Easy Thanksgiving recipe: stuffing 'cupcakes'

November 24, 7:10 AMBaltimore Food ExaminerKit Pollard

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Stuffing cupcakes: so cute. Photo by Kit Pollard.

Since our annual Mock Thanksgiving party was a bit spur of the moment this year, we decided to eschew a traditional sit-down meal in favor of bite-sized, hors d'oeuvres-style versions of Thanksgiving classics. Also, since I was working with a short timeline, I also chose to take the easy way out on each and every dish. For the stuffing, that meant a) dressed up Pepperidge Farm stuff, and b) foil cupcake liners.

The concept was simple: everything's cuter in cupcake form, even stuffing. I added a sauteed onion, carrot and celery to storebought, straight-out-of-the-package stuffing, scooped individual servings into cupcake foils, topped them with butter and stuck them in the oven for a few minutes.

Very simple, and (not that surprisingly) pretty delicious. The secret here is to make sure that the stuffing is evenly moistened and that each individual serving is uniform.

Stuffing "Cupcakes"

Recipe makes about 36 individual "cupcakes" - enough for 16-20 people. It takes approximately 30 minutes total (depending on how long stuffing needs to heat in oven) - 10 minutes of active prep time.

Ingredients

• 1 16 ounce package Pepperidge Farm herbed stuffing (not cubed)
• Water for stuffing mix
• 1 1/2 sticks butter (1 stick for stuffing mix, 1/2 stick for later)
• 1 carrot
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 medium yellow onion
• Olive oil

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Chop carrot, celery and onion into 1/4 inch pieces. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute carrot, celery and onion, stirring frequently, until soft, about 10 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare stuffing according to package directions. Once prepared, fluff stuffing very thoroughly to make sure it is evenly moistened. Add additional melted butter if necessary. Add carrot/celery/onion mixture to stuffing, mixing to distribute vegetables uniformly throughout stuffing.

At this point, you can set the stuffing mixture aside if you'd like, storing it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Just before you're ready to serve, scoop the stuffing into cupcake tins, using a soup spoon or a small ice cream scoop. Top each "cupcake" with a quarter of a pat of butter. Bake for 15 minutes, or until warmed through. Serve immediately.

Check out the rest of my Mock Thanksgiving recipes:

• Mock Thanksgiving wrap-up (including fried turkey and cranberry bruschetta preparations)
• Cranberry bellinis and herbed cheese puffs
• Butternut squash soup
• Bacon-wrapped Brussels sprouts and cauliflower