We’re already talking about Thanksgiving, and I’m starting this German Thanksgiving gravy train with my favorite part, a pretzel bun stuffing to be exact.
Stuffing, dressing. We’ve been there before. Anyway, this is also the dish that inspired this year’s theme, so it deserves to go first. Plus, it’s a dish based entirely on bread. Besides ice cream and french fries, bread is my jam.
The makings of this dish are not all that different from regular stuffing: we start with dried bread, add some seasonings, some fruit (if that’s your thing), herbs and spices. Stock to soften it, butter to richen it.
The recipe on which this was based used actual soft pretzels, which I considered for a second, but my beef with that recipe is that the pretzels never got quite the texture that bread would but, in order to get the pretzel flavor that we all know and love, the beloved pretzel bun works its magic.
You can certainly stuff this in any bird, but I just kept it cooking in the pan. You do you, but make sure you do this!
Pretzel Bun Stuffing
Traditional bread Thanksgiving stuffing gets a decidedly German spin by using pretzel rolls for this Pretzel Bun Stuffing.
Ingredients
- 4 hamburger-sized pretzel buns
- 6 TB unsalted butter
- 2 stalks celery, diced (about 1/3 cup)
- 1 medium carrot, diced (about 1/4 cup)
- 1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 apple (any kind), cored and diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 6 leaves fresh sage, diced
- 1 TB poultry seasoning
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup chicken or turkey stock
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Step 2 Butter the inside each roll with a total of 1 TB butter and put on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes and toast until golden brown. Coarsely chop into crouton size pieces.
- Step 3 While the bread is toasting, in a large skillet, add the remaining butter, celery, carrot, onion, apple, salt and pepper, and cook about 5-7 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Add the buns, the sage and poultry seasoning, cranberries and toss to coat. Add the stock. Coat everything very well and let cook until the stock has all been absorbed and reduced. Fold in the parsley, season as appropriate and serve hot.
