There's no fancy canning necessary! With just a few minutes of hands-on time, you can have fresh, sweet, and tangy Lower Sugar Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles ready to enjoy. This clean eating snack is perfect for adding to salads, stuffing inside sandwiches, or enjoying on its own!
Sometimes I plan my posts and topics out in advance with a "big picture" schedule. But I think the true beauty of this blog is that it reflects exactly what my family is doing at any given point in our life -- whether it's the activities that we're playing, the workouts that we're sweating through, or the food that we're eating. This particular recipe is not one that I had "scheduled" on my calendar. Instead, I made these pickles last weekend after I found that a neighboring farm had ripe pickling cucumbers ready to go and I just couldn't pass them up!
And since the pickles turned out so well, I figured that some of YOU might want to try them too!
I have made dill pickles and bread and butter pickles in the past using cucumbers from our own garden. And while they tasted delicious, I still have vivid memories of the whole canning process -- specifically, of me sweating over a hot and steamy stove late at night in the middle of the summer to make sure that my jars were properly sealed. With aching feet and a tired body, that was NOT my idea of fun!
Instead, I decided to take the quick and easy route this year and just made a small batch of refrigerator pickles for us to enjoy now. And since my primary complaint with store-bought bread and butter pickles is their cloying sweetness (ugh! TOO MUCH SUGAR!), I decided to lower the amount of sugar for my own jars. I used xylitol, which is a naturally occurring sweetener that looks and tastes just like granulated sugar, and I decreased the amount by half. Xylitol doesn't have that overly-sweet or artificial taste that you typically find in other alternatives like stevia, so it's a perfect 1:1 substitute for regular sugar. Of course, if you prefer, you can always substitute with an equal amount of white granulated sugar here -- the overall amount of sugar in the recipe will still be about HALF that of a regular bread and butter pickle recipe!
[Tweet "These Lower Sugar Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles are easy and fresh! #recipe"]
I thought that these Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles turned out perfectly...just the right amount of sweetness, without going totally overboard. Enjoy!
Lower Sugar Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles
Ingredients
- 5 ½ cups about 1 ½ pounds thinly sliced pickling cucumbers
- 1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion
- ½ cup xylitol or can substitute with granulated sugar
- 1 cup white vinegar
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar or can substitute with light brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon celery seeds
- ⅛ teaspoon ground turmeric
Instructions
- Combine sliced cucumbers and salt in a large, shallow bowl; cover and chill for 1 – 1 ½ hours. Place cucumbers in a colander and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Drain well, and return to bowl.
- Add sliced onion to the bowl and toss with cucumbers.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together xylitol, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, coconut palm sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds and turmeric. Bring to a simmer and whisk until sugar dissolves (about 5 minutes).
- Pour hot vinegar mixture over cucumbers. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Place pickles (and liquid) in airtight container or jars and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker.
Looking for other delicious ways to enjoy fresh summer produce? Try these favorites:
Simple Italian Green Bean Salad
Marinated Shrimp and Summer Veggie Quinoa Bowls
Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice
So I actually don't like cucumbers, but I love pickles! My husband always makes fun of me for that lol. I've never thought to make my own before...such a great idea, Blair! I bet these taste delicious!
Blair
That is funny...but these pickles don't actually taste much like a regular cucumber, so I could see why you might still love them! Definitely give them a try!
Megan - The Emotional Baker
Seasonal produce is the best for inspiring spur of the moment creations! I'm sure I'll be getting some local cucumbers soon and pickles will be a great way to use some of them - this looks like a great recipe 🙂
Blair
Thanks, Megan! I hope that you get to try them! 🙂
Robyn @ Simply Fresh Dinners
I LOVE this, Blair. And I love pickles but rarely buy them for some strange reason. I have memories of my grandmother sweating it out in the hot summers with her canning jars and it looked like such a huge task that I have never canned or pickled a single thing until this year. Once I discovered quick and easy ways, I want to pickle everything. Funny that I hadn't thought to pickle pickles, haha! Thanks for a great recipe - it's getting done this weekend! Sharing 🙂
Blair
Hah -- you've definitely got to try the classic pickle! This recipe is great because it's not too sweet and full of junk. I hope that you love them, Robyn!
lindsay Cotter
I think i need to come visit. Your neighboring farm? Um... I love pickling cucumbers. Will they share?
Blair
Yes, yes! Plenty to go around, Lindsay! 🙂
GiGi Eats
PINNING THE CRAP OUT OF THIS RECIPE!!! LOL!
Blair
Thanks so much, GiGi! Glad you like it! 🙂
Rhianon
Wow, these look really good! I normally just buy my pickles (I love Bubbies!) but this looks so easy, I might just have to try it!
Betsy B Callaghan
So you can only keep for 2 weeks in the refrig? Thx Its just me so I was hoping they would last longer.
Blair
Hi, Betsy! You know what? I'm sure that they last longer than 2 weeks (thanks to plenty of vinegar), but I'm not sure exactly how long and I never want anyone to get sick if something goes bad (so I err on the shorter timeline). If you really want them to last for months, you can use the same recipe but go through the actual canning process by putting them in a hot water bath, etc. That's just more work than I'm usually willing to do. 🙂
Marion
I made these a week ago. For the first attempt, I made brown-eyed baker's original recipe and it's pretty good. Next time, I'll start jiggling the vinegar and sugar amounts to find my preference. My first batch is a little funky anyway because I didn't have celery seed and substituted dill seed and, by mistake, I bought zucchinis instead of cucumbers! Whoops! But it still worked out. Like with the chex mix, I appreciate this kind of recipe where it seems hard to mess it up and the ingredients are fairly inexpensive. Oh, yes I had seen recipes for freezer pickles so I froze half the batch and hopefully they will be satisfactory. Since I'm cooking for one, it will be great if that works out.
Blair Lonergan
You made zucchini pickles! 🙂