 |
| Baked Beans with Apples - so good! |
This post goes out to my nephew Adam who really enjoys these
baked beans.
This is another recipe inspired by Mme Benoit. The original
is found in her Cooks at Home book,
published in 1987. It is a true French Canadian recipe featuring maple syrup
and was passed down through five generations of her family. Never one to be bound by tradition, I’ve made some
changes: substituting bacon for the original salt pork and brown rice syrup for
the maple syrup (because that’s what I had on hand), adding some molasses, and
omitting the optional half cup of rum poured over the apples just before
serving. Burying the mustard-covered onion in the beans is part of Mme Benoit’s
original instruction. And yes, you can eat the onion when the beans are all baked. It’s mushy
good by then.
About the pre-cooked beans: I began by using the Short Soak Stove Top Beans method described in an earlier post. If you follow
that post, remember to double the
amounts to get the measure of pre-cooked beans needed for this recipe and keep the cooking
water, because you will use it in this recipe. If you use another method to
pre-cook the beans or want to use canned beans instead, you will need 12 cups
of pre-cooked beans and you will need to add enough water to just cover the
beans.
About the brown rice syrup: Brown rice syrup is about
half as sweet as sugar. It’s said to offer some health benefits over some other
sweeteners and that’s how it wound up in my pantry. Last year, there was a lot
of controversy about arsenic in brown rice syrup. After looking into the brand
of brown rice syrup I have been using from Lundberg Family Farms, I am
satisfied with the safety of their products. If you are interested, you can
check them here. What’s really
surprising to me in the whole debate is that neither Canada nor the US set
limits on the levels of arsenic in foods. If you are interested in the issue,
the University of Guelph Food Safety Network is a good place to
start your reading.
About the maple syrup: Of course, good old Canadian
maple syrup is authentic, tasty and has health benefits, too, and you can check them out here.
All that being said, whether you use brown rice syrup
or maple syrup, I hope you will try making these delicious baked beans with
apples. They go great with a cooked ham and a crowd of hungry people. Just ask Adam.
Baked Beans with Apples
 |
| Get ready for the bean pot |
Preheat oven to 325ยบ F.
4 cups dried navy beans, pre-cooked to make about 12 cups,
and the water in which they were cooked (I used my Short Soak Stove Top Beans
method)
4 strips of bacon to line pan
½ lb bacon, chopped
1 large onion, peeled and sliced in half
1 tsp dry mustard
1 cup brown rice syrup or maple syrup
 |
| Bacon strips to line pan |
1 tbsp coarse salt
½ cup molasses
2 to 4 apples, well washed, unpeeled, cored and sliced
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup butter
Line a large, deep baking pan with bacon strips.
Place the pre-cooked beans and their cooking water on top of
the bacon strips.
 |
| Burying the onions |
Mix in the chopped bacon.
Cover the onion halves in dry mustard until all of the
mustard sticks to them. Bury the onion halves in the middle of the beans.
Add the syrup and molasses to the beans.
Sprinkle the coarse salt over the beans.
Cover and bake for 3 hours. Remove from oven and stir beans
gently. If they are getting dry, slowly add hot water to them.
Cover and return to oven for 1 hour.
 |
| Topped with apples, brown sugar and butter |
Meanwhile, prepare the apples for the topping and cream
together the brown sugar and butter.
Remove beans from oven and uncover. Place the apple slices
on top of the beans, as close together as possible. Spread with sugar and
butter mixture.
Return to the oven, uncovered, for 1 hour.
Serve some of the apples with each portion of beans.
 |
| Dig into baked beans with apples |
No comments:
Post a Comment