These apple baked beans are such a festive fun fall side dish! Not only does this recipe feature some of fall’s finest produce (apples!), it is 100% naturally sweetened without any added sugar. Instead, these apple baked beans are sweetened with…APPLES! And at the risk of sounding just a wee bit over the top, there are apples included in 5, yes FIVE different forms! And if you want to be really wild, there’s even a way to include apples with six different ingredients.

Recipe Testing and Development

I am super excited (and not going to lie, slightly relieved!) to FINALLY be sharing this recipe with you today! This recipe required MANY test batches to get it just right. I have to say, while testing and retesting the same recipe is definitely a lesson in patience, it’s always SO worth it at the end. Many times my favorite recipes take several tries to take it from “good” to GREAT. If I’m not super excited about a recipe the first time around, I know I need to tweak it and make adjustments before it’s blog worthy!

I actually made this recipe for the first time WAY back before my blog was even in existence! It was last winter when I knew I wanted to start a blog, and was spending countless hours behind the scenes setting up my website (let’s just say I was in a little over my head haha). ANYWAYS. I thankfully thought to write down the ingredients, and then tested it again with different variations this fall.

Apples: 5 different ways!

As I mentioned, this dish uses apples in five different ways! The star is homemade apple butter, which seriously couldn’t be simpler to make! And this apple butter freezes beautifully, so you can have it year-round to make these apple baked beans. In addition to the apple butter, we have applesauce, chopped fresh apple, apple cider vinegar (a little tang to balance out the sweetness), and apple cider! The optional ingredient is apple chicken sausage. I have made this dish both with and without the apple chicken sausage, and it is delicious both ways! Just make sure you are using cooked sausage before adding it to the beans.

Beans: Filling Fiber and Protein

The great thing about this recipe is many different types of canned beans will work here, so you can use what you already have on hand at home! Suggestions include great northern white beans, cannellini beans, pinto beans, lima beans, and navy beans. I usually use some sort of combination of cannellini, great northern, or pinto beans.

While I’m definitely not vegetarian and don’t have any plans to ever be, I have really been enjoying incorporating more plant-based proteins into my diet. I often will incorporate beans into a lunch to bring with me to work. You can use the recipe as meal-prep and portion the beans out into glass containers to easily grab and go! Just one serving of beans (1/2 cup cooked) contain 6 grams of fiber (approximately 25% of your daily intake!) and 7 grams of protein.

As always, I’d love to know if you try this recipe! ?