Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog

The things you do for love..... For the first time, in probably what I would estimate to be about 17 years, I consumed a hot dog. I don't avoid hot dogs because I am some kind of food snob - trust me. I will woof that Grade F Taco Bell meat in a MexiMelt or praise the flavor of a McDonald's hamburger in a second. I eat a ton of things that aren't considered to be gourmet by many, but I just don't do hot dogs. I don't know why I stopped eating them as I am sure I partook as a child, but I know that nowhere in my recent memory have I even tried a nibble. Hot Dogs fall on my beans, salsa, peanut butter, white milk list - don't eat them, don't wonder about how they would taste, don't care if they fell out of existence.

But then there is Forrest. He asked for Hot Dogs this weekend. Sure, I could have purchased an 8 pack of buns and a 10 pack of dogs and let him figure out the math. But I felt compelled to really fulfill his request in a special way. For those of you that don't know us personally I need to provide a little background. Forrest is really good to me. Not like, "I love my wife so I treat her nice" good. He treats me like a queen. Of course I think I deserve it, but that is a different story. So when he asked for dogs I wanted to give him "knock your socks off" dogs. I actually had this recipe bookmarked to make with my 4 year old nephews one day, but decided I would give it a try for my very kind husband first.

At no point during the planning, purchasing and preparing of this recipe did I think that I would actually eat the hot dog. I was just going to make this special treat for him and allow him to eat the leftovers as long as they hung around. The truth is that this recipe wasn't easy. This dough was a mess to work with. I struggled with it for an extended period. After a long time of kneading, waiting for it to rise, rolling it into tiny strands, and wrapping it around the franks I felt that it would be a shame to not try the results. So I tried one and it was good. Not "I am a converted hot dog lover" good, but good. Forrest raved about them, so I think if you normally like dogs they must have turned out well.

Baked Mini Corn Dogs
Adapted from the Food Network Magazine

Ingredients

1 cup reduced-fat milk
1 package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting and kneading
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or paprika
12 reduced-fat All Beef hot dogs, halved crosswise
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (optional)

Directions

Warm the milk to about 110 degrees in a saucepan; pour into a medium bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and let soften for about 2 minutes.

Stir in the olive oil, brown sugar and cornmeal with a wooden spoon.

Add the flour, salt, baking soda and cayenne pepper;

stir to make a sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead with heavily floured hands (this is very sticky dough), adding more flour if needed (and you will need to add more), until smooth but still slightly tacky, about 5 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball, place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Meanwhile, insert a wooden stick or small skewer into each hot dog half, about 1 inch deep; set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (the original recipe called for 450 degrees, but I felt that my dough got a little to dark, so I would suggest bring the temp down to 400) and lightly oil a large baking sheet. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; divide into 24 pieces. With your palms, roll each piece into a 10-inch length.