Home cooks are being told to add one ingredient to their baked beans to elevate them to the next level. Michelle Goth, the mum and chef behind Blackberry Babe, says these secret ingredient baked beans are “sweet, smoky, spicy, and the perfect barbecue side dish.”

This recipe is for US baked beans. Unlike British baked beans, which have a tomato-based sauce, they have a molasses-based sauce and often include meat. They also tend to be a side dish rather than a breakfast food. Michelle adapted the recipe from the Kansas City Culinary Institute, and says it is “absolutely perfect”. She says the secret ingredient gives the beans “incredible complex flavour and a vibrant colour”, and “nobody will believe you when you tell them what it is”.

First, bacon and onion are sautéed for about 10 minutes. Then, the pork, beans and brown sugar are added, as well as the “super-secret ingredient”, cherry pie filling.

In America, pork and beans and cherry pie filling come ready-made in cans available in most supermarkets, but you will likely have to make your own.

Pork and beans is made with haricot beans, salt pork, and tomato sauce. Cherry pie filling contains fresh cherries, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch. Recipes for both are available online.

Finally, spices (paprika, cayenne pepper, cumin, black pepper) and Worchestershire sauce are added to provide heat and smoky flavour. The beans are baked in the oven for one hour, or you can add them to the crock pot and cook on low for several hours.

Alongside your baked beans, you could enjoy other American barbecue foods such as brisket, ribs, potato salad, macaroni cheese, chicken wings, corn bread, coleslaw, collard greens, and grilled corn.

Home cooks commented on Michelle’s recipe, saying that they thought the secret ingredient was “brilliant”. One said: “These look delicious! I never in a million years would have guessed cherry pie filling!”