Baking bread- for stuffing-plus the recipe for bread stuffing.

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My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal is the stuffing.

I love making it, snacking on it, tasting it, breakfasting  on it on Thursday morning, and eating it with gravy poured over it for dinner.

I have made it for about 30 years- with help from first Robin and my mom and now Cynthia, and I won’t give up making  it until I absolutely have to.  This year, I’ve been making my own bread to go into our stuffing.  I’ve used whole wheat bread left over before- but never baked loaves specifically to use for the stuffing.

Until now.

Store bought bread is expensive – and it really isn’t that good.  I don’t like to eat it for sandwiches, so why should I put it into my favorite dish?

I’ve baked 5 loaves of bread- two a light  sourdough bread, one a rye, and the last two peasant bread.  I’ve sliced and cubed 3 loaves and toasted them in the oven-

 

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and I am so looking forward to putting them into the stuffing on Wednesday!

 

Here’s my stuffing recipe- although it is approximate because I change it according to what I have in stock.

1 lb butter,melted

3 cups chopped celery

3 cups chopped onion

2-3 cups chopped parsley

1 lb bulk sausage, mild

1 cup chopped walnuts

6 to 8 cups bread, cut into crouton sized squares

2 cups turkey or chicken broth

salt and pepper, to taste

poultry seasoning- about 1 tsp or to taste

Sautee the celery and onion in the butter until it is transparent and soft.  Add to big bowl full of cut up bread cubes.  Sautee the sausage and add to bowl along with the parsley and nuts.  Stir until well mixed and taste.  Add salt and pepper and poultry seasoning, pour 1 cup of broth on top and stir again until the bread is moist and everything is mixed up well.  Now taste again (this is the best part of this recipe!).

If it seems a little dry- add more broth, adjust your seasonings, and taste, yet again!

This makes a lot of dressing, but I make it the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight so that all the flavors can marry, then I have a bowl for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning.  You can stuff it into the turkey or put it into a casserole or even in a slow cooker- but if you use the last two options, add another cup of broth so it doesn’t dry out.

Stuffing is the best part of Thanksgiving dinner!chef

10 thoughts on “Baking bread- for stuffing-plus the recipe for bread stuffing.

  1. I love homemade stuffing, and your recipe looks really tasty…I am definitely going to try it for my next turkey. As a bread maker, I agree that homemade bread in the stuffing is the only way to go! I have never used walnuts before in my stuffing. For turkey stuffing I like to throw in dried cranberries and currants.
    Thanks for sharing!

  2. I’m a stuffing fan too and all my relatives. Sometimes we have two or three different sorts going on… though ours get coooked in ovenware dishes usually. I’m very fond of sausage meat stuffing and I quite like the traditional english sage and onion if it is done well with proper fresh sage… I just got a celeriac and a fennel bulb this afternoon and am going to try your soup tomorrow x

  3. Heidi I hope you get your pictures to upload, I want to see that pie!
    I like stuffing, but never usually cook anything to stuff, might have to remedy that when the whether gets cooler.
    (mail came in yesterday 🙂 The Monkeys loved it.)

  4. Sounds so delicious! I wish we were having Thanksgiving again this year so that I could enjoy all this with you guys. I guess there’s nothing stopping me from doing it, but it’s not the same up here. 🙂 My MIL always put in cranberries, too. Yummy!

  5. Cindy and Martha- Hi! Hmm- so now I’m thinking about the cranberries.
    Joanna- let me know what you think of the soup
    Brydie- thanks for letting me know! I had such a good time making the card thinking of the boys!
    Cynthia~ thank you.

  6. Hey Celia- I hear you about thankfulness being a daily sort of thing- here too, but then we wouldn’t have a chance to pig out if we didn’t have one day to celebrate!
    And I wouldn’t make a monster batch of stuffing for just any day!

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