Corn Dog Muffins

My first job after graduating high school was working in the Sears shoe department at the mall. It was not the most glamorous of professions, standing around for 9 hours but it paid. Occasionally for breakfast I would stop by Cinnabon for a mini roll and wash it down with a pint of milk. Sometimes for lunch the owner of the Chinese Wok would cook up a special plate of spicy Tai food for me. But my favorite lunch was at the corn dog place. I loved the cheese sticks. A stick of cheese dipped in corn bread and then deep fried to perfection. As a teenager there was no such thing as eating healthy. I have not had a corn dog in an extremely long time. When I bit into a corn dog muffin I was sent back in time to the little table in the Sears break room where I sat and ate my cheese stick.

These little guys are really great for an after school snack. I used one (16 ounce) package of Marie Calendar’s corn bread mix. It is a little sweeter than the Jiffy mix so I swapped out the sugar for maple syrup. I am thinking I might play around with adding some vegetables, carrots, peas or corn.

Source: Adapted from Allrecipes.com
2 (8.5 ounce) packages cornbread mix
2 tablespoons brown sugar or maple syrup
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
9 hot dogs, cut in half lengthwise then chopped into half moons or diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease muffin tins.

Stir together the cornbread mix and the brown sugar in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Fold the milk mixture, cheese and hot dogs into the dry ingredients until moistened. Spoon mixture into muffin tins until 2/3 full.

Bake in a preheated oven 14 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown.