Sunday, April 29, 2012

Mini Corn Dog Muffins

The weather has been crazy in these parts recently. Unseasonably hot one week, then downright chilly the next. 

We've been trying to take advantage of the beautiful days, spending as much time those days outside as possible.

A couple of weeks ago, one of those beautiful days happened to coincide with Friday. So a few friends and I decided that we'd celebrate the warm start to the weekend with a picnic dinner at our neighborhood's playground. That way the kids could play and get out all of their energy and the parents could enjoy the beautiful evening... and reduce the number of dishes that would need to be done.

We each brought a little something, pot-luck style.

I baked bread, so that the kids could have sandwiches, and also decided to bring something fun.

And what could be more fun and kid friendly than a corn dog?? 

Not wanting to deep fry, I decided to adapt my usual cornbread recipe for these.

The first thing that I did was to cut up a couple of hot dogs. Actually, turkey franks are what I had, so I used those.



Then I mixed up the cornbread batter, but I did reduce the sugar a little bit.


And then it was time to put them together!  I used my mini-muffin pan, as I wanted them to be bite sized and easy for the kids to grab and eat.  I spooned a little bit of the batter into each well, sprinkled in some hot dog pieces, put in a little more batter, then a couple more pieces of hot dog.




It took a little longer that way, but I didn't want all of the hot dog pieces sinking to the bottom, and I also wanted to try to ensure that each bite would contain both corn muffin and hot dog.


And it turned out pretty well!


They were pretty cute, definitely fun, and they went over really well. With the adults and the kids!



These were the perfect thing for a pot luck, kid friendly picnic. I will definitely be making these again through the summer!


Mini Corn Dog Muffins
(adapted from my cornbread recipe)

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 hot dogs (or your choice of meat franks), cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a mini-muffin pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. 
Layer batter and hot dog pieces in each well of the mini muffin pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

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