Healthier No-Bake Cookies

These mini corn dogs almost didn't happen tonight.  This is how it went.  I was getting all the ingredients ready and went to grab the cornmeal out of my pantry.  The cornmeal was sitting innocently (at least it looked innocent) on the top shelf of my pantry.  I reached up to grab it and it tipped towards me and Ahhhhhhhh!  Blast, the lid wasn't on tight!  Cornmeal went everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE!  It was on my face, down my shirt, in my hair, all over the floor and in every nook and cranny it could reach within a 4 foot radius of where I was standing.  I stood there stunned, covered in cornmeal and not knowing whether I should laugh or cry.  All I can say is bless the vacuum that helped me clean that darn cornmeal!  After all that, the corn dogs were a hit, except for Noah who wasn't particularly fond of the outside of the corn dog (who doesn't like the outside of a corn dog?).  

The recipe is for full size corn dogs.  Instead, I used little precooked all natural chicken sausages from Costco.

Corn Dogs

8 hot dogs (cut in half of mini hot dogs/precooked chicken sausages)

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided

About 8 cups vegetable oil, divided (I didn't use this much)

1 1/2 cup cornmeal

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

Put 3 tablespoons of flour on a plate.  Insert a wooden stick (with mini corn dogs use a toothpick) into each hot dog.  Roll hot dogs in flour to coat, shaking off excess.

Heat 3 inches oil to 350 degrees F in a deep 3-quart heavy pot over medium-high heat.  Meanwhile, whisk together cornmeal, 1/2 cup flour, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, cayenne, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl.  Add eggs 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition.  Whisk in buttermilk.

Transfer some of the batter to a tall glass, filling it almost to the top.  Working in batches of 2 or 3, dip hot dogs, 1 at a time, into glass of batter to coat (add more batter to glass if necessary), then fry, turning occasionally, until batter is cooked through and golden-brown all over, about 3 minutes.  Transfer corn dogs to paper towels to drain.  Return oil to 350 degrees F. and refill with batter between batches.

*I ended up stirring a bit more buttermilk into the batter because my batter was a bit thick.  I also just realized that I forgot to add the 2 tablespoons of oil to the batter (not sure how it would change the batter).

Recipe adapted from Epicurious