Cranberry stuffing is a popular dish made around Thanksgiving, though of course it is not necessary to have a holiday to make it. It is a type of soft, crumbled bread mixed with seasonings and baked; in this case, cranberry flavor is added, in various possible ways. One of the most common ways to make cranberry stuffing is to simply mix dried cranberries in with the rest of the ingredients for a stuffing recipe. Others will take a slightly easier route and blend the familiar jellied cranberry sauce in with pre-mixed boxed stuffing. Both of these methods can lead to perfectly fine outcomes.
Starting with boxed stuffing is perhaps the easiest way to prepare cranberry stuffing. In fact, there are some varieties that can be purchased right off the shelf with cranberries already included. Otherwise, preparing the boxed stuffing and then adding some extra ingredients, such as celery and onions as well as the jellied cranberry sauce, is one easy way to give it a nice cranberry flavor. There are a number of different recipes found online that offer specific instructions for how to combine cranberry sauce and boxed stuffing to make a flavorful dish. Some will add meat, such as sausage, to this mixture.
Another way to make cranberry stuffing is to make it from scratch. The bread will first need to be cut into cubes, and then either toasted or dried so they can withstand the rest of the ingredients, particularly liquid ingredients, when added to the stuffing. Dried cranberries will also be added in this recipe, as well as a mixture of spices and other vegetables for texture, such as celery. Apple juice is commonly used when preparing cranberry stuffing, to give all the ingredients enough liquid to bake in, and to give the dish more of a sweet flavor.
Cranberry stuffing is used in a few ways. The first is to prepare it and then stuff it inside a turkey and bake the turkey that way, so the stuffing infuses the turkey with flavor. Remember that it is not safe to remove this stuffing and eat it; those who want to serve a separate dish of stuffing with dinner should actually prepare it separately. Of course, simply preparing and serving stuffing by itself is common as well, and it doesn't need to just be limited to a turkey dinner. It can go well with many other hearty fall and winter meals.