Amish friendship bread sugar and flour content

[tofuhead]

Hi all,

I am trying to make my baking more healthy, but this is a new idea for me so I need some help.

My friend gave me some amish friendship bread starter and after trying her loaf I noticed it was REALLY sweet. Since the starter has sugar in it already I'd like an opinion on cutting out most of the sugar in the dry ingredients portion (or possibly subsitute a ripe banana, I'm fine with amish friendship banana bread =P). I'm not really a fan of using sugar substitutes like Splenda and would rather use natural ingredients like fruit to sweeten my baked goods.

Also, I assume the receipe just calls for regular white flour, but can someone recommend a different flour to make the bread more nutritious?

Recipe below (from the armchair website):
1 cup live yeast starter
day 1: Do nothing with the starter. days 2-5: Stir with a wooden spoon. day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Stir with a wooden spoon. days 7-9: Stir with a wooden spoon. Day 10: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Stir. Take out 3 cups and place 1 cup each into three separate plastic containers. Give one cup and a copy of this recipe to three friends. To the balance (a little over one cup) of the batter, add the following ingredients and mix well.
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup nuts

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

 

[JoeV]

First of all, welcome to DC. Secondly, I have no clue how to answer your question because I'm a relative newby to this myself. I do like the idea of sharing the starter with friends. I have done that with mine as well.

I imagine someone will stop by to answer how to make your bread more nutritious. I'm just happy not having all those preservatives in my bread.

Joe

 

[bethzaring]

whenever someone gives me a starter of this friendship bread, I politely thank them, and then put the goo on my compost pile. In my opinion, there is no redeeming value to this bread, it is invariably made with white flour and has a high sugar content. Have you looked into the New York Times bread recipe which has a few threads on this forum? It takes very well to whole grain flours.

 

[suziquzie]

I don't call it bread I call it cake.
I make a few batches, have FUN (that's what it's about to me) for awhile, freeze a few and forget it for another year.
A loaf or 2 won't make you unhealthy.

 

[JMediger]

I don't call it bread I call it cake...

I agree, it's not a sandwich making bread, it's a dessert cake / bread ... we enjoy a loaf from time to time (have frozen a ton from doing it with my sister last year) and have enjoyed trying the different pudding / extract combo's. Somewhere here, there is a thread where people shared different combinations ...

If you want to cut the sugar, do it at the final step, when you are baking your loaf, not during the different add stages or it won't turn out right. A portion of the sugar is necessary during the add stage for the yeast to grow appropriately to be divided (did that make sense?). I tried one using applesauce rather than the sugar and it turned out alright. I'll try to remember what else I changed that time since it added more liquid as well ... As for the flour, it don't know why other, whole grain flours wouldn't work other than they might alter the flavor and texture.

In all of it, don't forget that you are not making a sandwich type bread but a dessert / snack bread. Like Beth mentioned, if you are looking for a sandwich bread, try the New York Times bread - YUM!

 

[tofuhead]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I did not change the flour, but I did cut the sugar in 1/2 and it was still pretty sweet. The pudding mix must do it. Next time I will probably even cut down the sugar to 1/4 cup.

I substituted all the oil for applesauce and it was a perfect complement to the cinnamon. Usually when I sub applesauce for oil I can't really taste the apples but it came through this time. It would have been wonderful if I put chunks of apple in it.

This was a fun experience.