Real Baked Beans

 

This delicious recipe comes from one of my favourite Canadian cookbook authors, Julie Van Rosendaal.  Her latest cookbook is one she has co-authored with Jan Scott:  Gatherings:  Bringing People Together with Food.  I love homemade baked beans.  It was definitely something I enjoyed growing up, thanks to my Mom's good cooking.  I have several bean recipes that I like, including a Maple Apple Baked Bean recipe, but this one I like for its simplicity and good taste.  It came together quite easily as I soaked the beans overnight, cooked the beans on the stovetop for 45 minutes, added ingredients, and put the whole thing in the slow cooker.  Definitely my kind of meal.  And if you get to the end, you will see that I so enjoyed the recipe that I made some for the freezer too.

 

The first thing you do is to soak the beans - for 8 hours or up to 12.  The full ingredient list is below, but I used dry white beans.  You want to make sure you have covered the beans in water and have a few inches of extra water.  The beans will soak up the water and you don't want them to go dry.

 

You can see that after soaking overnight the beans have grown substantially

 

Finely chop one onion

 

Add the onion to the pot.  Bring pot to a boil; turn to low and simmer for 45 minutes or until the beans are just tender.

 

You can check the beans with a fork to see how tender they are

 

 

At this point, you have two options:  finish in the oven or use the slow cooker.  Either way, you need to drain the beans.  Using the slow cooker will take approximately 6 hours, while in the oven, it will take 2-3 hours.

 

 

Add 3/4 cup ketchup

 

Add 3/4 cup barbecue sauce

 

Add 1 cup beer, apple sauce or chicken stock

 

Add 1/4 cup brown sugar

 

Add 2 Tb. yellow or grainy mustard

 

Add 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

 

 

Stir to combine all ingredients

 

Cook on low for 6 hours, or until ready. In the oven, you would bake at 325 degrees f. for 2-3 hours.  With both methods, you can stir once or twice during the cooking time.  Beans are ready when the mixture has thickened and the beans are very tender.

 

This is how my beans looked after about 6 hours.  They were definitely still "saucy" and I was happy with the results.  You can always remove the lid of the slow cooker and continue to cook for another 30 minutes or so, if you are wanting less moisture in your beans.

 

After a taste test, the beans are cooled and packaged up and put in the freezer for our upcoming camping trip.

 

My husband and I enjoyed these beans so much that I decided to make 8 more batches for the freezer.  I followed the same procedure, but did not cook the beans the final time.  After the initial cooking with the onions, I drained the beans and onions, let them cool, and divided them among freezer bags.

 

Into each bag I added the additional ingredients

 

 

Freezer meals will come in handy in the fall when we are busy.  I will put one of these into the slow cooker in the morning and come home to a home-cooked meal. 

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups dry white beans

1 onion, finely chopped

3/4 cup ketchup

3/4 cup barbecue sauce

1 cup beer, apple juice, or chicken stock

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2Tb. yellow or grainy mustard