Individual stuffing muffins with apples and cherries

Individual stuffing muffins on a cooling rack

Individual stuffing muffins with apples and cherries

Thanksgiving individual stuffing muffins recipe! These easy, vegetarian stuffing cups with apples and cherries have a moist center with crispy edges in every bite.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword holiday, stuffing cups, stuffing muffins, thanksgiving, vegetarian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 30

Resting time 10

Total Time 45

Servings large muffins

Calories 335kcal

Author Trish Bozeman

Ingredients

8 Tablespoons salted butter + more for greasing pans 1 stick of butter
3 cups finely diced yellow onion about 1 medium onion
1 ½ cups finely diced celery about 4 medium stalks
1 whole dried bay leaf
2 cups finely diced fuji or honeycrisp apple, peeled and cored about 1 ½ medium apples
1 cup roughly chopped pecans
4 ounces tart dried cherries
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
3 large eggs
2 cups vegetable stock
10 cups dried bread cubes
whole pecans for top of muffins (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Generously grease 2 jumbo muffin tins with butter.
Melt the 8 Tablespoons of butter in a large pot over medium to medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, and bay leaf and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the apple, chopped pecans, cherries, sage, and thyme. Stir to combine and saute until everything is soft and the cherries have plumped just a bit, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and remove the bay leaf from the mixture. Set aside.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then whisk the broth into the eggs.
Add the bread cubes and the egg mixture to the cooked onion mixture. Toss until everything is evenly coated and the bread cubes soak up the liquid.
Fill each of the 12 jumbo muffin tin cups with ¾ cup of the mixture. If any is leftover, just divide it evenly amongst the 12 muffins.
Using your fingers, gently press the stuffing mixture against the bottom and the sides of the muffin tin cups to make sure the stuffing mixture is compact. This will hold the muffins together and give you those crispy edges!
Optional: add 3 whole pecans to the top of each muffin in a "flower" design as seen above.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the muffins are browned on the top. Remove from the oven and let sit in the muffin tins for 10 minutes. Then remove and transfer to a wire rack.
Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Make sure you are using dried bread cubes and not fresh bread. Fresh bread will become soggy. (See the section about making your own dried bread cubes)
I like the serving size that the jumbo muffin tins make, but you can use regular sized muffin tins as well. The recipe will make 24 small stuffing muffins rather than 12 large. The cook time will vary and will cook more quickly.
Don't skip pressing the stuffing mixture against the sides and bottoms of the muffin tin cups before baking. The stuffing muffins won't hold their shape and may fall apart if you do!
Make the stuffing muffins vegan by swapping the butter for vegan butter and replacing the egg with a vegan egg replacement. You can either use

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