Friday, October 30, 2015

Stuffing Waffles

My favorite part of  a Thanksgiving dinner has always been the stuffing.  I could eat a big plate of stuffing and gravy, maybe with a little turkey, and be perfectly happy.  

I admit, I am scared of cooking turkeys.  I'm terrified that I'll under cook them and won't notice, and make my family sick.  So because of this fear I've only cooked maybe 3 or 4 turkeys in my life.  I rely on my parents for a turkey feast at Thanksgiving.  

My mom has moved away from cooking the homemade bread stuffing right in the turkey and either bakes the stuffing in a dish in the oven, or makes packaged stuffing.  
I am not a snob, and have nothing against packaged stuffing.
There's a box of it in my kitchen right now.  There were 2 boxes, but I used one to
make Stuffing Waffles.

After this Thanksgiving my parents tried a stuffing waffle recipe where the dry stuffing mix is processed until it's ground up and then mixed in a batter.  They thought they were ok, but wouldn't make them again.  I did some searching around and found a few recipes where they used prepared stuffing and then mixed in eggs and broth to bind the waffles so they'd stay together while cooking.

To use up our turkey and gravy leftovers, I made a box of stuffing and added some extra water - about 1/4 cup.  I let the stuffing cool for a bit before I made the waffles because I'd planned to add an egg for binding, but decided at the last minute to try without it.  I portioned the stuffing into 4 balls, then pressed each into a squareish shape, slapped them on the waffle maker, and closed it up.



They were ridiculously good!  I loved the crispy exterior with the gravy and tender turkey.
The Stuffing Waffle should not just be saved for leftovers - I would definitely make these to be part of any poultry/gravy feast.