ko.pairings
Stuffing is one of my favorite foods at thanksgiving. What could make it better? Having it bite sized as an appetizer and paired with an Apple Butter Whiskey Sour.
I love Thanksgiving. A holiday centered around coming together and eating? What could be better? Only the fact that many Thanksgiving foods are incredible comfort foods. I love may different kinds of Thanksgiving foods and since my mom was an amazing cook we always had some of the best food for Thanksgiving. One of my all time favorite Thanksgiving foods is stuffing. These Sausage Cornbread Bites are based off the Thanksgiving staple.
Full disclosure, I don’t love cornbread stuffing for Thanksgiving. I typically like stale Italian or sourdough bread style stuffing. HOWEVER, there are times when cornbread stuffing is amazing. This recipe is one of those times. Based off the flavors of stuffing, but in a beautiful bite. When I make stuffing I always put sausage in it. My mom always used sausage and it adds a beautiful comforting flavor that I love. These Sausage Cornbread Bites with Salted Apple Butter have all the best flavors of stuffing (cornbread, sausage, sage) mixed with a beautiful salted apple butter that brings it all together.
The best part about these bites is they are easy to make AND come with a cocktail pairing. Honestly, you could throw these together right before people come over and they are sure to impress. Then use the leftover cornbread for dinner or even make it into a full casserole of stuffing. Be sure to pair these Sausage Cornbread Bites with Salted Apple Butter with the Apple Butter Whiskey Sour.
Recipe Notes & Substitutions
The cornbread– Big part of the recipes and a couple things to discuss
- This is an important part of the Sausage Cornbread Bites with Salted Apple Butter. You could do this with white bread or a baguette but I do find I like the flavor of the cornbread when it is crisped on the stove and paired with the apple butter.
- Ok, first the sweetness… There are quite a few different levels of cornbread sweetness out there. They range from ones that taste like actual corn cake with tons of sugar to ones that rely on the natural sweetness of corn. So which works best? Well, whichever one you like best. There are NO wrong answers when you are making it for yourself and the ones you care about (which sometimes is also yourself, get that self care done!). With that being said, I will recommend going lighter on the apple butter when using a cornbread that is more along the cake lines. The cornbread I make is typically reduced sugar because I often find them too sweet. Conversely if you do not have much sugar in your cornbread, feel free to have as much apple butter as you want! The goal is balance, but hey whatever you love go for it after all you’re the one eating it.
- Dietary Restrictions- This is your cornbread so use whatever you want be it gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, paleo (yes the recipes do exist) or keto (I assume a recipe exists). Whatever cornbread you want to use, use it! It’ll work as long as it stays together when pan-fried.
- Homemade or store bought- Hey if you don’t have time to make it then don’t! If you and/or your loved ones like that store bought cornbread better, then use that! You do not have to make everything from scratch for it to be good. Plus sometimes you wanna impress, but not go out of your way. Buy the cornbread, make the cornbread, it does not matter; all that matters is you enjoy the cornbread.
- Below is the preparation of the cornbread cutting a piece of the loaf into bite sized pieces and then pan frying in butter or ghee to crisp.
Other Ingredients
- Sausage– Next to the cornbread this is the other place to follow dietary restrictions. I like to use breakfast sausage because it contains sage in it; if you prefer another sausage use that! But I recommend adding some sage while you are cooking it. Don’t eat pork? Use turkey or chicken sausage. Don’t eat meat? Use a meat substitute sausage. Don’t eat soy? Use a walnut and mushroom mixture with sage instead (just be mindful you may need to include a bit of a binder to keep this mixture together). Use the one you like best! If you really want to step this recipe up a bit, make homemade cornbread, and before cooking the sausage, mix it with sautéed carrots, onions and celery, that are finely minced. This will add an amazing dimension of flavor to the dish, but honestly I don’t always have time for that so if you don’t, don’t worry about it (that’s why I didn’t write it into the recipe).
- Apple Butter– Next up the apple butter. Make it at home or buy it in the store, do whatever you want and have time for. I will be honest I used apple butter I had in the fridge that I most definitely did not make. So do not feel like you always have to make everything, store bought apple butter is good… Especially if you get it from New England, just saying!
- Sage– Fresh sage. Can you use dried sage? Yes, just add it in with the sausage when cooking it instead of on top. You will however, miss out on one of the best parts of the recipe… Sage fried in butter/oil. I’m not kidding when I say you will want to eat far more fried sage than you ever thought you would. When you fry sage, first of all the crispiness becomes like a delicate potato chip. Perfectly crispy but is fragile so it doesn’t bite back like some thick jagged potato chips can (we all know the one). Then the flavor mellows out immensely, in all the best ways. Fresh sage is potent, aggressive, earthy and bitter, kind of akin to raw garlic. However, when sage is fried it softens, reduces the bitter, and pulls on the oil flavor while bringing out the beautiful nuances. I highly recommend using fresh sage to not rob yourself of this taste experience. Plus you’re frying up the cornbread so just toss a few leaves in while frying it and save the leaves on the side… Taste testing encouraged.
- Butter/Oil– I use butter or ghee. That is my preference for this recipe. Butter is amazing though when it browns a bit makes the flavor so much better! However, if you don’t eat butter, use vegan butter, olive oil or ghee. You could even use coconut oil but that will bring some coconut flavor.
Sausage Cornbread Stuffing Bites with Salted Apple Butter
Stuffing is one of my favorite foods at thanksgiving. What could make it better? Having it bite sized as an appetizer and paired with an Apple Butter Whiskey Sour.
Ingredients
- 1/3 loaf Cornbread
- 1/4 lbs Sausage of choice
- 1/4 cup Apple Butter
- 1 bunch Sage Leaves, Fresh
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Heat a nonstick pan on medium heat. I recommend keeping the sausage in larger chucks for this or even use as a patty because this will stay on the cornbread better. Once the pan is warm, put the sausage in the pan and cook so no more pink remains and it is done. If making a patty flip half way through and brown on either side.
- While the sausage is cooking, cut the cornbread into 1 inch x 1 ½ inch x ¼ inch rectangles. Honestly the exact size is not super important, make them 1-2 bite sized pieces but not super thick. Once cut, set aside and ready for frying. Do as many as you need for people or want to eat.
- Once sausage is done, remove from pan and place on a paper towel to drain the fat and set aside for later.
- Add butter to the pan. Note: you do not need to wipe it down from the sausage mixture, it’ll add flavor. Just make sure there are no bits stuck to the pan otherwise they could burn.
- Once butter has melted, add sage leaves to it and fry until crispy. Fry for about 2 minutes then flip and fry for another 2 minutes. Remove from the pan. You now have the best tasty crispy sage to top the bites with, make sure to give it a taste!
- Now that you have sage infused butter in the pan, add cornbread pieces. Do not crowd the pan. Fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes and flip. Fry on the other side until golden brown and remove from the pan onto a plate with a paper towel. Proceed to fry the rest of the cornbread pieces, adding more butter/oil to the pan as needed to keep the frying oil.
- Take the apple butter and mix it with a ⅛ tsp of salt and some fresh cracked pepper.
- To assemble: spread apple butter onto the fried cornbread pieces, add a piece of the sausage on top of that and add the crispy sage leaf as a topper to finish off the bite.
- Ideally serve warm with this Apple Butter Whiskey Sour.
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