Corn Dog Mini Muffins

I know, I know. These Corn Dog Mini Muffins are a bit of a novelty, but they really made me happy.


Aren't they cute?

These muffins are made with a corn muffin batter that gets extra moistness from buttermilk. It adds a slight acidity to the batter, which helps with the leavening and softens the crumb. It's pretty magical.

If you don't want to buy a whole quart of buttermilk, you can use the powdered version. Just don't try to reconstitute it. Instead, mix the powdered buttermilk into the dry ingredients, and add water to the wet ingredients.

I often use powdered buttermilk, but this time I bought a quart and used some of the rest to make buttermilk potato dinner rolls for Thanksgiving. Well worth it!

These muffins make a delicious game day party snack or after school snack. Even my picky eater grandson liked them. They would be fun to make with kids too.

After the recipe, you will find links to five more wonderful muffin recipes made by the #MuffinMonday participants. There are flavors like apple cinnamon roll, bursting raspberry, cinnamon vanilla, cream and cereal (I'm intrigued!), and mince pie! Definitely check them out.

Corn Dog Mini Muffins Recipe

Slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats, makes 48 muffins

Ingredients

1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup corn meal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 pound Lit'l Smokies, cut into 1 inch pieces (see note below)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
2. Spray the cavities of two 24 cavity mini muffin pans with spray oil, or line the cavities with cupcake liners. 
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together until well combined. 
4. Add the eggs to the butter mixture and whisk. Whisk in the buttermilk. 
5. In a small to medium bowl, whisk together the corn flour, all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. 
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring to combine between each addition. 
7. Using a tablespoon cookie scoop or a tablespoon, divide the batter among the 48 cavities in the pans. If you use cupcake liners, spray each one lightly with spray oil, one at a time, just prior to adding the batter. 
8. Push the 1 inch pieces of the Lit'l Smokies into the batter so that it stands straight up.
9. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, until they are set and slightly golden on the edges. 
10. Cool the muffins in the pan for five minutes before serving. Leftovers should be refrigerated and then reheated in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds. 

Note: There will not be enough 1 inch pieces of sausages. You can either buy another package, or piece together the cut off pieces, which I did. Place the pieces on a toothpick, push the toothpick with the sausage pieces down into the batter, place your fingers over the top piece of sausage, and then pull the toothpick out. The sausage pieces stayed stacked on top of each other! It worked beautifully.

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page. Here are this month's muffins!

• Apple Cinnamon Roll Muffins from Making Miracles
• Bursting Raspberry Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cinnamon Vanilla Muffins from Kelli's Kitchen
• Corn Dog Mini Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cream and Cereal Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Mince Pie Muffins from Food Lust People Love