Tomek had always had a dream, a dream inspired by plenty American movies and tv series. A simple dream of roasting a turkey. His desire would grow stronger along Thanksgiving time. It was no different this year, but finally this year we actually had friends coming over (not to celebrate Thanksgiving, just for a nice evening together, so it was the best time to make his dream come true and give me a peace of mind. You see for me turkey is just a big chicken, so I don’t understand the fuss about it, but once in a while you need to make your man happy, especially if he wants to cook. But once you go with a turkey, you need to find things that will accompany it. So we made cabbage salad, gravy, cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts and an apple pie for dessert. And of course these little cuties – stuffing muffins.
Let’s make it clear, for me if you call it stuffing it should be inside, not on a side. Yes, I can agree that soggy stuffing may not be nicest thing, but if you can’t make it nice maybe you could just skip it? To be fair, I’m no expert on a stuffing, but I wanted to make some, just to have my own opinion on my own stuffing, thank God a colleague send me this recipe. She actually said “I saw a photo of something I think you should make”, I thought “a cake,!” but she continued “…stuffing muffins” and I thought “yyyyy”, but she was so enthusiastic about it, and I was so pleased that she was thinking about me, that I actually reminded her to pass me the recipe and when I saw them I knew she was right. They are so cute! I didn’t care how will they taste like, I just wanted to make them.
So to make a long story short, the muffins are great, all my friends liked them and I’m not sure if I ever try to make a real stuffing, unless you convince me it’s worth it, otherwise I stick with those. Just a tiny note on the recipe – I just simplified it, if you want to get the orginal, more fancy version, just follow the link.
Stuffing muffins with celery, cranberries, and sage
Ingredients
- 6 cups bread cubes (I used one foccacia)
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 6 celery ribs, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
- 125g unsalted butter
- 8 fresh sage leaves
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 2 egg, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Directions
Place the cubed bread on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes in 175°C/155°C fan.
Warm the oil in the pan, add onions and sauté until translucent. Add celery and fry until it softens a little.
Place bread cubes, onions, celery and cranberries in a big mixing bowl.
Melt the butter in the pan. Add the 6 sage leaves and thyme and leave it too steep for 5 minutes.
To our mixing bowl add 2 chopped sage leaves. Stir in eggs until they coat the bread.
Take the leaves out of butter.
Add the butter, salt and sugar and mix until well combined.
At the very end start adding the stock, you need to use your judgment to decide if your mixture needs full portion of it.
The mixture will be wet, but the bread should hold its shape. Place the mixture into a muffin pan. Pack it tight as otherwise it will fall apart when you try to take it out.
Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven to 175°C/155°C fan or until nicely golden at the top.
Magda's Cauldron 