Before I graduated to pork products, bread and butter was my first true love. A simple, complimentary, truly harmonious pair - if only every relationship could be like bread and butter! 

I’m old-fashioned and I've never been promiscuous about my bread - or my butter.   As a child, I was spoiled by quality carbohydrates, thanks to my grandmother who baked most of our bread.  Then, when I was older, I worked at a wholesale Italian bakery and habitually helped myself to fresh, hot, free bread.

More recently, the gastro-mechanic, Lou Palma, taught me how to make no knead bread, which has quickly become my carb of choice.  My children - along with my love handles - swell with excitement when they smell a loaf in oven.  With any luck, they'll grow up to be bread snobs, too!

Here’s the recipe I’ve been using for easy no knead bread. The crust is just fantastic, and the inside should show nice air pockets, with a slightly tangy flavor.  Mix it up now and it will be ready to enjoy tomorrow.  But be patient while it’s fermenting, it’s time well spent.

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (DO NOT USE '00')

¼ teaspoon instant yeast

1¼ teaspoons salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Recipe from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

IGood bread deserves good butter, and good butter is real butter. Real butter is a dairy product. And, of course, I like to make my own butter, too, but, that’s not to say there aren’t delicious store bought butters available. Plugra, Kerrygold, and my grandmother’s old standby, Breakstone’s, are just fine with me. 

If you’re feeling extra-ambitious, and want to make your own butter as well, it's as easy as purchasing heavy cream. I recommend Organic Valley, pasteurized, not homogenized, available at Whole Foods.  Pour the cream into a ball jar, and add a tablespoon or two of live culture, like Fage Greek Yogurt, to it.  Leave the cream and yogurt mixture on the counter overnight and whip it up the next day.

THROWBACK VIDEO: Watch the video to see Allin Tallmadge (remember Tallmadge Cheese Market?) show me how it’s done. It’s worth it!  Your love handles will thank you!