Homemade Baked Beans!

Spring has finally found us here in Minnesota!  If you reside in the Midwest, I am sure that like me, you are more than ready to put away the crockpot and clean off that grill :-)  I love the sweet smell of strawberries and melons, and the brightly colored peppers, zucchini, and asparagus that overwhelm my senses when I enter the local supermarkets right now.  The fresh flavors of Springtime make me extremely excited to venture back into the kitchen armed with my favorite Springtime recipes, and some new ones I've dog-eared in my foodie magazines.  It's going to be a fantastic season for cooking!

As time goes by, I have become more and more fond of beans as a source of  good-for-you protein and fiber.  My husband and I have been enjoying many more meatless meals over the past year, and many of these meals have featured beans.  We adore black beans, but have cooked with just about every kind of bean out there and found them an extremely rich and satisfying addition to our diet.  To tell you the truth, I don't really miss eating meat all that much when I have beans as a substitute.

The recipe I have for you today is one I made last year, but didn't write about at the time.  Now that I've eaten my first burger of the year, I have begun craving baked beans... yes, baked beans!  The best baked beans I ever had came from my mother's kitchen.  They are what I would call a somewhat "high maintenance" recipe... they take time, patience, and a lot of love throughout the cooking process.  Which is why my mom made them so infrequently when I was growing up.  Nevertheless, I feel it is my duty to pass on this recipe to all of you so that you can fall in love with real baked beans.  After having these, you won't go back to the Bush's variety, I promise!  Bush's has nothing on these babies!

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Homemade Baked Beans

Ingredients:

2 cans great northern beans, rinsed and drained (you could buy dry beans and pre-cook them if you don't mind the extra work)
1

T. olive oil

1 medium onion

4 T. blackstrap molasses

¼ c. apple cider vinegar

2 T. maple syrup

2 T. brown sugar

1 T. spicy brown mustard

2 T. ketchup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium saucepan, saute the onion in olive oil over medium heat.  

Turn off the heat and add the molasses, vinegar, maple syrup, sugar, mustard, and ketchup to the pan and stir to combine.  

Rinse and drain the beans and pour them into a large oven-safe casserole dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour the onion/molasses mixture over the beans and stir until evenly coated.  

Cover the casserole dish and bake for 2 hours, stirring the beans after the first 60 minutes, and every 30 minutes after that.

Serve hot!

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When they are done cooking, these beans maintain a somewhat firm texture, unlike most canned varieties that tend to be mushy and soupy.  The molasses adds a lovely rich and smoky flavor, and the maple syrup and brown sugar add the perfect amount of sweetness that is balanced by the vinegar and mustard.  Serve these alongside almost any kind of meat and they will be a hit!

Note: If you prefer your baked beans on the saucier side, don't fret, just increase the amount of sauce you pour over the beans :-) Double or triple this recipe to feed your next cookout crowd and enjoy the rave reviews you'll receive!



Librarian turned Foodie