yeast bread help

[thalionar]

So, I have this "friendship bread" starter. Very tasty. I've made the version with instant pudding, a version without instant pudding, a version with bananas, and a version with raisins and 5 spice powder instead of cinnamon (YUM

Comments

[finefinemusic]

Is that similar to the six-days-outside-of-fridge Amish bread that my MIL tried to give to me? I messed it up 'cause my arm was broken at the time (good planning? hah) but I do intend on making some in the future.. mmm.

[thalionar]

yep, pretty much the same thing. The starter is dead easy to make, some yeast and equal parts of milk, flour and sugar. I think it starts with 1 tbs yeast and a cup each of the others.

The nice thing is, it really is pretty hard to kill the starter if you stir it every once in a while and feed it a little bit at least (I've found that just a tbs each of flour, milk and sugar will keep it going for a couple of weeks). The stirring every day thing isn't really necessary, either, although it does help keep it from exploding your container :)

[finefinemusic]

No kidding! I had it outside of the fridge, periodically mixing it for two weeks (I think directions were ~one) - when my arm finally healed enough to be useful, I opened it, smelled it, and threw it out. Do you think it was probably okay? I just couldn't put enough faith into anything to keep a (large Ziplock) bag of milk outside for more than 5 hours! I did have some of my MIL's finished product though and it was delicious.

[thalionar]

yeah, it was probably OK, the thing with this is that the yeast eats all the bits that would spoil. It should smell kind of like beer, maybe a little sweeter, maybe a little more sour, but a definite yeasty smell.

That said, you can get other things in your starter, even if you're careful, and that can turn it. :(

[lucyloveslave]

I did the pudding version. I added chocolate chips and pecans, and did it in mini loaves
It was yummy.