From the Hound's Kitchen: Spicy Dill Pickles

One of the things about participating in a CSA (Community-Supported-Agriculture) share is that there are times you end up with SO MUCH of one thing that you think you could never think of enough different recipes to use it all up. This is made worse when there are some items that you don't like. That is currently happening with us. We have a WHOLE LOT of cucumbers. So with the first batch of the cucumbers we decided to make pickles. We found this recipe for Spicy Refrigerator Dill Pickles, and modified it so that we could can the pickles instead of having to eat them all in a month, also so that we can give them away as gifts (so we've gotten a head start on Christmas of this year! YAY!). So here is the modified recipe that we did, then after that there are notes about changes to make next time.

Spicy Dill pickles

Ingredients:
12 3-4 inch long pickling cucumbers (ok we used whatever cucumbers we had and just modified the brine amount as we went)
2 cups water
1 3/4 cups white vinegar
3/4 cup PA Dutch Dried Dill Weed
1/2 cup white sugar
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 tbsp coarse salt
1 tbsp PA Dutch Pickling Spice
1 1/2 tsp PA Dutch Dill Seed
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or more if you like more spice
Ball Pickle Crisp Granules - follow directions for amount per jar


Directions:
1) Cut the ends off the cucumbers and cut them down to size if needed. If they are pickling cucumbers you can skip this part if you would like
2) In a large rubbermaid, combine the cucumbers, water, vinegar, dried dill weed, sugar, garlic, salt, pickling spice, dill seed, and red pepper flakes. Stir (or put the lid on tightly and shake), and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours, until salt and sugar dissolve.
3) Remove the cucumbers to 1 1/2 pint wide mouth jars (or whichever jars you have decided to use and cut the cucumbers to fit into). Ladle in the liquid from the bowl to cover the pickles, but don't fill all the way to the top. Add the correct amount of Ball Pickle Crisp Granules - in this case I put 1/8 tsp in each jar.
4) Use a damp paper towel to clean the rims of the jars, seal with canning lids. Bring water to boil in big pot (enough to cover the top of the jars with about 1 inch of water. Using canning tongs place jars into the water and boil for 20 minutes. Pull jars out, set on cloth towels on counter and allow to cool. Repeat with remaining jars.

We let the pickles sit for 10 days before we opened them to try them. They are definitely pickles. Ours have a strong vinegar bite to them, making Elfie pucker up every time! But that is ok.

Notes (aka things we learned to to next time/suggestions)

• This time we did not strain the herbs out of the brine before canning- next time we will since now we have to scrap off the excess dill weed and dill seed to get to the pickles. 
• The pickling crisp is wonderful! Our pickles are nice and crispy!
• Try boiling the brine & letting it cool before adding the cucumbers to sit for the 2 hours. This should help get the flavoring out of the various dill herbs so that the pickles are nice and dill-y even when we strain out the herbs. 
• Next time we will add more pepper flakes- this batch of pickles was not nearly as spicy as we would like- they are very vinegary though!