I have always made homemade baked beans in the crock pot and I shared the recipe with you way back in '09. While it is super convenient to use the slow cooker to bake the beans, I always found the result to be a little dry.
This time I decided to try the recipe on the back of the dried white pea bean package. The 
method is roughly the same (soak the peas overnight, drain and then cook until tender, combine with the sauce ingredients) but the baking is done in a low oven. Sure, it takes 7-8 hours at 250 degrees F but once the beans are in the oven they require as little supervision as the crock pot (you just have to make sure they stay covered in the water/sauce by checking every couple hours).
Once I mixed up the beans and put them in the casserole dish (I used my fake Le Crueset enameled cast iron) I had my doubts whether they would cook down into saucy goodness. Well...I was thrilled with the batch of beans at the end of the day. They were perfect! Tender, flavourful, and had that nice, thick sauce like you'd find in a can of baked beans - only way better! My sister says 'why bother going through the hassle of making beans when I can get them at the store for .59 cents a can?'...while that may be true, every once in a while I just think it's fun and tasty to make them yourself and enjoy the slow-baked aroma of the dish all day long. The flavour was amazing and I tell you, my house smelled really great while they cooked. (Afterwards...not so much! ;) j.k!
You can get this awesome recipe for Old Fashioned Baked Beans here.
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