If you’ve baked Amish Friendship Bread before, you know that it doesn’t take long before you have Amish Friendship Bread starter coming out of your ears. You’ve run out of friends to give baggies to and you’re all baked out. Plus the ongoing care and feeding of Amish Friendship Bread…yes, you need an AFB vacation.
So you visit our FAQs and see that you can freeze the starter. What?! And once you freeze it, you can fuhgettaboutit. Seriously?!
Yes, seriously. Not only that, the starter will keep indefinitely, as in years. You put 1 cup of starter in a gallon-sized freezer Ziploc, label and date it, and stick it in the freezer. Adios!
Fast forward ten years. It’s 2025, and you’ve craving something sweet. You dig around your freezer and behold…a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter dated 2015. (Mine is dated 2013, but you get the idea). It’s like a dream come true. So what now?
It’s time to revive your starter and get baking.
First, dust off the ice crystals and let the bag thaw at room temperature in a large mixing bowl on the counter.
You have a few options here:
- Treat it like it’s Day 1: Run through the 10 days as if you had received your starter from another person. The instructions are here, or
- Treat it like it’s Day 6: Add one cup sugar, one cup milk and one cup flour. Squish for the next four days and then follow the directions for Day 10 (result: patience is a virtue, but you’re back on an AFB cycle of feeding, care, dividing, baking. You’ll also have leftover starter to share or freeze), or
- Treat it like it’s Day 10: Bake once the starter is thawed, about three to six hours (result: immediate gratification, but no starter left), or
- Treat it like it’s Day 10: Bake once the starter is thawed, about three to six hours, add 1 ½ cup each sugar, milk and flour. Mix well then divide into 1 cup bags to give away (or re-freeze). Continue following the instructions for baking (result: immediate gratification with starter to keep or give away).
If you choose options 3 or 4, you are ready to bake once your starter has thawed. Some people like to let it thaw overnight to give the starter a chance to fully wake up and get active again, but it rarely does without a good feeding so don’t expect to see loads of bubbles, if at all. Once your starter is thawed, give it a good stir, and you’re off.
If you choose option 2, here’s the play-by-play of what I do:
Once it’s thawed or thawed enough to pour into the bowl, in it goes. Give it a good stir. It’ll look like runny pancake batter with little to no bubbles. The smell shouldn’t be sharp, like acetone or nail polish remover, but yeasty (the smell may be faint). If your starter looks discolored or has an unfamiliar smell, discard it and make a new starter from scratch.
Add 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk and 1 cup flour.
Give it another good stir until all ingredients are incorporated (note: it’s okay if it’s a little lumpy). I used natural cane sugar here, so its brown instead of white.
Cover with a loose dishtowel or plastic wrap. Place out of the sun but on your kitchen counter in a draft-free area or in an unused oven (just don’t forget about it or preheat the oven by accident).
The next day, there should be bubbles. Give it a stir. Still look flat? Give it another stir, and a little more time. If your starter was good going into the freezer, it should perk up soon. In fact, you might see it doing this fairly soon …
Here’s a close up …
And the next day …
Keep stirring. Continue through until Day Ten, following the instructions for feeding and dividing your starter. You’ll be baking in no time!
>> Check out more tutorials here.
>> Post a picture of your starter on Facebook here or add it to our starter gallery by submitting it here.
Hi,
I have a quick question that I hope will make sense once I get it typed…..
I’ve got my Amish Friendship Starter going now and will be baking next Thursday. I’d love to share a bag with my daughter, who I won’t be seeing until Christmas Day. Since I don’t have many baking buddies close by, I’ll be freezing extra starter-1 cup per gallon freezer bag-for another day.
I’d love to thaw one to bring up to my daughter so she and her family can have fun baking with it and she has a lot of friends who’d love it too. Once thawed, should I feed it 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour and 1 cup milk, mash it around, then give her that and she would begin the 10 day process the next day? Or do I use the 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cup flour and 1 1/2 cup milk then give it to her?
Gosh I hope made sense….I think she and her boys would have a grand time with this….and her husband would be a happy taste tester. 🙂
Thanks so much.
Hi Carol!
If you’re going to bake on Thursday, make a bag for her then and toss it in the freezer. You can take it out the day you see her. People who receive a bag of starter can treat it like it’s Day 1 (the day you receive your starter) or Day 10 (bake with the 1 cup immediately). I’d recommend that instead of making a new starter IF you have a good starter already going. The flavor (and the history of the starter) is better. Good luck!
Thanks so much! That’s what I’ll do-bring a bag of starter up with me and have her begin from day 1. I think my youngest grandson will have fun mooshing the bag and feeding it…..that will be a good project for him.
Fingers crossed that this starter turns out to be a winner! 🙂
Carol
Yay! It really works! Had a hankering for my fave Triple Lemon AFB and pulled out a four year old bag of starter from my freezer. It seemed a bit thin after thawing, so I added a little flour and set it in a warm place for a few hours until slightly bubbly. The whole recipe fits in a bundt pan which makes a really pretty cake with glaze dripping down the sides. Took it to a meeting and it was gobbled up with rave reviews. Thanks so much for the tutorial. I’m pulling out another frozen bag to feed and try the Day one routine. Hi FB gals…I’m ba-a-a-ack!!!
Woot! Welcome home, Bessy! And you know we love pictures of those pretty cakes — snap a shot next time!
Oh my God this bread I love it so much I sharing it all my friends and I’m still making some have to make some today I thank you.
On Day 10 do I have to take out the 4 cups of starter or can I just bake the bread without taking anything out? I would probably take out only 1 cup of starter and freeze it.
Yes you can bake all but 1 cup. Then, you can start over with the 10 day routine, or you can freeze it as mentioned. If found that way the easiest for making mass loaves if I’m gifting the bread itself instead of the starter. Actually gifting the bread first is a great way to let people taste how wonderful it is first. They ALWAYS want to know the recipe. : )
Hi, I have a question.. Yesterday was my # 10, I did feed the batter but didn’t get to baking it, something came up…anyway, is it OK if it is a day later when I bake it or should I just divide it into 4 and start again..Does it matter if it is a day late baking it??
Hi Lydia! At this point you can bake at ANY time — once you get past the first 10 days, you can either (1) split and share your starter (in 1 cup baggies), (2) split and share and bake, (3) bake all of it (some people don’t want to pass the starter along), (4) bake some of it and freeze the rest (in 1 cup baggies) to bake sometime in the future, AND (finally!) (5) just keep maintaining a starter, baking and sharing as you go. At this point, Day 10 becomes Day 1 and you start the process over again.
The starter is also really forgiving so it’s not a big deal if you miss a day or two. The key is to be feeding the starter regularly (if you don’t want to do this, then give it away or freeze it), plus mixing or mashing.
Good luck and let us know what you end up baking!
Hi, all after all this loving care, I hate to tell you what happened. First, thank you for getting back to me…Anyway, Stella, my batters name, was very happily growing, bubbly, smelled like it should.. Then, yesterday I was going to give Stella a stir because I still had it in the plastic bowl with a lid and it was touching the lid it was so happy…or so I thought. I opened the lid to give it a stir and I HAD a wooden spoon right beside but I put it in the sink and just instinctively reached for a spoon from the dish rack and gave Stella a real good stir with a METAL spoon , put the lid back on and didn’t think anything of it. About 3-4 hours later I was going to divide Stella up as I found your website (love it) and read all kinds of things about freezing, splitting , contamination etc,,so decided to freeze some and bake some. Well, I opened the lid , Stella looked great, nice and bubbly, creamy colour, but it smelled like someone poured a bottle of nail polish remover in it..Wow, it was strong to ! I just couldn’t understand because Stella was so happy a few hours earlier.I picked up the spoon that I used earlier and gave it a stir and it just occurred to me Oh No, a metal spoon !!!! Well I guess that is what happened, , I know I read on your website that if you think it is contaminated, but not to bad maybe it is fixable, and to feed Stella a bit of flour. I took Mount a cup of Stella from the bowl and put it in a zip lock bag and added 1/2 cup flour, mashed it up, zipped it up, talked to it ,lol, …This morning I checked Stella II , and the bag was ready to burst and wow, it smelled like I just took my nail polish off and was making yeast,,, anyway, no it didn’t fix ..So that’s my story, and the point of it was just to let you know how fast it gets contaminated…I guess I have to make some now from the start… Have a great week everyone!! Thanks..
Hi Lydia! That is such a bummer — I know how disappointing it can be when a good starter goes bad. 😉 In the future if you have a great starter going, and you think you’ll be baking every now and then throughout the year, take a cup of that growing starter and freeze it. Then in case anything happens you’ll have some of the original starter to work with again.
Plastic is also not a great container for starter because there is so much happening during the fermentation process — it could pull other bacteria from the plastic even if it’s been cleaned and sanitized a million times. I’d recommend considering glass. Ziploc bags don’t seem to be a problem though, but you can’t really grow more than a couple of cups in it.
Good luck and thanks for sharing!
I’m glad to know that starters can be frozen. When taken out of the freezer, the starter can be counted as Day 1, Day 6, or Day 10. If the starter is given to someone it’s Day 1. But I could start it on Day 10. Is that correct? Are the other nine days unnecessary in the process then ? How important are the nine days of processing?
Hi Sue! So once a starter has gone through at least one 10 day period, it is ready to go. You can bake immediately or maintain, which means feeding it every 5-6 days if it is at room temperature. The reason you want to do this is because the starter becomes more flavorful with each feeding, but yes, if you take it out of the freezer you can treat it as Day1, Day 6 or Day 10, which would either be a baking day or an add ingredients, split/share, and baking day. I bake straight from the freezer all of the time (after it thaws, of course), but if I have more time I will give it one feeding just to get it going again. This gives me enough to bake with as well as enough to throw back in the freezer for next time. Hope this helps!
I am so excited to start the starter and then freeze it because I stopped making friendship bread because I was overloaded with baggies of starter. Now, I can use the starter when I want and keep freezing it and give it away as a gift with recipes and your site. Can’t wait to get started.
Thanks so much for this post. I must have six bags of starter in the freezer and I didn’t want to start all over at day one and then freeze more. I wasn’t sure if I could just start at day 10 so again thanks!
You’re welcome, Kim!
I’m so happy this website exists! Thank you!!
Just a quick question: my starter is pretty good. At one time it was producing a good bit of air but it really hasn’t been lately. Is there a way to make a “meh” starter a “wow!” starter? Or should I just start over?
Thanks again!
Hi Ashleigh! I’m so happy you found us! I would try to feed it more often, even if it means pouring some of the starter out if you get overwhelmed. Starters are happiest when they are fed often and kept in warm, cozy kitchens. The idea behind an older starter is that the flavor develops, and it’s always fun to say you’ve had your starter for ages. 🙂 But if you can’t get it going again (and you should definitely be seeing bubbles and activity 12-24 hours after a feeding), then I’d either find someone with a thriving or starter or make your own again. 🙂 Good luck!
Thank you for this tip! As I really don’t have many baking buddies, but LOVE AFB I have soooooo much starter! So in two days will be the 10th day, I will bag up starters, and bake a load for me! Thanks again. Debbie Wagner
You’re welcome, Debbie! Happy baking!
Thanks for posting the great options. I received my started a couple of days ago and will be in a hotel on day 10. Would it mess the process up if I divided it out and then baked my portion on day 8?
I got my start out of the freezer and started it like day 1 now on day 6 i added the 1cuo sugar 1cup flour 1cup milk. But itbhas not swelled or anything does this mean it is no good? Have i ruined it? Or do i continue on ?
I have a starter that is currently on Day 5. I realized that with family coming in, I would rather hold off on this one and start it to bake at the end of next week. Is it okay to freeze today since it’s on Day 5? Or should I wait and freeze it on another day?If it’s okay to freeze today, then once I thaw it, which Day should I begin on? Thanks for your help!!
You can go ahead and freeze it now and then 4-5 days before they arrive, take it out and continue feeding it (so feed it on Day 6, mash it daily until Day 10, when you do a final feed, divide and/or bake). Since it’s so close I would personally just keep it on the counter and follow the feeding schedule, except on Day 10, do a Day 6 feeding and don’t divide. This does mean that you’ll end up with more starter, which you could then freeze or give away, but then you don’t stress the starter by putting it in and out of the freezer for such a short period of time (it’ll be fine if you do, though). Hope this helps!
Thanks so much for your quick reply! I decided not to freeze. I feed on Day 6. Today is my second Day 10. I’d like to hold off and bake it Friday. Is it okay to do so? I didn’t do anything to it today besides mash, keeping my fingers crossed that an extra couple of days won’t hurt. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for this information. I’ve been cooking friendship bread for nearly 10 years. The longest batch I had going led to 10 sets. I grew tired of having to throw starters away because nobody wanted them or was continuing their own. I never thought I could freeze them, until I learned differently tonight.
Ironically, I am due to fix my first two loaves tomorrow, creating two fresh starters. One will be frozen, and since I have a food saver now…..that’s how it will go. I will freeze in a container immediately and once frozen, vacuum seal it.
I am also making a lot of this bread to freeze at the same time. The Mrs has a way of picking random times going “I’d really like a loaf of friendship bread.” Lol
I do have one question, you stated mixing the batter in plastic can become an issue, but freezing in the plastic is fine. I have a 2 cup freezer container that would be perfect for my intentions. Would it be ok, in your opinion to freeze it in this plastic ziploc container (loaf shaped) instead of a bag?
Thank you!
Hi Joseph,
The only reason we recommend the Ziploc bag is because each bag contains one cup of starter (not two), which makes it easy to grab a bag when you want to bake. If you have two cups of starter in a container, you have to thaw the whole thing in order to get your one cup, and then you’ll have a second cup left over. If you want to bake it all, however, then it should be fine. Keeping it in a baggie also makes it easier to shove it into the corner of your freezer so it doesn’t take up as much space, LOL. Good luck!
Do you have to bake the AFB in a glass pan or can it be metal, such as aluminum? And what am I doing wrong if the outside of my bread is kind of hard. It tastes good but the crust is hard.
Bake it in regular loaf pans, the oxo ones are amazing. I was just gifted a set of two, and there is hardly any clean up. The bread comes out nice and clean. When you are mixing it, that is when you want to use glass. I use to use plastic but after researching this site I went to glass.
As to the outside being crunchy, perhaps the internal temperature of your oven is a little hotter then it registers. Try baking at 45 minutes.
Hi Bonnie! If the crust is too hard, either you’re baking it at the wrong temperature or the plan is too close to the heating element. You can try to cover it with foil for the last 15-20 minutes if this continues to be a problem. Aluminum is not a good idea, but a coated metal pan is fine. If there are scratches in the pan, however, so that the metal shows through, it could affect the batter. We use nonstick metals pans and ceramic pans in the Kitchen. Hope this helps!
I found 9 bags dated 3/14/09, any suggestions?
Hi Margie, we have bags of starter in our freezer dating back to 2006. I’d recommend reviving one bag and see if the starter is active and bubbly. If so, thaw the other bags. Otherwise you can start a new batch of starter from scratch. Here’s the link if you want to create a new starter: http://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/amish-friendship-bread-starter/
Hope this is helpful!
I made starter a few weeks back and split it into 7 bags. Gave 2 away and with everything going on at the time just threw the rest in the refrigerator… and forgot about them. Will they be ok to put in the freezer now or should I dump them and start over? I’m guessing it’s been at least 3 weeks. Thanks
Hi Kristy! Sadly I’d recommend tossing them — they’ll survive in the freezer unfed but not in the fridge, and 3 weeks is a long time. You should only freeze starter that is active and thriving — freezing old or inactive starter just results in taking up freezer space with something that will most likely fail when you try to revive it. Hope this helps!
Does freezing work for the sugarless starter, too? When I did this years ago, when the kids were little, I’m pretty sure I followed the usual recipe (just with soy milk instead). Those starter bags in the freezer did great. This time around, though, I can’t have the sugar, so can I put this one’s extras in the freezer, too, or does it need the sugar to help with the freezing?
HI Carina! I haven’t tried it without the sugar but I believe other users have said it works — the key is to give it a good feeding when you revive it to make sure it flourishes again. 🙂
Thanks! I will try it and see what happens.