Apple-Raisin Bread Stuffing/Dressing
Ingredients
3⁄4 cup margarine or butter
1 1⁄2 cups celery stalks (with leaves), chopped
3⁄4 cup onion finely, chopped
9 cups soft bread, cubed
1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme, or 1 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh
1⁄2 teaspoon dried sage, or 1 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh
1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups apples (Gala), chopped
3⁄4 cup raisins
Instructions
1. Melt butter in large pot over medium-high heat. Cook celery and onion in butter, stirring occasionally, until tender; remove from heat.
2. Toss celery mixture with remaining ingredients.
3. Cook.
Notes on cooking: The way you cook this is really dependent upon personal preference. I only roast small turkey (12 pounds or so) at Thanksgiving and I use some weird rotation method, so I don’t actually stuff the bird. If you use a larger bird with a large cavity, go for it, just be sure that the stuffing is completely done in the middle. I usually drizzle some of the turkey fat from roasting over this and bake it in a casserole dish at 350*F until hot. I’ve achieved a similar effect with butter if I don’t have turkey fat or want the stuffing to be vegetarian. When I’m not making a whole bird, I tend to buy packages of “turkey tenderloins” and I put the stuffing in the casserole dish, place the tenderloin on top of the stuffing, and bake as directed on the turkey package. This is normally 350*F for 50-60 minutes. That lets the good turkey juices drip into the stuffing and make everything delicious.
Comments
This is the stuffing that I grew up not eating, because I thought stuffing was gross. Then I grew up. Looking back I wonder how on earth I ever found something so awesome to be gross! The first time I made Thanksgiving dinner on my own was when I lived in England and I had to get my mom to send me a copy of her “dressing” recipe so I could have this bit of home overseas. Art loves it as well so I always end up making a double batch just so he can enjoy the leftovers for days. This is one of those foods that he has a hard time sharing.
Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook (8th edition)