Corn Dogs
In the mood for fair food, we coat hot dogs with hushpuppy batter and fry. The batter is more than enough for four hot dogs, so we refrigerate the remaining batter and use for lunchtime cornmeal pancakes (although the batter could also be made into hushpuppies or even muffins). The resulting corn dogs are delicious, deserving of the best hot dogs we have around. Originally served as part of Surrender.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (divided)
- 1½ cups stone-ground cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
- 1 teaspoon coarse, plus more for garnish salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black powder
- 1 large egg (lightly beaten)
- 1 cup whole milk
- canola oil
- 4 hot dogs
- ketchup
Instructions
We set four clean wooden chopsticks aside, to be used as the handles for our corn dogs.
We put ½ cup of the flour in one shallow bowl and the rest in a larger bowl. To the larger bowl, we add the cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper. We stir well with our flat whisk. In a large measuring cup, we combine the egg and milk and then add to the cornmeal mixture. We stir to incorporate with the flat whisk. We set aside.
We heat a couple of inches of oil in our Dutch oven over medium heat. With our frying thermometer we check the temperature of the oil. We want it to reach 375° degrees to start frying.
Each hot dog is placed first in the flour bowl, tossing it around, and wiping off any excess flour. Next into the batter, coating it as best we can all over the hot dog. It is then gently lowered into the oil. We repeat with another hot dog and wash up.
The hot dogs are turned after a couple of minutes. We want the coating nicely browned. When the corn dogs are done, we remove them with our spider strainer and sprinkle with salt. A chopstick is carefully inserted through the middle of the corn dog.
When all the corn dogs are ready, we serve them with ketchup.