Welcome to Saturday! Hope your week went well and you’ve got something fun planned for today. I’m teaching bodypump this morning then have a baby shower to go to later this afternoon.
One thing I’ve always wondered about making is baked beans. For some reason this delicious food always seemed out of reach. Then about a week ago I got to thinking… I can totally make baked beans! All I need to do is find a recipe that looks good and give it a try.
I searched the Internet and found this recipe for Boston baked beans. I had all the ingredients on hand except for beans and bacon, so once I got to the store I started prepping it the night before. First step – soak your navy beans.
This is where my first mistake started. I have a visual memory, and from a quick glance at the recipe I remembered seeing 2 associated with the beans. I assumed 2 pounds navy beans so that’s what I purchased and began soaking in water the night before. The next morning I took a look at the recipe to see that it wasn’t 2 pounds, but 2 cups. Whoops! After a quick oh no moment, I went back to the internet to see how big of a mistake I made. Turns out 2 cups of dry beans equals 1 pound, so I only doubled my recipe. No biggie.
I wanted to use my crockpot instead of leaving them in the oven for many hours throughout the day. Mainly because I was going to be gone during the day and I can leave the crockpot going. Instead of cooking the beans first like the recipe says, I just added them into the crockpot along with all the other ingredients.
Here’s what went into it (I doubled everything here):
- 2 cups (1 pound) navy beans
- 1/2 pound bacon, diced
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 3 tbsp molasses
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp dry mustard
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Along with that I used my bean soaking water to cover everything. My crockpot was dangerously full at that time.
I cooked it on high most of the day (9 hours). I was worried the beans wouldn’t cook through, but thankfully by the end of the day they were soft. And I’m also glad it never boiled over. That would have been a mess I did not want to deal with.
We had TONS of baked beans on hand!
I asked Jacob what he thought, and he said while they were good, they seemed like they were missing something. I agreed.
My plan for the next day was to figure out what that missing ingredient was and actually bake them. Then I got busy and just decided to add BBQ sauce (half a bottle) and bake. Lazy Heather mistake.
They thickened up even more after being in the oven at 350 degrees for 2.5 hours. Unfortunately, Jacob said they were better before I added the BBQ sauce. Bummer.
Still, they tasted good, but are definitely not up to can quality. Baked beans from the can are delicious. We love them. I want to match that taste, so another day I’ll be attempting baked beans again. In the mean time I’ve got more baked beans to eat. 🙂
Have you ever made baked beans from scratch? Do you have a winning recipe? Please share!
Heather
6 comments
Yes! I love homemaking!! I used this recipe: http://www.itzyskitchen.com/2011/04/e-vegetarian-crock-pot-baked-beans.html
Hope Pump was good! I taught Step!
I’m going to try that one next!
Yum, I agree canned baked beans are so good, and there’s nothing like going to a church picnic and there being a homemade batch from a little old lady that is amazing!! I haven’t tried making them from scratch but now I’m craving some baked BBQ beans!
I was going to share my recipe for delicious baked beans until I realized it’s the same as the one you used! The only thing I did differently was to use homemade chicken stock instead of the water, but they turned out great–maybe that addition amps up the flavor.
I have been wanting to try and make homemade baked beans too (vegetarian though). I have a recipe that I planned to use so if I ever get around to it, I will let you know how it goes!
Mmmm I love baked beans too! I’ve never tried to do a homemade recipe, so when you find a good one, let us know! 😉
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