Waffle, maple and sausage stuffing

I made my own Belgian waffles for this recipe, then chopped them up, toasted them, and combined them with what I consider to be the stuffing essentials: lots of sausage, onions, celery, walnuts and dried cranberries. Toss that with lots of maple syrup and some chicken stock, and you’ve got yourself the best breakfast-themed Thanksgiving stuffing and side dish ever. You will definitely want to serve the leftovers, if there are any, with a poached egg or two the next morning. Trust me on this.

Credit: Sydney Kramer

• serves

  10-12

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  35 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 10-15 homemade or store-bought waffles, cut into 2.5 cm pieces
• 900 g sweet (breakfast) sausage, meat squeezed from casing
• 75 g unsalted butter, cut into 1 cm pieces
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 5 celery stalks, thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried sage
• 500–625 ml (2-2½ cups) chicken stock
• 500–625 ml (2-2½ cups) apple cider
• 1½ tsp sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
• 250 ml (1 cup) maple syrup, plus extra for drizzling

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Spread the waffle pieces over 2 baking trays and bake for 10-15 minutes or until crisp and toasty. Allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, in a heavy-based frying pan, crumble in the sausage and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, for 8–10 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through. Remove sausage from the pan and drain on a plate lined with paper towel. Add 30 g butter to the pan, reduce the heat to medium, then add the onions and celery. Cook, stirring, for 5–6 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further 1 minute or until fragrant. Remove from heat.

Place the toasted waffle, sausage, onion mixture, walnuts, cranberries, thyme, sage, 4 cups chicken stock and salt in a large bowl. Toss together, adding another 250 ml (1 cup) stock to moisten well, if necessary. Pour over the maple syrup and toss to combine. Scatter over the remaining 45 g butter.

Press the stuffing into a greased 23 cm x 33 cm baking pan (if you have extra, divide the stuffing between a 23 cm x 33 cm pan and a 20 cm x 20 cm pan). Drizzle with the extra maple syrup and sprinkle with the extra salt. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and crispy. Cool for 5 minutes, then serve.

Recipe from The Crepes of Wrath by Sydney Kramer, with photography by Sydney Kramer.

View our interview with Sydney and more recipes from her blog here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.