Recipe for Sweet Candied Dill Pickles tastes like a bread and butter pickle without being too sweet. It’s the perfect blend of sweet with a hint of dill pickle left behind.
This is an easy recipe. It just needs a bit of time to marinate before serving.
Now, some folks will eat these as soon as they have cooled down, but we prefer them after at least 24 hours in the refrigerator.
How to Make
Start with a large jar of whole dill pickles. I use generic pickles because I am about to change the entire flavor profile anyway.
Drain the pickling juice off and discard, or save for later if you are closet pickle juice drinker. Save the jar, you are going to use it in a minute.
Cut off any stem pieces (the little tails) then cut into slices. We prefer larger chunks, these are about 3/4 of an inch.
Thinner slices would be fine, as well as just cutting the pickles in half. There just needs to be some exposed pickle flesh.
Place the pickles back into the jar they were originally in. Unless you want to experience the entire canning process, in which case, go ahead and get your canning setup ready.
These pickles do not last long enough in our house to worry about long-term storage.
Boil the vinegar, sugar, and pickling spices until the sugar has melted and resembles a simple syrup.
Pickling spice is not to be confused with pickling salt. Pickling salt would ruin this recipe.
After boiling your sugar, vinegar, and spices, let it cool for about 10 minutes.
The jar may break or shatter if you add hot liquid directly to the jar. Thermal shock can occur if the syrup mixture is too hot.
There may be extra headspace in the jar after adding the cooled liquid into the jar of Sweet Candied Dill Pickles. This is perfectly fine.
You actually want to have some space in there when you are shaking the jar over the next few hours.
It will give the candied dill pickles room to move around and make sure all surfaces have spent some time directly in the brine.
I choose to leave the pickling spices loose. When serving these pickles alongside sweet pickles or dill pickles, I want people to know that this one is different. It just makes it easier to detect one version over the other.
If you prefer not to have pickling spice floating in your brine, tie the spices up with a piece of cheesecloth.
Alternatively, you could use these nifty disposable little bags designed for making your own tea bags or a tea ball.
A tea ball is something I use on the regular in other applications when I need to keep spices gathered up, like chicken soup.
Process Shots
Pickles Sliced in roughly 3/4 inch pieces.
Place pickles back into the original jar.
After the cooled liquid has been added, replace jar lid, making sure lid jar is tightly secured, shake the jar.
No worries about the extra space, the candied dill pickles will shrink some because of hydrolysis.
You also want some room for movement as you shake to evenly distribute the spices and syrup.
HOW TO SERVE
Serve as desired.
We like serving Sweet Candied Dill Pickles with sandwiches and burgers.
The spices can be removed prior to placing them into a serving bowl, or you can be lazy, like me, and leave them on the pickles.
Just make sure you remove those whole black peppers before crunching on one, they are powerful little creatures.
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Candied Pickles
Equipment
Ingredients
- 46 ounces whole dill pickles drained and rinsed
- 2 cups white granulated sugar
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons pickling spices
Instructions
- Slice pickles into 3/4 to inch slices.
- Place pickles back into the original jar.
- Add sugar, vinegar, and pickling spices to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Boil for 2 minutes then remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Allow liquid to cool for 10 to 20 minutes, this avoids breaking or cracking the glass with thermal shock.
- Pour liquid over pickles in the jar.
- Seal jar and refrigerate for 24 hours to 48 hours, giving the jar a shake a few times a day, making sure lid is sealed tightly to avoid leaks.
- Serve as desired.
Marilynn
This is actually useful, thanks.
Nathalie Norris
OH MY GOSH!!! This was my grandmother’s recipe!! I made them with her but couldn’t find a place that had how to do it. They even look like the thick cut she did. YES YES YES YES Thank you!!
Beth Mueller
Hi Nathalie!
I’m so happy you found the candied pickle information you needed! Let me know how they turn out.
Cheers!