Friendship Bread Sourdough Starter Recipe
Let me be perfectly honest with you, I can not make a successful, proper sourdough starter to save my life. The type I am talking about is the original sourdough starter of 1 cup flour to 1 cup water. They seem to always separate on me, and that means it is hungry. But once I feed the starter, it goes flat. It also stops growing bubbles and rising.
Now, I enjoy cheating a little and use the Amish Friendship Bread starter for some of my sourdough loaves of bread. It makes me not only successful in bread baking but happy. It can infuriate tending to a jar of starter only to throw it away because it is unusable.
This method of starter is easier because you don’t have to feed it on a rigid schedule of a couple of times a day but merely every four to five days. You also don’t have to wait to see if you have any yeast for the starter. The recipe already starts you out with 2-1/4 tsp of dry, active yeast. Your only job is to maintain it and keep it happy.
I was given a batch of friendship bread starter years ago and after a while let it go. Now we are in the middle of the 2020 pandemic, you know, the one of which I speak, and I thought it a good time as any to bring back my starter again. And this time I was planning on making more than just the pudding quick bread associated with this starter. Yes, you can use this starter to make actual sourdough bread loaves and biscuits and cinnamon rolls and so much more. It is actually a great way to use up a lot of the starter, especially if you have no one else to give batches to on day 10.
Tips on your Sourdough Starter
- You can keep the starter in a Ziploc bag, large bowl, or Ball Half-Gallon Jars, Wide Mouth
. The yeast will rise nearly 3/4 up the way of a half-gallon mason jar on day 1 of your first start, so the larger the container, the better.
- Keep a good airflow to your starter. Loosely tighten mason jar lids and rings or, my best method, rubber band a piece of cheesecloth to the top.
- Do not stir the starter with anything metal. Use plastic or Wooden Spatula Bamboo Utensil.
- Before stirring, you should see many different-sized bubbles on top. Then when you stir your starter, the bubbles will break and disappear. When you stop stirring, the bubble should immediately come back.
- If bubbles do not reappear after stirring, it is time to FEED.
- And if your starter separates, it is time to FEED. Perhaps move up the feed day to day 4 and day 9.
- If your starter smells like acetone, a strong nail polish remover, don’t worry, it’s not dead or gone bad, it is time to FEED.
- Keep the starter warm at all times. If left out on the counter at 70 degrees F, then it will eventually go flat and you will see no bubbles. Keep at 80-90 degrees F. Using a cooking thermometer is a great way to keep the temperature accurately.
- A warm oven with the Oven Light
on is a good place for your starter. I tape a large sign on the oven to remind anyone not to preheat the oven before taking out the starter jar.
- If you leave it on a cold counter, I like to wrap it in a towel warmed by the dryer.
. The yeast will rise nearly 3/4 up the way of a half-gallon mason jar on day 1 of your first start, so the larger the container, the better.
on is a good place for your starter. I tape a large sign on the oven to remind anyone not to preheat the oven before taking out the starter jar.Cost to make this recipe
Making a sourdough starter is quite cheap as it is flour and water. This one is just slightly more because it comprises flour, white granulated sugar, and milk. I calculated the entire batch to cost around $2.55 or about $0.43 per cup of starter to be used in bread recipes.
Recipes to use with your starter
Recipe adapted
Friendship Sourdough Bread Starter adapted from Friendship Bread Kitchen food blog. All images and texts are original to Vintage Mountain Homestead. Please visit our disclaimer page for more information.
Friendship Bread Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ tsp (1 pkg) dry active yeast room temperature….[$0.30]
- ¼ cup filtered water 110 °F….[$0]
- 3 cups milk warm, divided…[$0.69]
- 3 cups all purpose flour divided….[$0.69]
- 3 cups white granulated sugar divided….[$0.87]
Instructions
1. DAY 1
- Dissolve yeast in warmed water in a measuring cup, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes. The yeast should froth and grow at the top.
- While waiting for the yeast to grow, stir together one cup flour, one cup sugar, one cup milk in a large bowl or half-gallon mason jar until all clumps are broken up. Make sure your jar is large enough to grow through the ten days.
- Pour in frothy yeast in water and mix again.
- Loosely cover, you need air to move in and out. And set in a warm place. Temperatures should be 80-90°F.
2. DAY 2-4
- Stir once or twice a day for these days. There is no need to feed unless it is growing faster. Keep the jar in a warm place.
3. DAY 5
- Stir the container and add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup warm milk to the container, and stir again.
- Loosely cover and set in a warm place. Temperatures should be 80-90 °F.
4. DAY 6-9
- Stir once or twice a day for these days. There is no need to feed unless it is growing faster.
5. DAY 10
- Stir the container and add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup warm milk to the container, and stir again.
- Now is the time to divide into numerous ways. These are optional and you can do all of them or only one of them. It is up to you. 1. Take 1 cup of starter and add to another clean container and mark this as DAY 1. Add 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp flour, and 1 tbsp milk. This starter is to be fed and used for later.
- 2. Take 1 cup of starter and add to a clean container or Ziploc bag and mark as DAY 1. Add 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp flour, and 1 tbsp milk and give to a friend, as the term friendship bread came from. Make sure you give them instructions.
- 3. Take 1 cup and freeze it to start up your starter for later. Just thaw and start in a warm place on DAY 1.
- 4. Take 1 or more cups and bake with them in proper recipes.
Friendship Bread Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ tsp (1 pkg) active yeast, room temperature….[$0.30]
- ¼ cup filtered water, 110 °F….[$0]
- 3 cups milk, warm, divided…[$0.69]
- 3 cups all purpose flour, divided….[$0.69]
- 3 cups white granulated sugar, divided….[$0.87]
Instructions
DAY 1
- Dissolve 2 ¼ tsp (1 pkg) active yeast in warmed ¼ cup filtered water in a measuring cup, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes. The yeast should froth and grow at the top.
- While waiting for the yeast to grow, stir together one cup of the 3 cups all purpose flour, one cup of the 3 cups white granulated sugar, one cup of the 3 cups milk in a large bowl or half-gallon mason jar until all clumps are broken up. Make sure your jar is large enough to grow through the ten days.
- Pour in frothy yeast in water and mix again.
- Loosely cover, you need air to move in and out. And set in a warm place. Temperatures should be 80-90°F.
DAY 2-4
- Stir once or twice a day for these days. There is no need to feed unless it is growing faster. Keep jar in warm place.
DAY 5
- Stir container and add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup warm milk to container, and stir again.
- Loosely cover and set in warm place. Temperatures should be 80-90 °F.
DAY 6-9
- Stir once or twice a day for these days. There is no need to feed unless it is growing faster.
DAY 10
- Stir container and add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup warm milk to container, and stir again.
- Now is the time to divide into numerous ways. These are optional and you can do all of them or only one of them. It is up to you. 1. Take 1 cup of starter and add to another clean container and mark this as DAY 1. Add 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp flour, and 1 tbsp milk. This starter is to be fed and used for later.
- 2. Take 1 cup of starter and add to a clean container or Ziploc bag and mark as DAY 1. Add 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp flour, and 1 tbsp milk and give to a friend, as the term friendship bread came from. Make sure you give them instructions.
- 3. Take 1 cup and freeze it to start up your starter for later. Just thaw and start in a warm place on DAY 1
- 4. Take 1 or more cups and bake with it in proper recipes.