Bread Stuffing with Sausage, Cranberry, and Dried Apple

Our family stuffing has always included sausage. Nothing brings a flavor punch like a pound of pork sausage browned up and added to your stuffing (especially when it's not actually going in the bird). This is the second or third year that I've been preparing stuffing for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday meals, and it's undergone some evolutions. We started adding dried cranberries to the bread stuffing once dried sweetened cranberries became available regularly; this Thanksgiving I had dried apples on hand, and the added sweetness went well with the pork sausage.

This recipe is based on America's Test Kitchen's basic "Classic Stuffing for a Crowd" recipe, which is a great base for trying your own interpretations for the next holiday gathering. It's very easy, and can be made with (plain) storebought bread cubes in place of homemade--just make sure to increase the amount of chicken broth to 7 cups to compensate for the lower moisture content.

ATK points out that you can air-dry the bread cubes if you work it a day (or, ideally, two) ahead of time; but, if you don't want 5 cookie sheets with ½-inch bread cubes drying in a single layer taking up counter space in your kitchen, you can dry the cubes in a 300-degree oven for 30-60 minutes and let them cool prior to mixing with the other ingredients.

Ingredients

1½ pounds bulk breakfast sausage

12 tablespoons butter (1½ sticks), plus extra for baking dish

4 medium ribs celery, chopped fine

2 medium onions, minced

½ cup minced fresh parsley leaves

3 tablespoons minced fresh sage leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried)

3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried)

1 tablespoon minced fresh marjoram leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)

3 pounds high-quality sandwich bread (white), cut into ½-inch cubes and dried

1 ½ cups dried sweetened cranberries

¾ cup dried apple, diced medium

5 cups chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth

4 large eggs, beaten lightly

2 teaspoons table salt

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

Hardware
large skillet (12 inches minimum)
very large mixing bowl
wooden spoon
15 x 10-inch baking dish (see step 3 for substitutions)
baking sheet (for drying bread cubes)
aluminum foil

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the sausage from the skillet and reserve. Drain the fat, and reserve.

2. Either add all the butter to the now empty skillet, or substitute the reserved sausage fat for an equal amount of butter -- you'll need a total 12 of tablespoons of fat. Add the celery and onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in parsley, sage, thyme, and marjoram and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute longer. Transfer to a very large mixing bowl.

3. Add the sausage, cranberries, apple, dried, cooled bread, stock or broth, eggs, salt, and pepper to the vegetables and toss gently to distribute dry and wet ingredients evenly. Turn mixture into buttered 15-x 10-inch baking dish. (If you don't have a 15 x 10 dish, here is a guide to substitutions--more mixture in a smaller dish means a denser texture.)

4. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until golden, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

To Make Ahead: The stuffing can be assembled in the baking dish, then wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking. To bake, let the stuffing stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap and proceed to bake as directed in step 3.

Cranberry Shortcake

"Cranberry shortcake?"

Don't sound so dubious, this will be delicious. I first made this dessert last year for some friends during one of our infamous card nights (Euchre, anyone?) But I've been eating this dessert for much longer than that--every fall that I can remember, the restaurant at the annual church fair serves up hundreds of these things. This is one of the stars of the fair, every year.

There are some truly heinous recipes for cranberry shortcake out there. Many of them are methods of using up leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. Imagine jellied cranberry sauce over pound cake or angel-food cake and you get the idea. This recipe uses fresh cranberries and has a great tart-sweet flavor. It's also incredibly easy to make.

My personal prejudice when it comes to any dish that calls itself "shortcake" is that nothing that could, on its own, be called "cake"--that is, angel food cake, chiffon or yellow cake, pound cake, etc.--should ever be involved. "Shortcake" means one thing, and one thing only: biscuits. This recipe calls for buttermilk biscuits, which I've included instructions for, but if you don't feel like going to that kind of effort, just use Bisquick--it'll be fine.

Ingredients
Fruit

2 cups of fresh cranberries
1 medium apple

1 banana
2/3 cup sugar

Biscuits
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)

2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon table salt
2/3 cup buttermilk, cold (see note)*
1 large egg
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Whipped cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Hardware

food processor

hand mixer or stand mixer

3 bowls (for whipped cream, biscuit dough, and cranberries)

baking sheet

Directions

For the Fruit:

1. Coarsely chop cranberries and apple. (Make this easy on yourself and pulse in a food processor. Who wants to chop 2 cups of cranberries?) Add sugar to taste and mix until blended.
2. Refrigerate cranberry mixture 2 to 3 hours to mingle flavors.
3. Dice the banana and add to mixture shortly before assembling shortcakes.

For The Biscuits:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 475 degrees.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, 1 tablespoon sugar, and salt in large bowl.
3. Whisk together buttermilk and egg in medium bowl; add melted butter and stir until butter forms small clumps.
4. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until dough comes together and no dry flour remains. Continue stirring vigorously for 30 seconds.
5. Using greased 1/2 cup dry measure, scoop up mound of dough and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (if dough sticks to cup, use small spoon to pull it free). Repeat with remaining dough, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart, to create 4 biscuits.
6. Sprinkle remaining tablespoon sugar evenly over top of biscuits. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, about 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 15 minutes before assembling.

For The Whipped Cream:

1. Using hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat cream, sugar, and vanilla on low speed until bubbles form, about 30 seconds.
2. Increase speed to medium; continue beating until beaters leave trail, about 30 seconds longer.
3. Increase speed to high; continue beating until nearly doubled in volume and whipped cream forms soft peaks, 30 to 45 seconds longer.

To Assemble:

Split each biscuit in half and place bottoms on individual serving plates. Spoon portion of cranberry mixture over each bottom. Top cranberries with 2 tablespoons whipped cream, cap with biscuit top, and dollop each shortcake with some of remaining whipped cream. (Or, add more cranberries and even more whipped cream.) Serve immediately.

Makes 3-4 servings

*Don't feel like buying buttermilk? Add lemon juice to regular milk (at least 2% fat) in the ratio of 1 tablespoon to 1 cup, and let stand for 15 minutes. Use for an equal volume of buttermilk in any recipe.