Conference turris::cooks

    I'm not really sure this is what you want but here goes:
    
    It sounds like some of the syrup from a "friendship bowl".  To make
    a friendship bowl you start with 1 C. sugar, 1 C fruit (a little
    overripe is good) and 1 C rum.  Stir.  Each week add 1 C. fruit
    and 1 C sugar and let it sit out on the counter.  The whole thing
    ferments.  When you need a present for someone, you just give them
    a cup of fruit from your "friendship bowl".  It's also good on ice
    cream or pound cake.
    
    Use almost any kind of fruit, the more kinds the better.  (I'm not
    sure I'd use bananas - they would mush up.)
    
    Does this sound like what you want?
    
    Sally
    

    re: .1
    
    I don't know if that is what I'm after or not!  Here is the recipe 
    to what I'm looking for (I probably should have included it in the first
    place!).  What do you think?
    
    
    				FRIENDSHIP CAKE
    
    First Day:
    
    In glass container, mix together 1-1/2 cups of 'starter juice',
    2-1/2 cups of sugar and one large can (2-1/2 cups - 29 oz.) of sliced
    peaches and the juice.  Put lid on, but not tight.  Do not refrigerate.
    Stir each day for 10 days.
    
    Day 10:
    
    Add 2-1/2 cups of sugar and one large can of chunk pineapple with
    juice.  Stir once daily for ten days.
    
    Day 20:
    
    Add two 9 oz. jars of maraschino cherries (no juice).  Stir once
    daily for ten more days.
    
    Day 30:
    
    Drain fruits, saving the starter juice.  You will have enough starter
    juice for yourself and three friends.  You are now ready to bake
    three cakes.
    
    The following recipe is for each cake:
    
    		1-1/2 cups of fruit only
    		2/3 cup of Wesson Oil
    		1 cup chopped pecans
    		1 box yellow cake mix
    		4 eggs
    		1 small box of vanilla instant pudding
    		1/2 cup coconut
    
    Mix all ingredients and bake in greased and floured tube or bundt
    pan for about 1 hour and 15 minutes (test for doneness) in 300 degree
    oven.
    
    Note:
    
    If you can't bake cakes on the 30th day, drain fruit.  Do not stir
    it and do not refrigerate.  You may wait up to one week to bake
    cakes.  BUT STARTER MUST BE STARTED TODAY.
    
    Cake freezes well.
        

    That sounds like sourdough starter.
    
    It has the same problem as the brandied-fruits stuff (which were
    a big fad for a while when I was in high school): you have to use
    some of it up every week or ten days in order to keep the culture
    going, and you can only eat such stuff so many times before you
    get tired of it.  So, I only make "fake" sourdough bread (has yoghurt
    in it to make it sour).  And I have long since gotten rid of the
    brandied-fruit culture.

    Amish Friendly (or Friendship) bread is not supposed to be
    refrigerated, at least according to my directions.  You can however
    put it in the freezer if you want to save some starter but don't feel
    like baking bread every 10 days.  My directions also specified that
    you should never use anything metal, so I always kept mine in a covered
    plastic bowl and stired with a wooden spoon.  The starter was fed with
    1 cup of flour, sugar and milk on the 5th day, then again on the 10th
    day.  It's important to stir the starter on the days you don't feed it
    or it would and could blow the cover off the bowl and ooze out of the
    container!  After feeding on the 10th day, you then take out 3 cups of 
    starter to give to three friends which leaves you with about 1 3/4 cup of 
    starter.  It is to this that you add eggs, oil, flour, sugar, spices, 
    baking soda, baking powder.  Then, last but not least, you could add 
    anything from mashed banana and nuts or blueberries or dried or candied 
    fruit... the list is almost endless.  I have always had good results.
    I have one cup in the freezer now and I'm willing give away two cups
    when I decide to thaw it out for another batch of bread.  I don't know
    when that will be though.  
    
    Tracey 
    (who_works_in_Marlboro)  
    

    Here's an interesting tid bit about the Friendship Bread.  This bread
    is based on a sourdough starter like many others.  Unfortunately the
    recipe going around my building does not say this.  Some of the people
    who have the Amish Friendship Bread recipe are using the "feed" recipe
    as the starter recipe.  Had a rousing argument this morning with one
    of the secretaries when I gave her a sourdough starter recipe.  She 
    said that wasn't part of the Friendship Bread.  Nothing I say can
    convince her because the woman who gave her the recipe told her that
    the "feed" (flour, sugar and milk) is also the starter.
    
    Should be interesting when I bring in a "REAL" Amish Friendship Bread
    made from sourdough!
    
    Will let you know what happens.
    
    Linda
    

RE: .12

>    Nothing I say can
>    convince her because the woman who gave her the recipe told her that
>    the "feed" (flour, sugar and milk) is also the starter

Well, this is true, in a way.  Sourdough is merely bread where lactic bacteria
provide the leavening in place of the yeast used in normal leavened bread.
A flour/sugar/milk mixture left at room temperature eventually will start to
turn sour (due to proliferation of lactic bacteria), at which point it has
become sourdough starter.  So the "feed" is also the starter, if you're
initiating the "friendship bread" process from the ground up.

--PSW

    I have a strange question to ask all the bakers out there.  I was
    given a starter and a recipe for Amish Friendship Bread.    I will
    put the recipe here because  I think that all the starter contains
    is flour, sugar, milk and I would like to know if these starters
    could be frozen.
    
      Recipe:
    
    When you get the "starter", put it in a large bowl and cover.  Do
    not refrigerate, do not use metal utensils or bowls.
    
      Day 1 - Do nothing
      Day 2,3,4 - Stir with a wooden spoon daily.
      Day 5 - Add one cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk. Stir with
        wooden spoon.
      Day 6,7,8,9 - Stir with a wooden spoon daily.
      Day 10  Add 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk. Stir with
        wooden spoon.
      Pour batter into 3-1 cup containers and cover.  Give to 3 friends
        with these instructions.
    
      To the remainder of the batter add:
        2/3 Cup oil
        3 eggs
        2 cups flour
        1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
        1 cup sugar
        1 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg
        1/2 tsp each baking soda, salt
    
      At this point you can add candied fruit, 2 cups diced apples,
        raisons, nuts, apricots, whatever.  ( I added 2 cups diced
        apples and approx. 1 cup of walnuts.
      Mix well with a wooden spoon.  Pour batter into 2 well-greased
    and floured loaf pans (I used PAM and no flour and it turned out
    real well)
     Bake 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees.
    
    Now my question about this is that I have 3 starters and don't know
    too many people around here that bake.  I assume that the started
    contains flour, sugar milk and maybe a little yeast ( I'm not sure).
    Do you think these startes can be frozen?  This makes two large
    loafs of bread, and I put one in the freezer.  There is no way that
    we could eat both by the time a starter is ready to be made into
    bread again......
    
    Thanks for any help....
    
    Sarah

    Starters cannot be frozen because the freezing kills the fermentation. 
    Amish Friendship Bread is great stuff.  We were into it for a while but
    let the starter go.

    I have several batches of starter frozen and have had no problems using
    it or with the fermentation.  In fact, I plan on taking one out tonight
    and beginning the process.
    
    Deb

    I think it's safe to say the starter can be frozen because I have done
    it and I know many other people who have frozen it.  How long it will 
    remain good is the question.
    
    My mother just showed me a recipe in the Globe on Wednesday from the
    Confidential Chat for recipe's and there is a recipe to start the
    starter.  I don't have a copy of it yet, but maybe someone else still
    has that paper and would like to enter the recipe because I remember
    the last time Amish Friendly Bread was discussed, nobody seemed to know
    how it was started.
    
    I know there is no yeast in it, but there is vinegar.  
    
     - Tracey

    I'm wondering about an Amish Friendship Bread recipe - the starter
    dough consists of 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour & 1 cup of milk that sits in
    a covered bowl for 10 days!  You don't refrigerate this.  After 4 days
    you add more of the same ingredients & at the 10th day you add more
    ingredients (ei: eggs, vanilla, etc.) then bake it.
    
    I'm wondering about the 10 days that the milk is in this recipe & not
    refrigerated - should this be a health concern?  I've tasted the bread 
    and it's delicious - but it would be even better knowing that it's safe
    to eat.
    
    Thanks in advance.
    Sonia
    
    P.S.  You stir that batter everyday.
    

    The Amish have been around for a long time... in fact, they live longer 
    than must of us! and they do not have refrigerators, that must mean
    that their recipes ARE safe to eat, don't you think? I had a batch of
    that starter and made many different types of cakes, muffins and
    

To make starter from scratch, combine in a non-metalic container:

	1.25 cups of brandy
	1.25 cups of sugar
	16 oz can of peach slices drained
	17 oz can of apricot halves drained
	15.25 oz can of pineapple chunks drained
	10 oz bottle of maraschino cherries drained

Stir the mixture daily, it will yield some brandied fruit that you can serve 
over cake or icecream or in crepes as well as the starter juice for friendship
cake.  You can probably use the fruit in a cake even though the cake recipe 
calls for fruit that has been brandied for 30 days.

For those who are interested and who read The Boston Globe,
the recipe for Friendship Cake, including the starter,
was in the Confidential Chat on Wednesday, 16 Nov 1990.  

<<Linda 

    Hi,
    
    Tried writting this in note 393, however, its locked.  Feel free to
    move it.
    
    I have a starter for the Frienship cake 393.13 (the one you use fruit
    with) if anyone is interested in it.  My husband works in ZKO and my
    sister works in MKO, I however, work further north DOO.  I have 4
    left, you'd have to take it this week, I go on vacation next week.
    Send me mail if your interested.
    
    Regards,
    Karen Flecchia
    MTWASH::
    

I have made the Amish Friendship Bread -- not the cake, but was given the
starter by someone.  I would like to start this up again.  Rereading
these notes, none of these are really what I used to start the Bread.  I
don't want the fermented fruit, the ice cream topping, etc.  The directions
in .3 are what I used.

Can someone help me out??


dana

I have frozen and then used a starter for Amish Friendship Bread.  It 
sounds like the same recipe I had.

Barbara

Is there anyone out there who can answer my request in .16?  I need the
starter recipe for the bread -- not with fruit?  Or does anyone have a 
starter they could share?  I live in NH and work in LKG?  I promise, I 
will never throw away my extra starter again!!!


dana