendship. Like a friendship pyramid scheme of a living evil sort of thing. It takes real courage to kill it, but you'll feel better in the long run.
PerkyMac at 3:14PM on 04/12/08
@jcmeloni.......PA here, too. I want some bacon egg and cheese bread from Shady Maple. Ever try it?
PerkyMac at 3:38PM on 04/12/08
True @Perky. I kept mine going for over 10 years, but was really only into baking bread for maybe 2 of them, with occasional forays out for special occasions. But keeping the starter made me feel like I was weekly doing the whole Mother Earth kneading thing. Then one day I really needed the space in my fridge and dumped it. It was like an enormous weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
chisai at 6:27PM on 04/12/08
Thanks guys - I was also wondering about the instant vanilla pudding thing. Somehow I didn't imagine the Amish having anything labeled "JELLO" in their pantries, either. LOL...
I'm going to try a batch tomorrow with some apple, walnuts and the requisite cinnamon and sugar. The recipe seems quite sweet, but what's the worse that can happen? SO will take it in to the office with him on Monday AM to share with the goo-giver and other co-workers. Tit-for-tat.
Does anyone remember a sourdough coffeecake recipe called "Herman"? SO still talks about it - his mom used to make it "all the time" (I asked her and that's not quite accurate), but the premise sounds similar.
frederika at 7:55PM on 04/12/08