This delicious stuffing has a great mix of fall flavors from fresh cranberries, acorn squash, to Fuji apples along with carrots, celery and onion. Make it vegetarian with vegetable broth or use chicken broth if desired.
1 c. walnut pieces
1/2 c. unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 4 T. melted unsalted butter
1 c.whole fresh cranberries
1 c. shredded carrots
1 c.chopped celery
1 c. chopped onion
8 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1/2 t. salt
freshly ground black pepper
7 c. cubed brioche, challah, or egg bread
3 c. peeled, seeded, and cubed pink lady or Fuji apples
1 c. vegetable broth, (or chicken broth) plus extra as needed
2 acorn squashes
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spread walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet or pan. Toast in the oven until fragrant and darken slightly in color, 5 to 10 minutes, checking carefully to make sure they don’t burn. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool while preparing the other ingredients; the walnuts will continue to darken slightly from residual heat.
Melt butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When butter starts to foam, add the cranberries, carrots, celery, onion, sage, salt, and black pepper to taste. Saute, stirring frequently, until mixture is fragrant and onion turns translucent, 7 to 10 minutes.
Add bread cubes, apple, and walnut pieces. Stir gently, taking care not to break up the bread too much, until ingredients are combined and bread has absorbed some of the butter and any juices from the vegetables. Add 1 cup broth and stir gently until it has been absorbed, adding a little more broth if necessary if mixture seems too dry. Remove the mixture from heat and set aside. (If preparing in advance, at this point the mixture can be cooled to room temperature, transferred to a clean container, covered, and refrigerated.)
About 45 minutes before serving time, prepare acorn squash. Using a sharp knife and working carefully on a non-slip cutting board, cut off about 1 inch from both the stem end and bottom end of each squash. Then, continue cutting each squash crosswise into 4 equally thick rings, to make 8 rings in all. Place the rings flat on the cutting board and, with a spoon, scrape out and discard the seeds and fibers from inside each ring.
Brush both sides of each squash ring with melted butter and arrange rings on a baking sheet. With a spoon, neatly mound dressing mixture on top of the squash rings, dividing it evenly among the rings.
Bake in the preheated oven until dressing is golden brown and squash is tender when tested with the tip of a small, sharp knife, about 30 minutes.