I Know You’ve Wanted To Try Them

So I decided to take one for the team and try them out myself.   I can’t even say for sure where the very first place I saw them was, but I know I’ve been thinking on them on and off ever since.  The other day I finally decided that I should give them a whirl- I had everything on hand necessary, but when I went to see if there was an actual recipe online, every single one started with a box of mix- and that simply wouldn’t do.

I read through a few of the recipes to see if there was any reason whatsoever I could think of for starting with a mix- and the only reason I could come up with was that that was what people had on hand, so that was what they used.   I decided that my version would be from scratch, and I started assembling ingredients for homemade Corn Dog Muffins.

Corn Dogs.  Who doesn’t love these things?  A not-so-good for you hot dog encased in a lightly sweet cornbread coating and deep fried until done.  The ones you can buy in the store are then flash frozen so that you can pop them in the oven and freshen them up before eating.  You may feel a bit virtuous baking instead of frying, but they’ve already had their bath in hot oil- we’re definitely not avoiding it.  Alton Brown even did a show once on making homemade corn dogs.  Sure looks delicious, but do I really want to open that can of worms?  The deep fryer comes out pretty much only for egg rolls and the occasional fried fish- we don’t need to add to the temptation.

But Corn Dog Muffins eliminate that middle man altogether- and I couldn’t see why they wouldn’t work well.  I would still use a slightly sweet cornbread batter, I would cut up the hot dogs and fold them in for maximum distribution, and we avoid the deep fryer completely by baking from start to finish.   It was a piece of cake.

I started with my homemade Corn Muffin recipe.   While I usually use 4 tablespoons of sugar for 12 muffins, I thought that might be too sweet for the corn dogs, so I cut that in half to two tablespoons.  When I grabbed the hot dogs to start slicing them, I realized they were the kind with cheese in the middle, so then I decided I should add some shredded cheese to the muffin batter as well to play off that- just 1/3 cup seemed to be the perfect amount.  And my final addition was a few grinds of black pepper- which I’m starting to think I should add to my muffin recipe anyway.

The addition of the hot dogs to the batter made 15 muffins instead of the standard 12 one batch of batter makes.  And to be honest, I used six hot dogs, and I think I would use more next time for maximum distribution purposes, and that would likely stretch the batter further.

We really enjoyed these.  They had the flavor of a corn dog- minus the annoying stick up the middle- and minus the bath in hot oil.  While we are not people who consider hot dogs a regular food in our house, the occasional appearance happens, and I think these would be perfect for a kids birthday party or even for a quick lunch.  We had leftovers that we stored in the fridge, and just a minute in the microwave refreshed them nicely- I highly suspect that these could be stored in the freezer as well.   The real beauty to me here, is the adaptability.  When you buy corn dogs, you don’t know about the quality of the dog on the inside.  With this idea, you can use your favorite hot dog- all natural if you want- or even a tofu dog if that is where your preference lies.   I’m glad I finally tried them, and I think they were worth the small bit of effort to put them together.

Corn Dog Muffins

1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal (yellow, white or blue)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil

8-10 hot dogs, sliced into 1/4 inch coins

1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425ºF.  Spray two muffin pans with cooking spray and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs and oil- blend well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.  Fold in the hot dog slices and cheddar cheese.

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full with the chunky batter- try to evenly distribute the hot dog slices so you don’t end up with muffins minus dogs.

Bake in a 425ºF oven for about 15 minutes.  They should look like they are just starting to brown around the edges.  Remove from oven and let cool in the pans for five minutes.  Remove the muffins from the pans and serve immediately.

Makes about 18 corn dog muffins.