Baking trials: What's the best bread for stuffing?

Stuffing is as much a part of the classic Thanksgiving dinner as cranberry sauce and green bean casserole. Warm, aromatic, and bread-forward, it’s comfort food at its best.  

Stuffing mix is readily available at the grocery store, but by forgoing the packaged mix and preparing your own stuffing from scratch, you’ll open a world of delicious opportunities.

Photography by Danielle Sykes; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

Since bread is its key component, how do you decide what's the best bread to use for stuffing? If a recipe simply calls for “1 pound of bread” (with no information regarding flavor, degree of staleness, or the size and shape of the cut or torn pieces), what then?  

Here’s how to determine the best bread for stuffing and how to prepare it. 

The best bread for stuffing: flavor  

If the stuffing recipe you’ve chosen is laced with lots of add-ins (nuts, dried fruit, sausage, oysters, mushrooms), it might be best to choose a basic bread that won’t compete with other flavors, such as a plain white or mild multigrain loaf. 

Photography by Danielle Sykes; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

But if it’s a more classic recipe (one that contains butter, onions, celery, herbs, and little else) it’s fine to select a more full-flavored bread, like this Apricot, Raisin & Pecan Bread or Fruited Sourdough Sandwich Bread. (Sourdough loaves can be an excellent choice so long as they aren’t super sour, which can add a distractingly strong flavor to stuffing.)

The best bread for stuffing: texture  

Beyond flavor, you also need to consider the texture of your bread. We tested a variety of breads using our Apple and Sausage Stuffing recipe, and here are our findings: 

Artisan-style bread (e.g., baguettes, focaccia) (recommended): Crusty artisan-style breads are often a good choice for stuffing; they tend to be innately flavorful due to longer fermentation, yet that flavor is simple enough that they complement any seasoning or add-in.

One thing to watch out for: The “holier” the bread, the more likely it is to become mushy in stuffing. Bread with a very open texture simply isn’t substantial enough to provide the necessary balance of liquid to solid, and often has a high crust to crumb ratio. If you’re going to use an artisan-style bread, it should be close-textured rather than super holey. 

Enriched bread (e.g., brioche, challah): These breads, with their higher fat content, tend to be soft and moist, with texture ranging from close-grained to quite open depending on what recipe you follow. If your loaf is very close-grained, cut it into smaller (3/4”) cubes, and let the stuffing sit for 15 to 20 minutes before baking, so the bread has more time to absorb the liquid. If its texture is more open, treat it like sandwich bread (below).

Dense whole-grain bread (e.g. Vollkornbrot, whole-grain miche): This bread is typically very close-grained and will absorb the stuffing’s liquid quite slowly. It’s also usually low in fat and thus apt to be a bit tough. Even if you rest it before baking, the finished stuffing will have a mildly chewy, “meaty” texture. 

Sandwich bread (recommended): A typical pan loaf — whether white, whole wheat, or multi-grain — is often recommended for stuffing, and for good reason: It offers a nice balance of tender texture (thanks to some added fat) and sturdy structure. When combined with the stuffing’s liquid it softens without falling apart, with each piece remaining intact.

The best bread for stuffing: Cut vs. torn? 

When breaking down a loaf of bread for stuffing, is it better to cut it into cubes or tear it into irregular pieces? And either way, how big should the pieces be? 

PJ Hamel

Cutting vs. tearing is a matter of personal choice. With their greater surface area, torn pieces of bread may offer added crunch to the top of the stuffing. Appearance-wise, torn bread makes a more “freeform,” rustic-looking stuffing.  

And whether diced or torn, the larger the piece, the more likely it is to retain some of its original texture — though if the pieces are too large, it can be hard to eat the stuffing gracefully. We found that bread cut or torn into pieces between 3/4" and 1 1/2" is ideal.  

The best bread for stuffing: How stale should it be? 

Many cooks believe the staler the bread, the better it’ll absorb the stuffing’s liquid. Not necessarily! For most stuffing recipes, using rock-hard pieces of stale bread results in a chunky, toothsome end product, with some of the bread nicely softened and some too dry to enjoy. Is there an ideal degree of staleness for stuffing bread? 

Yes. We tested bread “staled” using various times and techniques, and here’s what we found: 

Fresh bread: Bread that’s just been baked (or baked within a day or so and stored airtight) produces stuffing that’s extremely soft and one-dimensional, texture-wise.

Whole loaf left uncovered overnight: This bread’s crust and outer layer will stale a bit, but the loaf will retain its moist center. It will produce stuffing that’s quite soft. 

PJ Hamel

Diced or torn bread left uncovered overnight (recommended): Cutting or tearing bread into pieces, laying the pieces on a wire rack or baking sheet, and letting them rest, uncovered, at room temperature overnight produces uniformly stale bread. The pieces will be harder around the edges than in the center, but all of them will be somewhat dried out. In stuffing, the bread will retain its structure and a bit of “bite” from the crust, though it won’t be at all chewy.  

Diced or torn bread dried in a slow (200°F) oven: This is a quicker way to reach much the same result as drying overnight. One slight difference is that the bread will be crunchy all the way through, with no difference between crust and interior — which yields a more uniform-textured stuffing. 

Diced or torn bread left uncovered for 3 to 4 days: This bread will be completely stale, hard, and dry throughout. In stuffing, individual pieces retain their (unpleasantly) hard center; and any pieces exposed to direct oven heat on top will be tough and crunchy. 

PJ Hamel

However you decide to dry your bread, note that its outside crust will inherently be drier than its interior (and therefore a bit chewier in stuffing). Remove the bread’s crust if you want stuffing with a more uniform texture. 

And the best bread for stuffing is … 

Based on our testing, here are our recommendations:

Choose a medium- to fine-grained, mildly flavored sandwich loaf, like Classic Sandwich Bread, Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread, Sourdough Sandwich Bread, or herb-scented Thanksgiving Stuffing Loaf. A plain artisan loaf with a fairly fine crumb, like this No-Knead Crusty White Bread, would also be a good choice.

Dice the bread into 3/4" to 1" cubes, or tear it into 1" to 1 1/2" pieces. Lay the prepared bread on a baking sheet or cooling rack and let it rest at room temperature, uncovered, overnight. It’s then ready to use in your favorite stuffing recipe.

Are you hosting the big gathering this year? Stay ahead of the game with our Thanksgiving survival guide.

Cover photo (Apple and Sausage Stuffing) and food styling by Liz Neily.