I was inspired by Kristine Fraser and decided I would also try making Disney World foods at home. Which is awesome because Disney foods but even more awesome because I rarely cook anymore…(I’m skipping the Dole Whip from her list, because that’s not an official recipe, I don’t care what anyone says. Dole Whip is vegan and that recipe isn’t vegan. Also, we have the official Dole Pineapple Frozen Yogurt mix which DOES make more realistic Dole Whip anyway.)
Well… here’s Kristine’s version (and the original) – Kristine’s look much better than the real thing. And speaking of the real thing, we want so much to like the Casey’s Corner corn dog nuggest + plastic cheese but we just don’t. They’re not good, though they are beloved by many.
I honestly didn’t have high hopes for this – deep frying is not my strong suit and deep frying with wet batter is REALLY not my strong suit. And, we have some weird really fine corn meal that is almost like a corn meal flour that didn’t work well for a recipe TW made with it. So… I was skeptical.
I continued to be skeptical as I started dipping the hot dogs (1 cut into a nugget size and one regular size hot dog) into the batter and then into the dutch oven of hot oil.
When they suggest using a jar for the batter, for easier dipping – that should not be a suggestion, it should be a requirement. Once I switched to a jar, things went along better.
BUT important note – the amount of milk in the recipe is NOT enough. I added and added and added and added…. (You know how when you make Jiffy Cornbread, you set the batter aside for a bit so it can thicken up… that’s what kept happening to my batter. It was so thick, I kept losing mini hotdogs in the batter, so I had to keep thinning it with milk.)
Also, the 2″ of oil was not enough or my dutch oven is too darn small (?) – it was really hard to get the whole hot dog into the oil, particularly for the full sized dog. The first few were weird as they really puffed up and didn’t get very browned.
After that… I found a rhythm and a method that worked and it was a success. TW’s mom definitely liked them. TW and I thought they were ok… they need more flavor of some sort but they were certainly as good as any corn dog nugget we’ve had at Casey’s Corner.
I don’t think I’d make these again – not without some changes to the recipe which would make this not the same recipe, eh? Or maybe I’d make them if a kid or a grandkid REALLY needed me to make them. Otherwise… naw, once was enough.