Baked Beans

Rich, gooey, and full of brown sugar. Oh, man. I wish I could adequately express to you guys how much I love baked beans. I mean real, homemade ones, that have cooked so long they’re practically falling apart. Ones made with real bacon. Lots of real bacon.

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But I’m getting ahead of myself. The important thing about real baked beans is you have to plan ahead, because they have to soak overnight the day before. In theory there are some quick-cook methods out there that call for partially boiling the beans as a sort of speed soak, but to me that actually ends up being more work, because I have to monitor a boiling pot for an hour or two during the day instead of just dumping the beans in a pitcher and going to bed.

Either way though, first measure out 2 cups of navy beans, and give them a quick sort, picking out any rocks or broken beans. I just transfer them one handful at a time from the bowl into the pitcher, checking as I go.

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Here’s the junk I pulled out. It’s not a lot, but you will notice it does include a couple of little black rocks. Trust me, you do not want to bite into one of those, and they are likely to be found in even the highest-quality bean packages. Always pick over your beans even if it seems like a tedious task; your molars will thank you.

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Now we fill the pitcher with water. These beans are going to absorb a ton, so make sure you fill it almost to the top even if it looks like overkill for such a small pile of beans. Leave it on the counter (or in the fridge if that makes you more comfortable,) and have sweet dreams!

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Check it out, they’ve doubled in size!

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You’ll need about 1/2 pound of bacon for this, or 8 ounces, which is usually less than a full package. But since it’s morning now, you can just peel off a couple of strips and cook them up for breakfast while you chop up the rest. Remember to use gluten-free bacon — the one I use most often is Hormel Natural Choice, but there are plenty of fancy organic brands that are safe as well. Also, dice up an onion, and be sure to forget to take a photo of it just like I did.

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Using a slotted spoon, remove the beans from the pitcher and layer them with the bacon and onion in a crock pot. It’s not strictly necessary to layer them, but the bacon and onion are going to tend to float at first, so it helps to use the weight of the beans to keep them mixed down in there while it’s cooking. Make sure you don’t throw out that leftover bean water in the pitcher, because we’re going to use it in a minute.

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Now we’re going to make a fabulous sauce for our beans. If you want to be totally lazy, you can just buy a bottled GFCF barbecue sauce and use about 1 cup of that instead. But this homemade sauce is pretty easy to make, and believe me, the flavor’s worth it. Just mix together 1/2 cup Heinz ketchup, 1 Tablespoon Lea & Perrin’s worcestershire sauce, and 3 Tablespoons of 100% pure maple syrup in a small saucepan. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change their formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

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Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper…

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2 teaspoons of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon McCormick ground mustard. Ground mustard is one of those spices that is often mixed with flour to help it pour better (instead of clumping like you see my flour-free spice doing here,) so watch your brands.

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Heat everything just until the sugar is fully dissolved, then pour your sauce directly into your crock pot and stir to get it all nice and coated.

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Now pour in enough bean liquid from your pitcher to completely cover the beans. Add fresh water if you don’t have enough, or just use fresh water entirely if you don’t like the idea of using something called “bean liquid.” Put the lid on, and cook it on HIGH for 10 hours.

If you’re going to be at work all day, you’ll want to put in an extra 2 inches of water, or if you’re going to be home, just check on it every few hours and add water as needed to keep the beans covered.

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You can take the lid off for the last hour or so of cooking to help the sauce thicken if needed. But be careful, the aroma might tempt you to start eating them straight out of the pot. You wouldn’t want to burn your mouth.

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Happy Eating!

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The GFCF Lady’s Baked Beans

2 cups dried navy beans
1/2 pound Hormel Natural Choice bacon
1 onion
1/2 cup Heinz ketchup
1 TBS Lea & Perrin’s worcestershire
3 TBS 100% maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp McCormick ground mustard