Bean Catch Up!

Tuesday morning C was sick, then I headed off to work, so no beans Tuesday. I made up for lost time Wednesday! I tried Idaho Fudge, New England Baked Beans, and Pinto Bean Bread. I have to give thumbs up for all three recipes being easy. The fudge never set, but the flavor is rich and chocolatey, so I'm wondering if my beans had to much moisture (I took them straight out of the crockpot where they were cooking) and will try it again. The baked beans were good and smelled amazing, although S still prefers Bush's baked beans. The bread was very good and smelled absolutely incredible; I will be making this bread again! Each loaf has a cup of mashed pinto beans, adding lots of vitamins, minerals, and protein without making a bread that sits like a lump in your belly.

Idaho Bean Fudge
15 oz can pinto beans (black beans may be used), rinsed and drained
1 c. cocoa powder
2/3 c. butter or margarine, melted
1 T vanilla extract
4 c. powdered sugar
1 c. chopped walnuts
In a blender or food processor, puree beans with butter until smooth. Transfer to a bowl.
Add cocoa, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Beat 3 minutes until thoroughly mixed. Stir in nuts.
Spread mixture evenly in a 9x13 pan. Refrigerate until chilled and firm.
Recipe from teh US Dry Bean Council.

New England Baked Beans
1 lb dry navy beans or 4 15-oz cans of navy beans (I would use the cans, I cooked my beans in the crockpot and they were still pretty firm)
8 oz bacon, cubed (I skipped this part)
2 c. chopped onions
2 tsp minced garlic
1/3 c. unsulphured molasses
1/3 c. packed light brown sugar
2 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp ground allspice
2 bay leaves
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Cook the beans according to package directions.
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
Transfer beans and enough cooking liquid to barely cover into a large baking pan, 3 qt casserole, or oven safe pot. Stir all ingredients into the beans.
Bake, covered, for 1 hour for dry beans 30 minutes for canned beans. Uncover and bake 4-6 hours, stirring every hour.
Recipe from the US Dry Bean Council.
Alternate crockpot directions that I came up with:
Cook the bean according to package directions.
Transfer beans and enough cooking liquid to barely cover into a 4-6 qt crockpot. Stir all other ingredients into the beans.
Cover and cook on low for 4-8 hours, this recipe seems to be flexible. If you are working, omit the bacon and use a timer either on your crockpot or a light timer you've plugged your crockpot into to start the crockpot while you are at work. The bacon isn't safe to leave out unrefrigerated and not cooking for the whole morning, but the beans, onions, sugars, and spices will be fine.

Pinto Bean Bread
2 c. lukewarm milk (I used plain Silk soy milk)
4 1/2 tsp yeast (2 packets)
2 c. pinto beans, mashed (it takes about 2 1/2 cup of pinto beans to get 2 c. mashed, just rinse and drain the beans then run through a food processor or blender or mash by hand)
2 T sugar
2 tsp salt
2 T shortening, melted (do not use oil)
5-6 c. flour (my beans were a bit moist, so I needed closer to 6 - 6 1/2 c.)
Stir together the milk, beans, sugar, salt, shortening, and one tablespoon of the flour.
Stir in the yeast and wait for it to proof, about 5 minutes (you'll see foam form).
Stir in the flour to make a kneadable dough. Knead 5-10 minutes until satiny and smooth, adding more flour to your work surface to keep the dough from sticking. (I found this dough to be very sticky and added in almost another cup of flour. The dough was smooth and elastic, not nearly as firm as Play Doh, much more firm then chocolate chip cookie dough.)
Place in a large greased bowl, flipping the dough over to put the now greased dough side up. Cover loosely with a clean cloth, dampening it lightly if your air is dry. Let it rise in a warm (70 - 80 degrees) place until dobule in size (45 minutes or so).
Punch down (take it out, put it on a lightly floured surface, fold it in thirds like a wallet, turn it 90 degrees, repeat, do this half a dozen times - you are redistributing yeast and other ingredients). Put it back in the bowl and let it rise until double again (another 45 minutes).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans.
Put the dough on your work surface (no flour needed), cut it in half, and shape into two loaf shapes, then put the shaped dough into the greased loaf pans.
When the oven is heated, bake for 30 - 40 minutes (I needed the full 40 minutes). The original directions says "or until thumps hollow on the bottom" which makes me say "um, they're in glass loaf pans, how am I supposed to tap the bottom of the bread?" At 30 minutes, the loaf was tan in color. At 40 minutes, the loaf was a light brown color. I let it cool for 10 minutes, then turned it out of the loaf pan, let it cool for another 10 minutes, then sliced it. The bread was still a bit steamy but was thoroughly baked, so I'll do the 40 minutes bake time again.
Original recipe was found on Recipezaar by wildheart, but I changed the milk to soy milk and added the more exact instructions.
If you slice it thinly enough to fit in the toaster, it would make good toast. I put some margarine on a 1" thick slice and broiled it until lightly brown, then spread homemade strawberry jam over it. It was steaming, warm, hearty but tender, very good flavor and texture. If you know the beans are in there, you can faintly detect them. Otherwise, you'd never know. This recipe is definitely a keeper for us.