Candy Beans are very possibly the least healthy way to eat beans ever, and a favorite way to eat them in our house. Our son has a little dance he does when he finds out they are for supper, and if I ask what bean dish anyone wants, this tops the bill.
What follows is how I make them in my Instant Pot
, which I purchased many many years ago because it was advertised on the back of a bag of beans. It makes making beans faster and easier. These beans can be cooked on the range, in the oven, or in a slow cooker as well. They can even be cooked next to a campfire.
Ingredients:
1 pound of white beans of your choice. Navy, Pinto, Lima— I have tried them all. The Instant Pot is supposed to allow you to skip soaking, but that’s up to you. They don’t come out right for me without soaking, unless I add a lot of time to them. I would soak with any other type of cooking. The photos show unsoaked beans.
That’s homemade sour cream on the right and brown sugar in the middle. The Teriyaki container to the left of the sugar is molasses. The other day our son opened a container and was shocked to find what was in it was what it was labelled.
1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter. Oh, it gets worse. You want it melted so it mixes in well with the beans. If you are doing this in the oven, you can just stir it in. In the Instant Pot, I merely set it to sauté as I’m prepping everything else.
1 Tablespoon powdered dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt (I did use salted butter as well)
1 chopped onion (something healthy!)
1/4 pound chopped bacon Honestly, I have completely forgotten to put the bacon in occasionally, and have heard no complaints.
Now for the much less healthy stuff. Yes, worse than the above.
¼ cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sour cream I have on occasion replaced this with yogurt to make this marginally healthier. It came out fine.
Mix these in. Now, you need to add water, but you don’t want the result too soupy. If you have presoaked beans, barely to cover in the Instant Pot ought to be enough. In the oven, crock or range, just keep adding water until the beans are ready.
I set the beans to the ‘bean’ button (or crock on low, or in a 325 oven) for 40 minutes, (or crock for 10 hours, oven for 6 hours) and let it naturally release pressure. You want the beans to mush with the back of a spoon.
That’s it. Serve with steamed or pressure cooked brown bread and you have a good, tasty, filling meal. That’s not a bit healthy. But still full of fiber!
