Ah baked beans – my father’s favorite. He would torture us with his bean sandwiches and hot dogs and beans. We once went to Old Sturbridge Village and ate at what I remember as a very fancy restaurant and he ordered franks and beans. He can’t get enough! And honestly, I don’t even like baked beans (it’s a texture thing). My grandmother, Ann was famous for her baked beans, but hers were not ‘from scratch’.
She used to open a huge can of baked beans, pour it into the 9 x 13 dish and add some extra brown sugar and some bacon strips to the top, then bake them until the bacon was cooked. I don’t know why I didn’t follow her recipe! If you caught my Mother’s Day post you know I didn’t plan enough time and the beans never made it to the table that day (well, about eight that night they were ready). I like these beans… I am getting better with beans, but they are not the first thing I go for on the buffet. These were sweet and tangy, a great side for grilled foods. My daughter, quickly becoming my favorite food taster, loved these beans. She quickly declared them the best beans she had ever tasted.
I dropped a container to my dad the next day and his excited reply was “oh good! I’m gonna go make a bean sandwich.” Then my mom made him hot dogs and beans for dinner. God help anyone who was next to him that night! Enjoy~
| All-night Baked Beans |
- 2 (16 oz) pkg dried Great Northern, navy or pinto beans (or any combination, you want about 5 cups dry beans
- 2 qt water
- 1/2 lb bacon
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 cup molasses
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 – 2 tsp mustard
- 1/2 t ginger
- 1/3 t allspice
- Rinse and sort the dried beans, remove any stones or shriveled beans.
- Place in slow cooker along with rest of ingredients. Stir to combine.
- Cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low, cook 14 – 16 hours until beans are tender.
- When I went to check the beans at about 14 hours they seemed a bit dry so I added an extra cup of water.
These were supposed to be a part of my mother’s day lunch buffet – unfortunately I forgot to turn the crock pot on, and woke to cold, raw beans instead of hot, mostly cooked beans! Please – remember to turn on your crock pot!
Ranck, Dawn J., and Phyllis Pellman Good. “Bean Main Dishes.” Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker. Intercourse, PA: Good, 2000. 202. Print.
