This baked beans recipe tastes so similar to Heinz it’s almost scary. Except homemade baked beans don’t have underlying tones of artificial flavour, and the sauce isn’t slimy which I really hate about canned baked beans!
These British baked beans can be made with dried or canned beans. Quick and easy, very economical and utterly addictive!
Heinz baked beans recipe
So there’s no misunderstanding, let me explain upfront that this recipe is for British style baked beans which comes in a semi-clear tomato sauce and is traditionally served for breakfast. It’s completely different to Southern Baked Beans which is a Southern food staple and comes with a darker, more intense flavoured sweet/savoury sauce.
Specifically, this recipe today is a copycat of Heinz baked beans. A British export, firmly adopted by Aussies as a breakfast-lunch-dinner staple.
Crack open a can, tip it over toast and microwave – that was the standard method.
Heating it up in a saucepan was the posh method. Add a slice of cheese – now that was getting real fancy!
I think we have the evolution of cooking shows and rise and rise of the internet to thank for the discovery of homemade versions of canned food favourites. And for me, homemade baked beans was one of the greatest eye openers. How simple it is. And how much tastier it is.
And as someone who always had an issue with the sliminess of the Heinz baked beans sauce, discovering homemade baked beans was revolutionary! 😂
What you need to make baked beans from scratch
Here’s what you need to make baked beans from scratch:
Canned vs dried beans
You can make this baked beans recipe with dried or canned beans. The base recipe uses dried beans because:
you can’t get canned navy beans / haricot beans here in Australia, you can only get dried (as far as I am aware); and
cooked dried beans taste better, and you can control the texture. Canned beans are always bloated from sitting in liquid, so they’re on the soft side.
Beans used for Baked Beans
Navy beans, also known as Haricot Beans, are the beans used in commercially produced canned baked beans. They are white beans that are slightly smaller than Cannellini beans.
However, any small to medium beans will work just fine here. They don’t even need to be white!
Chicken vs vegetable stock/broth
Chicken stock gives the sauce a better flavour because it has more complex flavours than vegetable stock because it’s made from meat. It doesn’t make this dish taste “chicken-like” or meaty once cooked.
However, vegetable stock does work fine but for best results, I recommend using homemade vegetable stock (it’s the easiest of all stocks to make, and really worth doing homemade).
How to make baked beans from scratch
It is literally a “mix it all in the pot and simmer” job.
The only thing to do at the end is to add cornflour/cornstarch to thicken the sauce. This needs to be done at the end because excess stirring or prolonged cooking over heat makes cornflour lose its thickening powers (in case you were wondering why cornflour is always added at the end of recipes!!)
How to serve baked beans
Traditionally thought of as a side for breakfast (think a big English breakfast with poached, fried or scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, sausages and toast) or piled onto toast (try adding CHEESE!). But there’s so much more we can do with baked beans to make it an economical, seriously delicious meal! Here are a few suggestions:
Chicken and beans – sprinkle chicken (or any chops, or sausages) with salt and pepper. Pan fry in butter. Serve with baked beans on the side which will act as the “sauce” as well as the starch for dinner;
Sausage and beans – either slice smoked sausages, squeeze the filling out of sausage casings or use ground sausage. Cook it in a pot, add baked beans, stir through spinach = dinner in a pot!
Stuff baked potatoes (add cheese to this too!)
As a side for any dinner – serve it as the starch on a dinner plate. Beans are low in GI so they’ll keep you fuller for longer!
Emergency nachos – pile over corn chips and add a ton of cheese. How can you go wrong??
Stuff an omelette – yep, really. Make an omelette and stuff it with cheesy baked beans!
Breads for dunking
Here are a few bread options – for toasting, dunking, mopping! The first 3 breads are all ideal for slicing > toasting > smothering with baked beans.
For me personally, I like to serve it in a bowl with bread for dunking. The whole “smother toast” thing doesn’t do it for me because I like to eat toast with my hands (well, put another way, I hate using a knife and fork for toast).
And if you pile baked beans over toast, eating it with your hands is messy business.
So I prefer the bowl method – spoon + bread for dunking. Practical and effective! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Watch how to make this baked beans recipe – and see how truly similar it is to Heinz baked beans!
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Homemade Heinz Baked Beans
Ingredients
Beans – choose ONE (Note 1):
- 2 cups (14 oz) dried Navy beans (aka Haricot) or other white beans
- 3 x 400g/14oz cans harricot/navy beans, cannellini or any white beans , drained
Baked beans:
- 2 cups chicken stock/broth , low sodium, OR homemade vegetable stock (Note 2)
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 6 tbsp ketchup or Aussie/British tomato sauce (Note 3)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (or more onion powder)
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (or more garlic powder)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
Sauce thickening:
- 8 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
Cook dried beans:
- No need to do these steps if using canned beans, start with Step 1 under "Baked Beans" below.
- Soak beans in a big bowl of water for 8 – 24 hrs, then drain.
- Skim foam – Place beans in a large pot of water over high heat. Bring to a simmer, then skim off foam.
- Simmer Reduce heat so it's simmering gently (medium or medium low). Partially cover with lid (leaving a crack for steam to escape), then cook for 1 – 1.5 hrs until just tender. (Start checking at 45 min). Beans should be still slightly firm on inside (they're cooked more in the sauce). Drain, use per recipe.
Baked Beans:
- Mix – Place all Baked Beans ingredients in a pot (except beans) and stir, then add beans.
- Simmer – Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes, without the lid. Stir every now and then so the beans don't catch on the bottom of the pot.
Thicken sauce:
- Mix cornflour with water. Pour into pot while stirring, then cook for 2 minutes until sauce thickens – it will thicken quickly. (Note 3)
- Check for salt: Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Serve it the traditional way – piled over hot buttered toast. Or ladle into bowls, eat with a spoon and dunk in hot crusty bread! Popular breads – simple crusty Artisan bread, Irish Soda Bread (No yeast) and No Yeast Sandwich Bread
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published May 2014. Updated with more streamlined, better recipe (skipped unnecessary extras that didn’t add to the end result), new photos, new video and Life of Dozer section added in May 2020!
More mean bean recipes
Life of Dozer
Dozer on the weekend – Pupcake vs Lamb Shoulder. Agony of indecision….
Dozer can always have the Lamb Shoulder for main meal and the pupcake for dessert 🙂
Always 😉 N x
When I was at university, a standard fast supper was “Beanie Wienie”–a can of baked beans, some chopped onion, some catsup, some barbeque sauce, some brown sugar, a splash of molasses (or maple syrup, if you could afford it), and a couple of sliced hot dogs; combine and bake for 30 minutes, serve with corn bread. It’s still a great comfort food on a cold day, & this recipe sounds like it would make fabulous Beanie Wienie!
Yup! That’s what I’m looking for. Comfort food at its best.
These are amazing! Aussies living in the USA, with extremely limited access to expensive English baked beans (tried the local choices, never again). My kids miss them, so they made these tonight after seeing your email. Don’t know why I didn’t think of making them before! Totally delicious, served with crumbly bacon and pretzel rolls. I’ll never buy beans again, thank you so much!
I love this!! N x
Am not that fond of stuff coming out of tins, But do love beans of all kinds s0 simply have to try this with all the ‘good things’ in it ! Not breakfast for me but would love it on toast or wrap in the evening hours . . . Dozer ? Told you, Mom, on IG a few days back . . . are you truly trying to tell us there was a choice present in his mind . . . . lamb for this eager Aussie boy for sure . . . !!
I hope you try them Eha! And as for Dozer – the smell of lamb is far too good! N x
Nagi, I love baked beans! Being a post-war British baby, I grew up on Heinz Beans. Can you tell me what effect the apple cider vinegar has in this recipe? I have Histamine Intolerance & should avoid vinegar, pickles etc.
Hi Jan, it just balances the flavours – leave it out if you need to or use a squeeze of lemon juice 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi,
I can’t believe you posted this today. Just yesterday, I made a big pot of baked beans. Lately, I have been making all my own beans using dried. They do taste so much better.
Is it a must that these are made on the stove top? Is there an instant pot version? Just asking as it’s usually quicker. I will give these a try after I use up the 6 cans i have in my pantry.
I know…we LOVE baked beans in our house! lol
Thanks for another fab recipe.
Patti x
Love to know what you think if you try them Patti! N x
LOL! I loved the cute exchange between you and your Mom! That was great! Can’t wait to try the beans. They look and sound delicious! Thank you Nagi.
I hope you love them Leslie! N x
Nutrient Facts please Naji
Sorry for the double post – wrong email address on first post!!
Haha, love that your Mum says ‘regards’ when she’s cross with you! 😀😀
😂
Thank you, thank you. I have to have 3 x a day protein and I thats not meat . Menu is mushrooms, eggs, avocado, bake beans, mix nut etc.. Hello Dozer please eat what ever is there. Ok, be good not that you listen…..
Perfect Vera! Beans for you! N x
Can these be frozen?
Hi Megan, cornflour can become a bit runny after thawing but this recipe was OK, I’m thinking because the starch in the beans helps with thickening??? In anycase, if it isn’t as thick as you’d like once thawed, then just add extra cornflour/water and reheat – it works 100% perfectly! N x
made this as my base for shepherds pie, adding mash potato on top, really good
also, i soaked beans overnight, then used my pressure cooker,30mins,beans softened perfectly
These are so delicious 😋 and so filling too.. made a pig of myself .. thanks for another great recipe Nagi..
I know the feeling all too well Peta 😂
Hi Nagi, can you make these beans in the slow cooker? Any idea of timing? Thank you 😊
Hi Jan, I would transfer to the slow cooker at step 8, they should be done after about 4 hours on low ☺️
These beans are a lovely vego alternative to beef stew – yummo!
It would be useful to add a note in the recipe about ensuring that the beans are well-cooked in Step 1, because once you add the acidic ingredients they won’t soften any further – no matter how long you cook them! I made this the mistake the first time, because I’m not used to adding tomatoes and red wine to beans. The second time, they were perfect 🙂
Love your recipes, Nagi!
Oh dear :/ I wish I’d read this comment before cooking this. :facepalm:
I had soaked the beans for about 18 hours, then I cooked them for the recommended 30 minutes, but I should have kept them in longer. I’d never cooked with dried beans before, so I didn’t know how soft they should be after the first cooking.
The flavour is nice, but I’ve just looked up what can happen if you eat undercooked beans, and I’m going to throw them out to be on the safe side. I thought maybe I could use the stick blender to soften them up a bit, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Will try again in the future as I used to love baked beans from a can when I was a kid and I haven’t eaten them in years.
I made these for the second time last night.
I had soaked the beans for 24 hours. I then cooked them for the 30 minutes, but they weren’t soft enough. Because of my last experience, I wasn’t willing to risk it, so I cooked them for about 1 hour total.
By that time, pretty much all the water had disappeared and the beans were soft and creamy.
Meanwhile, I had fried up the onions and garlic in a separate saucepan, then I had added all the other sauce ingredients. I then poured the sauce into the beans and simmered them for about 30 minutes to reduce the sauce.
They tasted amazing! They reminded me of the baked beans I used to have every Sunday night as a child, just much prettier to look at and more delicious! And I had them on fresh sourdough toast with butter rather than on multigrain bread from the freezer with margarine! 😉
Great tips Kathy!
Tried it today! Really enjoyed it. Liked the flavor. As a new mom, I am not allowed any outside food. So used all fresh ingredients and it was simply amazing. Thank you 😊
Thanks so much for the feedback!
These beans were such a hit with my family for Easter Sunday breakfast!
Thanks for a great recipe – super easy to make and fabulous flavours.
Yum, what a great breakfast!
Hello Nagi. Is it 400g of *dried* beans? Or beans out of a can? Thank you.
Hi Nagi, I feel I have looked well but did not find the recipe for using canned beans. Would it just be a few cans? Thank you so much!
Hi Nagi,
This is Naiyya.
I chanced upon your website just a few days ago. Am I glad I did!
I love your posts. Your recipes are amazing. And it’s great to read about Dozer.
He is a bundle alright!
I hav a query about the baked beans.
Is there a substitute for red wine in this recipe?
Would love to know.
Awaiting your response.
And by the by, would you have a good recipe for banana cake that you could post?
Thank you so much.
He is a giant bundle, that’s for sure! 😂 Skip the red wine, use vegetable or chicken broth instead! N x
Hi Nagi, there are a number of your delicious recipes I’ve made but I am wondering in the reviews for this recipe you are discussing wine and to reduce it by half. There is no wine in the list of ingredients. Would the water and/or the stock been lieu of the wine. I am looking forward to enjoying these, I’ve even got 2 of my Canadian grandchildren and my Canadian husband eating them.
Well spotted Pauline!! The old recipe had more ingredients that I’ve now deemed unnecessary / non value adding. This recipe is easier, less ingredients and better result – so I updated the recipe! If I update an old post (and there are many that desperately need new photos and a video!) and I change the recipe (which is rare), I always note it below the recipe 🙂 Routine! N x
I doubled this recipe for a Memorial Day potluck. I used dried navy beans and followed the recipe exactly except for the addition of some organic cayenne powder and a tad more brown sugar. Going to serve with slices of warm garlic toast! When doubling the recipe, it took almost double the time as well to get the beans to a perfect al dente, but well worth the wait! Ecstatic that I didn’t have to make the disgusting, typical standard BBQ recipe made with ketchup, molasses, pork and pork fat!
Oooh that’s so fantastic to hear Bobbi! Yes, this one is a bit different to the ones made with canned pork and beans….. 😉 N xx