Saturday 23 May 2015

Homemade Corndogs *RECIPE*

This make has been 100% inspired by Pinterest! 

I kept seeing recipe posts for these homemade corndogs pop up in my timeline, and always a sucker for American diner style eating on a treat night, I knew I just had to give them a go. 

As per usual I did my homework and had a good read of about 5 different corndog recipes online, I combined the best of them all and came up with this failsafe recipe for you lovely blog readers to use at home. 

They might not be the most appealing little blighters to look at - but these homemade corndogs will have you transported to the busy streets of NYC with just one mouthful!

The ultimate American street food, these little dawgs are a perfect weekend treat - the batter is both sweet and savoury, and if you've any batter left over (I had a fair bit) you can keep it in the fridge and use it to make scotch-style pancakes for breakfast - which are equally delish! 

INGREDIENTS




For the batter:

1 ½ cups** fine cornmeal (you can get this from the Caribbean aisle in most supermarkets)
1 ¼ plain flour
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1½ cups milk
1 medium egg
1 tbsp squeezy honey
1 tbsp vegetable oil 
(you can also add ½ tsp smoked paprika if you like a spice hit - leave this out if you plan to use left over batter to make pancakes)

**Sorry to use cup measurements, but I find them really easy and useful for batter-style recipes: you can pick up very reasonable and super cute cup measuring sets from most cookware departments. If you want a really beautiful swanky set of cups then I particularly love these Russet Measuring Cups from Anthropologie (£24). 

What else?:

10 frankfurter sausages
10-20 wooden skewers (depending if you're halving your sausages) 
2L vegetable oil (for frying - can be strained and reused)

METHOD

1. Fill your pan up with the 2L of vegetable oil and begin to heat up on the hob, you want your oil hot enough to turn a small piece of bread golden brown in just a minute or so. It is also helpful to pre-heat your oven to about 150 and place a baking sheet in there to keep warm - this will be useful to pop your fried corndogs on to keep them warm while you work your way through frying the whole batch.

2.Weigh out and mix up all the dry batter ingredients into a bowl. Mix the milk, egg, honey and vegetable oil in a jug and pour into the dry ingredients to form a thick batter. 

3. Decide whether you'd like to make mini corn dogs (each sausage cut in half) or whole mens - this may depend on the type of pan you have to fry them in - if you have a nice deep pan as deep as your sausages are long, then you can make full size corn dogs, if, like me, you only have a standard height saucepan, then cut each frankfurter sausage in half, dry each one with a tea towel, then insert a skewer up through the centre of the sausage until each one is secured on a stick. 

4. Pour your batter in a tall glass so its easy to fully submerge your sausages into the batter before frying. 

5. Dip your sausages into the batter, let the excess drip off back into the glass, then carefully holding the stick, place your corndog into the hot oil so the sausage is fully submerged and fry for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. I fried two sausages at a time, if you have an extra pair of hands you can rope in to help you then you'll probably manage to fry 4 at a time. 

6. Carefully place the fried corndog onto some kitchen towel to soak up any excess oil, then place on a baking tray in the oven to keep warm until all the corndogs are fried and ready to eat. 

7. Serve with ketchup and mustard to dip, and a big pile of sweet potato fries for an ultimate Saturday night American-style feast! 





FEAST: Homemade corndogs with ketchup & mustard for dipping, sweet potato fries (cooked in the Tefal Acti-fry) and a side of coleslaw! Yum! 

We absolutely loved this dinner, and devoured it happily - it is a fun a sociable meal - and the red baskets that I found in my local TK MAXX store totally made it for me! It would be a great meal to make for dinner if you have friends coming round, or the perfect addition to any sports match watching - team it with a beer & any man will be putty in your hands!

The batter coating on the dawgs is slightly crispy with a light/fluffy layer before you bite into the smoky sausage: the coating has a perfect balance between sweet and savoury and once dipped in your favourite condiment you'll find it hard to stop at just one, trust me! (*May have consumed 4*....oops!)

Happy Saturday everyone!

Mrs B

xxx