Baked Corn Dogs...

Well, when I started this blog I said I was going to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. The stuff I have put up so far has been good. I promise. My husband won't really eat stuff to be polite when I make it, and he'd tell me if it wasn't great, or needed more salt or pepper or whatever. But the other day, I definitely had "an ugly." The recipe below was definitely my most ambitious, and messiest, project to date.

Going with my love for hot dogs, and the fact that I still had a bunch of cocktail wieners left over from when I made the Surf Dogs, I wanted to try making baked corn dogs. I wanted to do them baked in an effort to try and be a little healthier. I searched the Internet and found some recipes. Ultimately I chose this one, from MarthaStewart.com:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled + a tiny bowl set aside for dusting hot dogs.
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal ( I ended up using white because we had it in the house and research told me they were interchangeable)
2 teaspoons baking powder
salt and pepper (the directions gave amounts, but after trying them, this is definitely a season to taste thing!)

2/3 cup milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

4 big hot dogs or about 12 cocktail wieners

your favorite condiment for serving

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and spread a little shortening over it so it won't stick

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (the salt and pepper is where I suggest you season to taste. I needed a lot more of each). Make a well in center; add milk, eggs, and oil. Mix just until combined.

Insert an ice-pop stick into one end of each hot dog, leaving a 1 1/2-inch handle. (Those were the actual directions. I didn't have any ice-pop sticks in the house, PLUS I was using the cocktail wieners so I just wanted to try and make little nugget type things).

Dust with flour; tap off excess. Using handle, rotate each hot dog over bowl as you spoon batter to coat evenly. Place on sheet; bake 5 minutes. Remove from oven. Using a spatula, reapply batter that has slipped onto sheet. Return to oven; bake until golden, 20 minutes.


Now... my baking sheet was anything but pretty, as you can see from the picture. The batter was SO sticky that I was having a hard time making things into nice pretty nuggets and I was just happy if the entire cocktail wiener was covered in dough. So everything was just a little blob on the baking sheet, wherever it fell.



It baked up okay; I probably would have put it in for 5 less minutes. But then I tasted it...it wasn't gross...but... there wasn't much taste. The dough needed something else.. a spice or more salt and pepper. Plus, the baking takes away from the fried goodness of a true corn dog. I used ketchup with it which definitely helped the situation and gave the nugget more taste...so I will be able to eat these for lunch or something one day.

If anyone has any tips or tricks for working with sticky dough... or if they have a good baked corn dog recipe, please send them my way!!

But next time...I think I will try making a true corn dog, even if they are fried!