HOW TO: Cook Dry Beans
Don’t know how to cook dry beans? Brenda’s here to help. She’ll walk you through how to soak, par-boil, or pressure cook the beans.
HOW TO: Cook Dry Beans
Dry beans are less expensive and much easier to buy in bulk than canned beans. With a little planning, they are also just as easy to use. Here are a few standard methods to prepare dry beans for use in any recipe that calls for canned beans.
Note: 3/4 cup dry beans is roughly equivalent to one (15 oz) can
3/4 cup dry beans, rinsed
2 cups water
1/4 tsp salt (add after cooking)
Pressure cooker . . .
In Brenda's opinion, the pressure cooker is an essential small appliance for someone who enjoys cooking with beans, as it efficiently prepares perfect cooked beans with little advance planning.
Directions: add ingredients to the cooker's insert bowl, select the pre-set "bean" option or "manual" and adjust the timing for the type of bean. Allow natural release and you've got perfectly cooked beans to serve hot or add to any recipe.
Par-boil + cook . . .
It takes a little more time, but dry beans can be pre-boiled and then simmered to be ready for use in place of canned.
Directions: add rinsed beans and water to a pot, bring to boil, cooking for 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to med-low to simmer until done. Time differs by type of bean but expect 1 to 4 hours. Make sure pot doesn't boil dry.
Soak + add directly . . .
Alternately, dry beans can be soaked overnight and added to recipes. Lengthen the recipe’s cooking time to adequately offset using the soaked beans in place of canned and they work just as well. Expect cooking time to be longer by 2 to 4 hours.
Directions: add beans and water to a bowl, set aside for 8-12 hours. Drain and rinse. Add to recipe. Cook 2-4 hours. Additional liquid may be required. Test beans to ensure cooked through.
Par-boil + soak . . .
This is another method for soaking, but faster. Basically you're speeding up the soaking process significantly.
Directions: add rinsed beans and water to a pot, bring to boil, cooking for 10 minutes. Shut off heat and leave beans to soak for 1-2 hours. Rinse and add to recipe. Cook 2-4 hours. Additional liquid may be required.
Brenda’s tips:
For recipes calling for multiple bean types, compare the cooking times. If similar, cook varieties together using any of the methods. If not, it's best to prepare them separately so that the beans retain their structural integrity.
Beans will continue to "dry" as they are stored. This means that the water content continues to decline and it will take longer to revive the bean and for it to cook. If you know the beans you are using have been stored, consider the following when pressure cooking:
Add 1 minute for every year in storage.
Example: Black beans 8 years stored, add 8 minutes for a total of 28-33 minutes pressure.
Stove or soak directions have flexible time tables.
Eventually, beans do age though their shelf life is generally considered "indefinite." From the kindness of others sharing stored beans, Brenda has experimented and determined that dry beans stored longer than 20 years are extremely difficult to revive. So like all food storage . . . rotate dry beans for continual quality.
HOW TO: Shape Round Rolls
Learn how to make Brenda’s Favorite Dough Recipe into 32 round rolls.
HOW TO: Shape Round Rolls
Step 1: Make one batch of Brenda’s Favorite Dough Recipe. Complete initial rise cycle for dough.
Step 2: Flour the mat. A wire mesh strainer allows even flouring without excess, results in a light even dusting.
Step 3: Shape the dough. Dump risen dough out of bowl and fold into a rectangle, pressing with fingertips to direct the dough into the desired shape.
Step 4: Cut the dough. Brenda generally does a 4 x 8 grid (32 rolls). A dough scraper works great to divide the dough, and a butter knife is a good substitute. This method allows rolls to be fairly consistent in size which helps them cook evenly.
Step 5: Shape each roll.
As you pick up each dough square, tap one side in the flour on mat/board
Set dough square (flour side resting on palm) on your non-dominant palm
Pinch: using the finger tips of your dominant hand, pull the edges together as your fingertips press the dough firmly into your dominant palm, squeezing and sealing the edges
Think: closing fingers into palm, momentarily creating a fist
Rotate: pull dough back into non-dominant palm, pressing center with non-dominant thumb to push air out
Repeat ‘Pinch’ & ‘Rotate’ until air pockets have been depleted, approximately 6-12 times
Place completed roll on pan, spacing evenly with other rolls
Keep shaping the rolls until all the dough has been shaped. If you have small helpers, they’ll love assisting
Your completed pan will look something like this. When placing rolls, try to space so as to fill entire pan. Brenda creates a grid by placing rolls in corners, then evenly along sides, lastly filling in the middle.
This photo is a double-batch of Brenda’s Favorite Dough Recipe turned into 63 rolls, the pan is a three-quarter sheet pan (22" x 16") lined with parchment
Step 6: Let rolls rise for about 45 minutes, preheating oven to 350F about 40 minutes into rise time. Fingertip test to check that adequately risen.
Gently press fingertip into the side of one roll, about 1/4” deep
Stays: dough is ready to cook
Disappears: let it rise another 10 min and test again
Step 7: Bake 22-28 minutes, until evenly golden brown across all rolls. Try not to over-bake as rolls will become dry and lose their rich flavor.
Brenda’s tips:
A few considerations:
Sometimes cutting the dough doesn’t result in similar sized dough squares. Simply cut a little dough off the really big ones and add to the really little ones. Practice will make it easier.
You can make any number of rolls out of a batch. Cut into 12 will result in very large dinner rolls. Lots of children at your Thanksgiving celebration? You don’t want them tossing your hard work after (if even) one bite? Cut the batch into 6 x 12 and you’ll have 72 rolls that are about 1” finished. A little more rolling time for a lot less waste. Or divide the batch in half and make 12 regular size from one half and 36 out of the other half. Be sure to bake on separate pans so the small rolls don’t over bake and adjust baking times as well.