Mini Corn Dogs

So what is the best part about going to a state or county fair?  Well besides the scones, elephant ears, people watchin' and onion burgers, the main draw around these parts are corn dogs, aptly named "Krusty Pups".  SO GOOD.  However, since my gallbladder and I parted ways a few years back, corn dog and hot dogs and I are not really on speaking terms any more. I recently found out that if I buy the swanky nitrate free hot dogs, I do not get the reaction I once would get.  This gave me a glimmer of HOPE that once again there could be a golden brown crusty dog of corn in my near future!

Mini corn dogs... once only a dream for a galbladder-less girl, now a new reality!

So what you need for this recipe is:

1 package of bun length hotdogs
16 skewers or long sucker sticks
Several cups of oil (your choice, we did vegetable oil)  

Corn dog batter: Batter recipe taken from here at Life Made Simple

3/4 cup yellow corn meal
3/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons honey
3/4 cup buttermilk  * note we did a substitute
2 tsp vegetable oil

(Printable recipe at the end)

Take your bun length hotdogs...

I used to have buy the special Angus beef with no nitrates, but Oscar Mayer recently changed all their dogs to nitrate free!

and cut them in half

Bun length dogs cut in half make the perfect length for min dogs

I had bamboo skewers on hand that I cut in half, but you can also use lollypop sticks or chopsticks.  Push each half of the hotdog far up each stick. 

Meat on sticks....

Pat dry with a paper towel so each dog is dry to the touch (and will help the batter stick to the dog) 

In a bowl mix the corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Add the beaten egg, honey, buttermilk (2 tsp of vinegar to 3/4 cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes before adding), and vegetable oil.

 
Whisk together with the dry ingredients to make a thick batter.

Corn dog batter has a great smell to it!

Heat the oil up to 350º.  We had a candy thermometer on the side of the pot.  We also did not want to waste a ton of oil, (or stink up the house) so we used our smallest pot and filled it up a few inches to cover at least half the hotdog. 

 Pour the batter into a tall cup

Pre-dipping action

Dip the half of hot dog slowly in the batter, twisting as you pull up

Post dipping action

 Place immediately into the 350º oil and turn the temp on the oil down

Oh my gosh, it's working!

 Our pot was very small, we could only fit in two at a time

Two little pups spinning around in the oil

 Fry each dog for 2-3 minutes until golden brown all over

My 12-year-old wanted to help her dad

We got so excited when we thought these started to look like REAL corn dogs!!

Let them dry off on a paper towel to help wick off the extra oil

We were seriously impressed at this point.

Since we were making only a few at a time, we placed the finished pups on a pizza pan in a low temp oven to keep warm and crisp whilst we fried up the others.

Mini corn dogs... YUM

Soon we had a big ol' pile of golden Krusty Pups to behold.

Activate smell-o-vision here

All we had to do now was dig in!

Must have mustard.  It's the law.

A little scroll of mustard, some fresh corn on the cob and watermelon and this instantly became the new family favorite!

The batter was crunchy on the outside, sweet and fluffy on the inside.

Yum!  I think next time I will go with the smooth ended lollypop sticks instead of the skewers, just so the kids won't have that jabby point there at the end of the corn dog, other than that, we are SO going to add this to our summer dinner line up every once in a while.  So don't be afraid to try these in the near future, we were pleasantly surprised they were not that hard to make - and SUPER fun and delicious.

Mini corn dogs want to get into your belly today!

Here's the link to a printable recipe.  Enjoy.