I had a bread day yesterday. I wish I was a real bread baker, but I'm a fake-bread baker. I keep saying I want to bake real bread, but it's so quick and easy to make tasty loaves of banana bread and pumpkin bread and my newest obsession: Amish Friendship Bread. I had looked up how to make a starter batch, but all the reviews were mixed to negative so I figured I would just pine away thinking of the last time I made it (which was maybe 14 years ago- ack, that sounds weird).No sooner had I given up on the notion of revisiting the tangy, sweet AFB then my dear BFF gave me a starter! OMG! She's in my head, and I love it. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of Amish Friendship Bread, it's like a chain letter for you kitchen. You are given an active yeast "starter" and you grow it on your counter for ten days, adding sugar, milk, and flour until it ferments and multiplies. Then you share the bready goodness by dividing up the batter into "starters" and passing them onto friends. I always keep one for myself because once you have this tasty goodness, you are hooked for a while. Then you add dry ingredients to your remaining batter and crust you pan with sugar and bake to perfection. It's pretty impossible to mess up and there are all sorts of variations and extras you can add. I think we ate two loaves of it yesterday. My children are still young enough not to be able to defend themselves, so I will say that they ate most of it.
So the noodle part: I had learned a trick from an online friend of mine (who also gave me a brownie recipe I need to share) to use a spaghetti noodle to check the doneness of baked goods. I grew up using a toothpick, but I can't seem to keep them around (little boxes of little things are so tempting for little fingers) so I just started stabbing cakes and my fake-breads with knives. Functional, yes, but not aesthetically pleasing. Then came the noodle trick. Love it because I always have pasta on hand and it makes me feel so clever. Hate it because I occasionally have spaghetti in my loaf. You can't wiggle the noodle. Seems like a no brainer, but since I have been used to tilting the knives to test the firmness of the goody innards, I keep forgetting that pasta breaks easier than cutlery. I have yet to come across the broken noodles, though- it might be like that "other sock."
3 comments:
Tragically, my starter was a victim of my last minute move in February. I figured I'd just make my own starter, but now I'm curious about these negative reviews you've read! What'd they say?
Also, I hardly ever make "real" bread either. It's not even that it takes all that much more active work, it's just that whole hours and hours of rising thing that puts me off. I read about a yeast bread that you can mix the dough for and leave in the fridge, pulling off pieces to bake as you need them. I think the recipe's in a book, though.
Was that on Angry Chicken? I've heard about that bread thing, too. Unless the book has pictures and rhyming text, I'm afraid I'll never read it. ;)
Holee Molee - 2 comments before I even made it over here. Okay, well one doesn't count, but anyway...here is a recipe for the starter - with reviews:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amish-Friendship-Bread-Starter/Detail.aspx
Though the mystery of having to obtain the starter from a friend is much more fun.
You gotta get around to baking some "real" bread, Tessa! It's perfect for people with no time, because you can leave a stage until you are ready to deal w/it. Perfect for mommies with only 10 mins. or so of 'free time.' Wait until you have chickens (or just borrow mine), though, so that if you accidentally bake a doorstop the first time, it won't totally go to waste.
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