Sunday, November 9, 2008

The Amish Friendship Bread Experiment

A friend recently gave me a few batches of Amish Friendship Bread.

You know the stuff... you get a cup of goop, spend 5 or 6 days stirring it up, add some sugar, flour and milk, then spend a few more days mixing it up...?

Anyway, she offered me a starter batch. When I realized that Hillary was going to her sister's, I asked for 2 so I could send one to Johanna, who used to love the bread that was made from it.

When I got home, I found I'd been given 3 starters.

For the first 5 days I didn't think about it.

Today was day 6, when the first bit of sugar and flour is to be added.

SO, since I have 2 bags of goopy white gunk at the back of the counter, I decided to try something.

To one bag I added the required ingredients- sugar, all-purpose white flour, 1% milk.

To the other bag, I added half sugar and half Splenda, whole wheat flour and skim milk.

I would have gone all Splenda on the second bag, but I figure it needs some sugar for the fermentation process that it obviously going on.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the final outcome.

Practical Science.

Isn't that what Home Ec is all about?

4 comments:

  1. Interesting. We await the outcome with growling stomachs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am convinced that you don't actually have to go the journey with the starter because the recipe has leavening stuff in it. In fact, I have a friend who freezes the starter until it's convenient for her. Wouldn't that kill any supposed fermentation? Either way, the stuff tastes dangerously good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The one with splenda should only manage half the 'growth' as the sugar is fuel for the yeast, rather than sweetening for the bread - unless it's a sweet bread.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I freeze the starter all the time. Unthaw, and then start at day 5. I make two loaves, reserving one cup of starter each time. Lovely.

    ReplyDelete