Recipe: Amish Friendship Sourdough Bread

I had an extra cup of Amish Friendship batter frozen that I needed to use up. I wasn't sure exactly what to do with it, so I did some research to see if I could find a recipe that didn't require too many ingredients... and I ran across this recipe:

Amish Sourdough Bread

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp salt
1 - 1/2 cups warm water
1 cup Amish batter
6 cups bread flour

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Oil bottom & sides of large bowl & put bread dough in. Let stand overnight at room temperature. In morning, punch dough down 4-5 times and divide into 3 equal balls. Kneed each ball 8-10 times and put into 3 greased and floured loaf pans. Brush tops with oil and cover with oiled foil. Let stand 4-5 hours or all day. (If dough has not risen well, put small pan of water on bottom rack in oven, heat to 200 degrees, turn off oven. Put dough on top rack for 1-2 hours.) Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. (Cover with foil after lightly browned.)


I didn't have bread flour, so I used regular flour. I found the dough super sticky so I added an extra cup of flour... which helped it from sticking so much, but I wonder if that was the reason why it didn't rise as much as I thought it would... Like the instructions suggested, my dough didn't rise overnight, so I put it in the warmed oven for a couple hours and then baked it at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. The bread turned out absolutely delicious! It is on the sweeter side. I think it would be a great dough for cinnamon raisin bread.

I also wonder if it didn't rise as much because I had frozen the dough... but I want to say it wouldn't have mattered because it had some bubbles once it had thawed out. I will just have to experiment with it more later. More to come!

Either way, the bread still turned out very yummy!!!