Christmas Eve - Sausage Chestnut Stuffing

We’re having a Roasted Goose for Christmas dinner this year.  I’m making the Goose, Sausage and Chestnut Stuffing, Gravy, and Apple Pie for the dinner.  I’m making most of the food ahead of time today because I think the goose is going to take up the oven (and much of my time) on Christmas day.

I’m working on the stuffing first.  This is an old fashioned stuffing of breakfast sausage, onions, celery, fresh sage, egg, stock, and of course, chestnuts.  The chestnuts came from the grocery store’s fresh produce section and need to be roasted before using.  In roasting the chestnuts, you need to cut an X into each nut and place them on a sheet pan to roast at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or so.  Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool enough to handle.  As you peel the chestnuts there will undoubtedly be many that you can’t use.  If one is hard or looks moldy or in any way “off” just toss it and move on.  Don’t freak over how many you can’t use.  It is best to toss them than to ruin your stuffing with bad chestnuts.  They are a bit expensive but for Christmas dinner it’s worth it. 

I used a large handful of the chopped chestnuts nuts for the pan of stuffing that I am making.  I can’t give you actual amounts for this as I’ve never had a recipe for stuffing.  I’ve always just eyeballed it as I go.

I’m not cooking the stuffing in the goose like I would typically do with chicken or turkey.  Goose is one greasy fowl and the risk for very greasy stuffing just wasn’t worth the risk.  I have found that cooking the stuffing in a buttered casserole works just fine.  So, that’s what I’m doing this year.

The stuffing is being reheated tomorrow so I’m cooking it to temperature (for food safety reasons) but not as brown as I would when serving it.  I’ll do that shortly before we are ready to eat dinner.

It is Christmas Eve and I won’t be seeing my brother and his family on Christmas Day so we are going to go visit them this afternoon.  Once we get home though - I’ll be back in the kitchen.  It will be time to get that Apple Pie going.  Then, we’re having homemade pizza and beer for Christmas Eve dinner.  I know, not very traditional, but we like it anyway.

Dinner Rolls - Part Two

I didn't get back to the dough yesterday, so I will make the rolls today to go with the glazed ham and scalloped potatoes that I'm making for dinner tonight.

If you put the dough in the refrigerator like I did you will want to take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit out to come to room temperature for a couple of hours.  You'll notice the difference after a couple of hours out of the refrigerator - the dough softens and is much more pliable.

I cut the dough into 16 equal pieces in this batch but you could make them larger and cut it into 12 equal pieces.  Roll the dough into balls, keeping any seam on the bottom of the roll so that the top is smooth. 

Lay the rolls out on a parchment lined pan.  Brush the tops lightly with melted butter and cover lightly with plastic wrap to allow to rise.

While the rolls are rising preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (I let them rise here for 40 minutes).

Let the rolls double in bulk then remove the plastic wrap and place the pan of rolls into the preheated oven.  Bake for 16-18 minutes (closer to 20 minutes if you made 12 rolls instead of 16 rolls).

Remove the rolls from the oven and lightly butter the tops while they are hot. 

These are best served while warm and certainly need to be eaten the day that they are baked.



ENJOY!

Dinner Rolls - Part One

This is for my cousin, Shelly.  I can't get down to visit and show you how to make these dinner rolls so I figured I'd do my best to show you here.

You'll have to bear with me here folks.  I'm not a photographer, writer or teacher.  I am a good cook though and you'll get the gist of what I'm saying.

First, get out all of the ingredients. 

Today, I'll make a small batch so the ingredients need are:

3 cups All-Purpose Flour (or Bread Flour)
1 1/4 tsp. Salt
4 tsp. Sugar

1 package (equivalent to 2 1/4 tsps.) Dry Active Yeast (or Rapid Rise)

1/2 cup Water
2/3 cup Milk
4 tsp. Butter (or Vegetable Oil)

Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and mix it up a little bit.



Add the wet ingredients....

Let the machine bring all of the ingredients together.  You'll need to

scrape the flour into the liquids until it forms a dough.  You want the dough to be soft, not sticky and the dough hook should put all of the ingredients together lifting from the bowl.  If the dough is sticking to the bottom of the bowl after a couple of minutes of mixing, add a little bit of flour (try a tablespoon at a time) until it forms a nice dough.  If there is too much flour in the bottom of the bowl to mix into the dough, add water (try a tablespoon at a time) until the flour is picked up into the dough.

Let the machine knead the dough for 8-10 minutes.  You want a nice soft dough ball to form.

Form the dough into a ball and lightly oil the bowl and the dough with olive oil to keep it from drying out.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place.  If you haven't used your oven lately you can place the bowl in the oven with the light on.  That will produce a nice warm environment for your dough to rise.

Let it rise for an hour/double in bulk.

Punch down the dough. 

Now at this point I'm going to deviate a little from my norm.  I have a gym date in 20 minutes and can't finish the rolls until later tonight or maybe tomorrow.  So, I'm going to put a little oil in a bowl, add the dough ball, turn it over so that the dough and bowl are nicely oiled and cover with plastic wrap.  Then, I'll put it into the fridge until I'm ready to work with it again.

We'll form the dough into rolls and bake them in my next post.