One of my favorite books is Frank X. Tolbert's A Bowl of Red,
a tribute to Texas chili. He of course insists on bean-less chili. I
understand but I still like a few mixed in. It doesn't need to be that
thick mass like the mess you find in cans. But to each his own.
Despite
his chili stance, Señor Tolbert is a huge pinto bean fan. In fact, he
has a recipe of sorts for Honey beans. He says you should cook the
pintos as normal, trading two or three spoonfuls of honey for salt
pork. You cook until tender and serve with hot buttered corn bread, and
covered with more honey.
I would have thought that the honey would harden the beans but maybe I'm wrong.
Another sweet bean treat was the pinto bean pie from the now defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery. I wish I had the recipe.
Bean pie came across my radar this Thanksgiving when I looked up a pumpkin pie recipe and it noted that you could substitute white bean puree for the pumpkin in the recipe. I haven’t made one yet, but I’m thinking about it for the holidays. This recipe calls for white beans too; do you know if pinto bean pies are similar or a totally different animal?
http://www.muhammadspeaks.com/Pie.html