Picture this: you wake up one morning and go to check your Amish Friendship Bread starter. And you see … THIS:
Okay, maybe that doesn’t look so bad. Let’s try another angle.
Ew, right? Have no fear, it only means that your starter has separated, and it’s your job to bring it back together.
What IS that?!
Looking at a separated starter for the first time, your brain may cease to function. It just doesn’t look right, does it? You’re convinced something is wrong and might even be tempted to pour it all down the drain. Don’t do this, unless you want to see all your hard work disappear!
The problem is simple. Your starter is hungry.
In traditional sourdough terms, that funky stuff is called hooch. It’s naturally-occurring alcohol that forms when your starter needs to be fed. This isn’t something you’ll see if you’ve been maintaining your starter regularly, but more when, oh, maybe you’ve forgotten to feed your starter for a while, or perhaps forgotten to feed it for a LONG time. You might have even forgotten you had a starter tucked back there behind the salt and pepper. Ahem.
If it’s on the surface, just pour it off. If it’s in the middle of your starter, you can either mix it back in or get rid of that top portion of the starter as well.
IMPORTANT: You must have at least 1 cup of starter to work with. If you have less, you may not have enough yeast in the starter to get it going again. If you have more than 1 cup of starter, stir well and then reduce your starter to 1 cup. Discard the rest.
Bringing your starter back to life
Once you’ve poured off any excess hooch or simply mixed it back into your starter, feed it as if it were Day 6: one cup flour, one cup sugar, one cup milk. After a few turns with your wooden spoon, your starter will get to work. Mix well and store in a warm area of your kitchen.
Disaster averted! Leave your starter to do its thing and remember to give it another stir later in the day. A few good stirs daily will usually do the trick, incorporating everything together so your starter will be ready for action when you are.
Note: This applies to starters that have been maintained daily and fed at the proper ratios. If you’ve forgotten to feed or take care of your starter, or if you are feeling nervous about the overall health of your starter, I recommend discarding it and making a new starter from scratch.
I Added the milk, sugar, flour on the the wrong day, will it be ok?
Yes, in fact, it’s probably happier that you’re feeding it more often, Cynthia! 🙂 Just adjust the calendar moving out, and you’ll be fine.
I really messed up. So, to start it off I added water to my day 5 feeding instead of milk. It separated. I panicked before I saw this post and fed it another two tablespoons each milk, sugar, and flour. It has never been really active. I have tasted it and it tasted fine. I’m waiting to see if it picks up at all. I have a fairly drafty kitchen and leave it in the oven with the pilot light on. I also have to state that I didn’t start my starter using yeast, this is one reason I feel it might not be real active. Have I messed up enough the starter is trash? Sometimes these sourdough starters aren’t easy.
Hi Michelle,
I feel for you, I do! It’s hard to start a starter from scratch, and if your starter was never active to begin with, it’s really hard to “revive” it to a more bubbly state. At this point, unless you are really married to this starter, I would just start from scratch and use commercial yeast to give your starter a strong start. Go through a couple rounds of feedings to get it nice and robust, and maybe tuck a cup away in your freezer (usually when it’s at its most active state, the first 24 hours after a feeding) as backup. If you want to try to make this starter work, you need to give you starter a good Day 6 feeding — 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar. Since you already gave it 1 cup water, then just add the flour and sugar, and keep it covered and draft free. Keep me posted — good luck!
Thank you so much for your quick reply! I think it’s probably time to divorce the starter and start from scratch using your suggestions. It seems to continue with this one is a waste of materials. With any luck the new starter will work. I don’t know why any type of sourdough starter gives me such trouble. I can bake bread of almost any other type and consider myself an intermediate baker, but I just can’t get the sourdoughs down yet. However, I just say, that with people like you who are willing to help and inspire it keeps people like me trying. Thank you so much for your blog and support.
My 8 year old made two batches for her 4H group, but did them one day apart. Well she accidentally mixed up the bags, and did a “Day 6 addition” to the same bag twice. She added the milk, flour and sugar to it on day 6 and day 7. What should we do from here?
Hi Casey,
While it’s possible to overfeed a starter, the real answer lies in what the starter is doing now. Did it get bubbly and happy? If so, keep stirring daily and don’t worry about it, it’s most likely the fine. If it didn’t do anything, or smells different from before, throw it out — sometimes if the ratio of sugars to yeast gets thrown off with overfeeding and the yeast can’t thrive and metabolize the sugars. I would wait the full four days before feeding and dividing — she’ll have more starter left over, but if it’s bubbly and active, she’ll be fine. It helps to label the bags (with the specific days she needs to feed them). Let me know what you end up doing and how it turns out! best, Darien
Can I use my sour dough bread starter with this?
I made my first batch. I have 2 loaves cooking and 5 bags. Do I refrigerate the bags until ready to use? Also, do I keep you bag and continue the 10 day process to keep it going?
Hi Melanie! You would freeze the bags unless you plan to bake in 10 days, in which case you would have to feed all 5 bags (and leave on the counter, not the fridge). Putting it in the fridge slows down the fermentation process but doesn’t stop it like freezing does. If you know you want to bake again but don’t want to bake immediately, I recommend freezing all of the bags and take one bag out the day before you want to bake.
Help, I have mixed up my days today is actually day 11. Is it still okay to proceed as if it’s day 10??
Hi Dana! In a word, yes. Amish Friendship Bread starter is pretty hardy, and if you missed Day 10, never fear. Simply feed your starter as if it was Day 10. As long as it still appears active, healthy, and bubbly, your starter is still good!
I bought the jar you recommended and i am fixxing to start my first batch of Amish Bread. Do I close the jar completely with the little latch or do i just sit the lid of the jar down so it doesnt seal?? 🙂
Hi Debralee — Don’t seal it … I latch it so the starter can breathe (it pulls some wild yeast from the air, plus it needs to release some gases). Have a great time making the bread! 🙂
I just made my first 2 loaves of bread, but forgot to put in the oil.
It looks good , but will it be dry?
Hi Judy! That depends — if you used the pudding, that will help with moisture, as well the 3 eggs, but I would expect they will lean on the side of a little dry. I do know lots of people who reduce the amount of oil in the recipe and don’t notice any difference. You might want to make sure you don’t overtake the loaves as well. Let me know how it tastes when you get a chance!
My starter separated on the SECOND day. Do I feed it on the second day? Had to go to work, so I stirred it good and am now looking up your answers for what I should do.
Hi Debra!
Hmmm … did it get bubbly on the first day? If you didn’t have any good activity after making your starter, then maybe your yeast wasn’t fresh or the ratios of ingredients are off. If you made your starter from scratch and you’re not seeing bubbles AND it’s separating already, then I would toss it and start again.
But if you had some good activity on Day 1, then I would just keep stirring and see how it’s doing. You shouldn’t need to feed it until Day 6. Keep me posted — good luck!
I currently have this same problem. I’ve made a few starters in the past with zero issues. But the last few times I tried one, it has serrated and smelled a lot like fingernail polish remover. The others I just threw out. But this one I want to try and keep it going. Day 1 – everything seemed perfect. I’m using a bag this time since the last two that messed up we’re in a jar like you mention. The bag swelled up to almost popping. Second day, same thing. 3-4 days.. hardly any gas in the bag and it’s starting to smell a little like polish remover again. Just not quite as strong. I’m confused about this because I have changed absolutely nothing from the past. Same kitchen, same bags/jar, same time of year, but I’m not getting anywhere near the same results. Do you have any idea what this could be caused from?? Thanks for any help you can provide.
This is my first time doing this, and I couldn’t find what I was supposed to do on Day 10, so just took a cup of starter and made blondies. THEN I finally found the part where I was supposed to add 1 1/2 cups each of milk, flour, and sugar. My question: Do I still add those amounts to what’s left, or reduce the amounts because of the lower volume? The blondies are heavenly, by the way.
I am trying to get a starter started, first attempt it separated on day two. Second attempt had maybe 1 oz of liquid in corner of bag. Is it because I am using a zip lock bag and it dosent get any air? Should I prepare it in a bowl and cover with cloth. Day one it bubbles and like doubled in size. I started in bowl let it sit until bubbly then put in bag. I have never made my own but had some a friend made. Help please!
Hi Dixie! It shouldn’t separate a lot on Day 2, especially if you had bubbly action on Day 1. It just needed to be mixed. Keeping it sealed is fine (prevents spills) as long as you mash it daily and then let out the air if it gets too puffy. If your starter never got bubbly, then either the yeast wasn’t any good (or the milk was spoiled). Does this help?
Good morning,
I have been trying to get a starter going for the last month now with absolutely no luck. I think my kitchen might be too cool. I tried moving the starters to warmer rooms. Turned the house temperature up to 71, which is killing our gas bill, I’ve even draped them in a towel to try to keep them warm. Every time they end up looking grey by day 10?! I’m following the feeding and mashing the bag schedule faithfully. Every Christmas I give out AFB in gift bags with other goodies. This year none 🙁 I wish I had found your site sooner. I had no idea you could freeze AFB. I’m going to buy the jar you use instead of my usual ziplock bags. Otherwise I’m just going to wait until this spring/summer and start a new starter. Do you know why my starters aren’t taking off?
Thank you for this amazing site by the way, and all you do! The information here is fantastic:)
I received my starter from a relative and have not kept track of the days. This is my first time with starter dough. It has been at least 2 weeks, and I’m embarrassed to say I’ve only fed it a couple of times. The starter separated, and it looked bubbly so I stirred it up before I read your site. It did smell, but more of a strong yeast smell. I used a cup of the starter and added milk and flour for dough to make cinnamon rolls, then fed the rest with milk, flour and sugar. The smell has changed. It is not as strong now. Do you think it will be safe? Should I learn how to count the days for feeding, or should I just pitch everything?
If you were able to make a recipe and were pleased with the result, then I’d say your starter is probably fine and mellowing out — it shouldn’t be super sharp. But yes, I would maintain it properly so the yeasts don’t die off — you don’t want that. These posts might help: https://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/faq-i-forgot-to-feed-my-starter-should-i-throw-it-away/ and https://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/tutorial-maintaining-a-healthy-amish-friendship-bread-starter/. 🙂
I followed the directions to a T all the way to day 10. But I forgot to separate the other starters from the bag, and accidentally put all of them into the bowl along with all the rest of the ingredients. Is there a way to fix this so it doesn’t all go to waste? I don’t care if I have Tons of bread lol! Please Help!!!
Hi Jennifer! The original recipe calls for a cup of starter, so if you remember how many cups of starter you added into the ingredients, you can always double the recipe (or triple depending on how much starter you had)! Let us know how it turned out!
Can you use almond milk instead of cow’s milk?
I am on day 10…I added my ingredients and then had company show up! Can I just leave the bag on the counter for two days and then bake? Or do I need to separate it and freeze or refrigerate it? I want to bake in two days.
Hi Rebecca! Yes, your starter should be fine for a couple days if you fed it on day 10. Just keep an eye on it (especially if it’s in a Ziploc) because it may expand a fair amount in the next couple days.