Friendship Bread on the First Full Day of Fall

I woke up this morning to temperatures in the upper 30s, not that I am complaining.  But, the crispness in the air is a true sign of the changing seasons.  So, amid the protests of my daughters, I insisted that jeans must be worn to school.  I did relent and allow them to take shorts in the backpacks.  But, at least I sent them out the door in jeans.  Good mom, I hope!

After I dropped the older three girls off at school, my youngest daughter asked if we could make friendship bread.  I thought that sounded like a great idea, so I let her take a start out of our freezer.  Starter, you may ask?  What is that?  I, too, wondered about this over the summer, when one of my friends gave me a friendship starter.  And, I will have to be honest, to date all my daughter and I have done is make more starter.  We always seem to run out of time in our days and never actually get the bread made.  But, I hope that this time we are able to complete the task that we start.  If not, well, we will be able to add to our starter stash.

So, back to my question. . .  What is a starter?  Simply stated, starter is a substitute for baking yeast in the friendship bread recipe.  It has been claimed that only the Amish know how to make a friendship bread starter, but there are plenty of recipes available to suggest otherwise.  Many bakers call their starters "mother bread," and they are very particular in their care of their starters!  It has also been suggested that the making and care of a good starter is more of an art that exact science.

Well, here it goes!  We have pulled one of our starters from the freezer.  The recipe that I have followed all summer is from The Cookie Counter.  Yet, a quick Google search shows that there are a lot of websites, blogs, and articles devoted to friendship breads and starters.  Today I am supposed to "DO NOTHING."  If the bag holding my starter becomes over inflated with air, then I need to burp the bag tomorrow.  Otherwise, I am supposed to do nothing tomorrow, too!

If you are interested in a starter, please let me know!  I have several to share in my freezer.  And, if you are interested in starting your own, check out Allrecipes.com.