Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Friendship Bread

I've been thinking about having a theme on Wednesday, so I'm starting a recurring topic on my blog "Wondering Wednesdays". For future Wednesdays, I will be posting about different topics that I may be wondering about - OR - here's where my readers come into play. If you have something YOU were wondering about, then I will be happy to post and put that on the next week's Wednesday post... So here goes...
One of my friends at work gave me a starter to the enfamous Omish Cinnamon Friendship Bread. The whole idea of this process completely intrigues me; how in the world can the ingredients be safe to eat if they've been sitting out on the counter - and not only have they been sitting out on my counter, but before that, they were sitting out on someone elses counter. For those of you who, like me, are unfamiliar with the process here is a bit of an explaination...
The whole idea behind friendship bread is that a friend gives you a starter and then about ten days later you have the makings to cook the ingredients into bread. During that ten days you do a combination of squishing the bag, adding flour, sugar, and milk and then squish some more. Once you reach the tenth day, then you pour four cups of the ingredients into four separate bags and give to four friends...then cook the rest. I've had it before, so I know it's delicious, but just have no idea how the ingredients stay good. I'm sure it has something to do with yeast, but not sure... So since it's "wondering wednesday" I'm wondering if there is anyone out there that can explain this phenomenon...please feel free to leave me a comment to let me know what you think:).

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6 comments:

Marlene said...

Lots of people I know have done the Amish Friendship Bread thing. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I remember reading somewhere that the yeast consumes the sugars in the milk, breaking it down from it's regular composition...and that's why it doesn't "go bad" like you'd expect.

Enjoy your bread!

Lisa Dorsey said...

LOL can't explain it but now I am hungry for Amish friendship bread. Haven't had that in years!

Unknown said...

The ingredients stay "good" because they are alive. They are active and growing and that's why you have to "feed" it. My husband knows more, he's the bread baker in our family. But, it's a sourdough starter. I know that it has to stay warm so that it can bubble and do it's thing. If you put it in the fridge it could die. It might still work, but instead of 10 days you might be looking at 20! LOL!

ellen s. said...

i have heard about this before, i heard it's really good!

Kristin P. said...

I have wondered that too! Adding milk to something and then letting it sit out on the counter kinda turned me away. I know plenty of people that do it though!

Anonymous said...

I love friendship bread. I used to do it back in VA but haven't done it down here in Alabama, maybe that is what I could do to get to know my neighbors. You are the best, thanks for your post, you helped me and didn't even know it. Love your blog.