Lower Sugar Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles

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!

5 from 1 vote

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Lower Sugar Bread and Butter Refrigerator Pickles

Prep Time 3 hours

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 3 hours 5 minutes

Servings 4 cups (or 32 servings, 2 tablespoons each)

Author The Seasoned Mom

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
• 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric

Instructions

1. 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.
2. Add sliced onion to the bowl and toss with cucumbers.
3. 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).
4. 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.

Recipe Notes

Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker.

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

Peach Melba Homemade Pops