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Lafe's Cornbread Stuffing Balls

An easy way to make cornbread stuffing - formed into balls and baked with vegetables,, apple and nuts.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup box cornbread mix – enough to make an 8” x 8” x 2” square (Trader Joe’s mix requires 1 egg ½ oil and ¾ milk pictured, but not listed separately below.)
  • 2 cups plain breadcrumbs
  • 2 cups saltines cracker crumbs a bit more than 1 of the 4 individually wrapped packages in a box of saltines.
  • 3-4 tablespoons of butter
  • 3 onions finely chopped, approximately 4½ cups
  • 3 celery stalks washed and finely chopped, approximately 1⅓  - 1½  cups
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley finely chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • teaspoon salt pepper and dried thyme to taste – I use about 1of salt, 1of dried thyme crushed between my fingertips, and a heavy sprinkling of pepper.
  • 3 cups broth see above – chicken or vegetable
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans optional
  • 1 pieces apple peeled and chopped into small(optional)

Instructions

  1. Make the cornbread, using the instructions on the box.  After it has cooled, crumble it into the bowl with your hands.  Go ahead, it's fun.
  2. Crumble the saltines.  (To keep the saltines from getting too messy, I use a closed plastic sandwich or food storage bag, crunching them with my hands.) Add the breadcrumbs and saltines to the cornbread and mix until combined. Set aside.
  3. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and butter or oil 2-3 large baking sheets with sides.
  4. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in the pan.  Add the chopped onions, chopped celery, and the minced garlic.  Sauté those veggies on medium heat for approximately 10 minutes, until they are translucent, but not brown.  Take the pan off the heat and let the veggies cool.
  5. Add the eggs, parsley, salt, pepper, and thyme to the onion, celery and garlic mixture. Mix all those ingredients.
  6. Add the vegetables and seasoning mixture to the bread/cracker mixture and combine them.
  7. Add 2 cups of broth to that mixture and gently toss it until the liquid is distributed throughout.
  8. Add chopped pecans and apple pieces to the stuffing mixture if using them.
  9. Using your hands, form the mixture into balls somewhat larger than golf balls, but smaller than baseballs.
  10. Place the stuffing balls on the baking sheets approximately 2-inches apart. (The stuffing balls need space around them so the heat circulates and they cook on all sides.)
  11. Spoon additional broth over them before baking.
  12. Bake for 30-50 minutes (depending on ball size), until the cornbread stuffing balls are browned. You may want to add additional broth as the stuffing cooks.
  13. Remove the balls from the baking sheet with a metal spatula. If you have buttered or oiled the pan well enough, they should release without much difficulty.

Recipe Notes

I forgot to buy breadcrumbs, so I used a few pieces of stale bread, chopped up in a food processor.  You can bake them slowly for 10-15 minutes at 300 degrees to dry the bread out, but I didn't.
If you don't have a food processor, use stale or toasted bread; you can crumble it with your hands or cut into small cubes and then crumble.