Here's a very traditional stuffing recipe perfect for serving with your Thanksgiving turkey or for stuffing a pork loin roast. It was inspired by a recipe from my former student and teacher, David Rosengarten. He was a student in my wine classes at Cornell, and I call him my teacher because he has since become a famous chef, one of the first hosts of the FoodNetwork, author of several cookbooks, and I have learned immensely by listening to him and reading his work.

I have modified the stuffing slightly by adding eggs to make Muffings, my name for Stuffing Muffins. The muffings are baked in muffin pans in your oven or your grill so they get nice and crispy on all sides. Everyone at your holiday table gets a muffing! If you are using this recipe to stuff a pork loin, an onion, a tomato, a zucchini or something else, you can leave out the eggs. They are only needed for muffings in order to keep them from falling apart when they come out of the muffin pans. Muffings with eggs need to be cooked to 160°F to be safe, but if you leave out the eggs, you don't have to cook the stuffing any higher than 135°F.

Instead of serving an entire bowl of stuffing, bake it in muffin pans so each portion gets nice and crispy on all sides. Everyone gets a Muffing!

Course. Lunch. Dinner. Bread. Side Dish. Snack.

Cuisine. American.

Makes. 12 servings, about 3 pounds

Preparation time. 30 minutes prep. 45 minutes cook time.

Ingredients

3 pounds Italian bread

6 eggs

8 ounces (2 sticks) butter (salted or unsalted)

1 1/2 cups finely chopped celery

2 cups chopped onions

1 cup peeled and chopped apple

4 cups low sodium chicken stock or turkey stock

1 tablespoon of dried thyme (2 tablespoons fresh)

2 tablespoons dried crushed sage leaves (4 tablespoons fresh chopped)

1 cup dried cranberries

1 1/2 teaspoons Morton's kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

About the stock. If you have made my Ultimate Turkey you will almost certainly have leftover stock. This is a great place to use it.

Method

1) Prep. Slice the bread and grill it over medium heat (or toast it) to dry it out and bring some nice golden toasty flavor to the party. Watch things closely because they can go from golden to burned in a hurry. Cut it into squares about 1/2" on all sides. Precision not required! Leave the crust on.

2) Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the celery and onions and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Add the thyme, sage, dried cranberries, salt, and pepper, and cook for only 1 minute.

3) Pour the mixture over the bread. Add the apples and stock. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Take 6 eggs, mix them with a fork in a bowl, and add them to the unbaked stuffing mix.

4) Spread butter thickly in the wells of a muffin pan (12 muffin cups total) and press the stuffing in, mounding it high.

5) To cook on the grill: Set up a grill for 2-zone cooking and preheat the indirect side to 325°F (the same temp for cooking your turkey). Bake on the indirect side, covered with foil, for about 60 minutes until it is at least 160°F in the center. It should be golden and crisp on top, and firm but not too wet in the center.

To cook indoors: Set the oven to 325°F. Put the pan in the middle or on an upper rack. Don't put it on the bottom rack or it may burn. Bake until the temperature in the center hits a minimum of 160°F and the top starts to brown, about 60 minutes.

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