Amish Friendship Starter: Sour Dough Bread

If you haven't been following my series on

Amish Friendship Bread you can check HERE
for the original post. We have been making several different recipes with it every 10 days
and you can see those HERE on my Recipe page.

The last few times I haven't shared a new recipe because we have repeated some that we have already done, but today was different -
we made Sour Dough Bread!

This recipe uses ONE cup of the Starter to
make the two loaves of bread - but it DOES
take almost 3 hours, and that includes the
30-35 minutes in the oven. It is worth it though... when it pops out of the oven and you add a little butter to that warm slice! It's almost like a slice of heaven
:)

You need:
1 package yeast
1.5 cups warm water (110-115 degrees for activating the yeast - do NOT let it get too hot!)
6 cups flour
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water - I do this right in my Kitchen Aid mixer bowl! Add 2.5 cups flour, salt, sugar and friendship bread starter. I let it rip a bit on low with the bread hook, and then add 2.5 cups flour and the baking soda. Then I add the last cup of flour - and let it go just a bit longer.
I dump it onto the lightly floured counter and knead it for about 7 minutes by hand, until it is smooth and elastic. It's a GREAT way to vent any frustration, LOL!

Then I lightly grease a bowl with butter....OK, maybe NOT so lightly, LOL!

Then I put the dough in it ...

And roll it around in the bowl until it's all pretty well greased

I cover it with a towel and put in a warm place for an hour or so - until it doubles in size.

My favorite spot? On a cooling rack, in front of my fridge vents!

It doesn't take long and you have this:

Easily twice the size!

Then dump it out and punch it down - Sarah loves this part!

Then cut the dough in half and let it "rest" a bit - about 10 minutes.

Grease two bread pans and add the dough to them.

Score the tops in some way (I do X shapes)

Cover and put back into your warm spot for another hour

It will double in size again and be oven ready!

400 degrees for 30 minutes or so...and you have the beautiful, golden, yummy bread!

I know this seems like a lot of work -

but most of the time it is simply sitting in your "warm spot" and doing it's own thing.
It is SOOOOOO worth it!

=)