Sliced, Spiced and Iced Refrigerator Sweet Dill Pickles

Sharon123's Note:

Feeling a little lazy and not wanting to can, I was looking for a good recipe for chilled dill pickles, but couldn't quite find the exact recipe I wanted so I have adapted a recipe from Group Recipes and Epicurious to fit my needs. It's slightly sweet with the lovely taste of dill. I hope this fits your needs too! :) Cooking time is marinating time. Thank you for the inspiration coconutlime and Amelia Saltsman!

• Total Time: 168 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 168 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 16

Yield: 4.0 pint jars

• 1 ½ lbs small pickling cucumbers , sliced 1/4-1/2-inch thick (or regular cucumbers-may cut into spears also)
• 4 garlic cloves , sliced
• 4 sprigs fresh dill (optional)
• 2 cups cold water
• ½ teaspoon celery seed
• 3 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon dill seed
• 2 cups white distilled vinegar
• 1 cup sugar (or 1 1/2 cups depending on sweetness you desire)
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more or less depending on heat level you desire)
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorn (optional)

Directions:

1. Evenly divide the garlic, fresh dill and sliced cucumbers among four wide mouthed pint jars.
2. Before adding the mustard seed, red pepper flakes, peppercorns(if using) and dill seed, crush them slightly. You can use your hands, a mortar and pestle, or give then one quick whiz in the food processor(optional).
3. In a saucepan, mix together vinegar, water, sugar, red pepper flakes, celery seed, salt, mustard seed and dill seed. Heat to just dissolve sugar, then remove and let cool. Use a funnel to fill each jar with the cooled brining liquid. The spices may float to the bottom, so use a spoon to evenly divide anything that is leftover into the jars. Cap tightly and refrigerate at least one week before eating. Enjoy!
4. It was suggested you do this over a large bowl. The cucumbers start to float and displace liquid. Add the overflow back into the brining mixture before you fill up the next jar. No mess! :).

Reviews

[Red Jenny]

Easy to make - When I eat them in a few days I'll let you know how they taste!! Edit: After over a month, they taste delicious, tangy and sweet. I prefer slightly less sweet so next time I might reduce the sugar. Not super crispy but not too soggy either.

[TLC-MO]

My husband and I made 12 pints of these refrigerator pickles in about an hour. The brine is delicious, so I'm hoping the pickles will be really tasty -- just have to wait a week to find out. We quadrupled the recipe and have some leftover brine to use for another small batch. I didn't change much on the recipe: 1. Substituted 1 tsp. of refrigerated minced garlic for each of the garlic cloves. 2. Omitted the fresh dill sprigs. 3. Used 1 1/2 cups of sugar to achieve a sweeter taste. 4. Ran out of Dill Seeds, so I substituted Dill Weed. Used my electric food chopper to grind up the seeds, peppercorns, and pepper flakes. On the next batch, I'm going to slice the cucumbers thinner -- maybe 1/8" -- to try to achieve a hamburger sweet-dill slice. I'll report back to you in a week or so.