Daring Cooks Cornmeal Challenge: Mini Corn Dogs

Once more, it's time for the Daring Cooks Challenge!

Rachael of pizzarossa was our August 2012 Daring Cook hostess and she challenged us to broaden our knowledge or cornmeal! Rachel provided us with some amazing recipes and encouraged us to hunt down other cornmeal recipes that we'd never tried before - opening our eyes to the literally 100s of cuisines and 1000s of new-to-us recipes!

I like corn dogs. It's summer. It feels like State Faire time of year. I don't think I need to say any more.

Mini Corn Dogs

Ingredients

• 4 hot dogs (cut in half for mini)
• ¼ cup flour
• ¾ cup corn meal
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ⅛ tsp cayenne
• 1 egg
• ½ cup + 2 Tbsp buttermilk
• oil for deep frying
• flour for dusting

Directions

1. Cut hot dogs in half and put toothpicks in the ends
2. Mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, cayenne, egg and buttermilk. Add extra buttermilk for beer if needed to  get the right condistency
3. Roll hot dogs in flour and tap off the excess. Dip in batter and fry in 350 degree oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Once more, it's time for the Daring Cooks Challenge!

Rachael of pizzarossa was our August 2012 Daring Cook hostess and she challenged us to broaden our knowledge or cornmeal! Rachel provided us with some amazing recipes and encouraged us to hunt down other cornmeal recipes that we'd never tried before - opening our eyes to the literally 100s of cuisines and 1000s of new-to-us recipes!

I like corn dogs. It's summer. It feels like State Faire time of year. I don't think I need to say any more.

Mini Corn Dogs

Ingredients

• 4 hot dogs (cut in half for mini)
• ¼ cup flour
• ¾ cup corn meal
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ⅛ tsp cayenne
• 1 egg
• ½ cup + 2 Tbsp buttermilk
• oil for deep frying
• flour for dusting

Directions

1. Cut hot dogs in half and put toothpicks in the ends
2. Mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, cayenne, egg and buttermilk. Add extra buttermilk for beer if needed to  get the right condistency
3. Roll hot dogs in flour and tap off the excess. Dip in batter and fry in 350 degree oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

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Homemade Heath Bars

Heath bars are one of those fantastic chocolates I remember from my childhood. They were one of my favorites and they're still one of my mix-in toppings of choice when you can pick toppings from an ice cream shop. These are super easy to make and not nearly as finicky as most candies can be. You can stir and let the sugar crystalize as much as you want and they'll still be great.


Butter Toffee heath bars (makes about 90 bite sized pieces)
Ingredients

• 1 lb unsalted butter
• 2 ⅔ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• ¼ cup corn syrup
• pinch of salt
• melted chocolate for covering

Directions

1. Cook sugar, butter, water and corn syrup and salt until it reaches 290 degrees (hard crack stage) while stirring constantly. (Normally you don't want to stir sugar for candy because you don't want this to crystalize. But because you want this one to have that hard crystal structure that breaks apart and dissolves on your tongue, stirring is just fine).
2. Remove from heat and pour over parchment paper until completely cooled.
3. Break into pieces and dip in chocolate to finish.

Heath bars are one of those fantastic chocolates I remember from my childhood. They were one of my favorites and they're still one of my mix-in toppings of choice when you can pick toppings from an ice cream shop. These are super easy to make and not nearly as finicky as most candies can be. You can stir and let the sugar crystalize as much as you want and they'll still be great.


Butter Toffee heath bars (makes about 90 bite sized pieces)
Ingredients

• 1 lb unsalted butter
• 2 ⅔ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• ¼ cup corn syrup
• pinch of salt
• melted chocolate for covering

Directions

1. Cook sugar, butter, water and corn syrup and salt until it reaches 290 degrees (hard crack stage) while stirring constantly. (Normally you don't want to stir sugar for candy because you don't want this to crystalize. But because you want this one to have that hard crystal structure that breaks apart and dissolves on your tongue, stirring is just fine).
2. Remove from heat and pour over parchment paper until completely cooled.
3. Break into pieces and dip in chocolate to finish.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Lemon Coolers: a homemade, discontinued girlscout cookie

Several years ago, the Girl Scouts had a cookie called a Lemon Cooler. They were marketed as a low fat cookie from about 2000-2006 when they were discontinued/retired. Even though they were low fat, they were sweet and refreshing. It was a vanilla cookie with just a hint of tart. They were perfect when you didn't want chocolate, and you could eat 5 cookies for the caloric equivalent of 2 samoas. 


Those cookies seem to have come back for the 100th anniversary, now dubbed with the name "Savannah Smiles" (which means, of course, that there is a stripper somewhere with the unfortunate name of Thin Mint or Tagalong). But I will always call these delicious cookies lemon coolers. 


It might almost be girlscout cookie season, but in the off times when you long for those delicious cookies, you can always make this recipe or a recipe for homemade Samoas to hold you over from one year to the next. 

Lemon Coolers
Ingredients

• ½ cup butter
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 2 tsp lemon extract or zest and juice from 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup - 1 Tbsp flour
• 1 Tbsp corn starch
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup milk
• additional confectioners sugar for rolling

Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in vanilla, lemon and milk
2. Add starch, flour, salt and baking powder and mix until combined
3. Roll into a log and freeze at least one hour
4. Slice into circles and then half moons if desired.
5. Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees.
6. After cookies are cool, roll in powdered sugar

Several years ago, the Girl Scouts had a cookie called a Lemon Cooler. They were marketed as a low fat cookie from about 2000-2006 when they were discontinued/retired. Even though they were low fat, they were sweet and refreshing. It was a vanilla cookie with just a hint of tart. They were perfect when you didn't want chocolate, and you could eat 5 cookies for the caloric equivalent of 2 samoas. 


Those cookies seem to have come back for the 100th anniversary, now dubbed with the name "Savannah Smiles" (which means, of course, that there is a stripper somewhere with the unfortunate name of Thin Mint or Tagalong). But I will always call these delicious cookies lemon coolers. 


It might almost be girlscout cookie season, but in the off times when you long for those delicious cookies, you can always make this recipe or a recipe for homemade Samoas to hold you over from one year to the next. 

Lemon Coolers
Ingredients

• ½ cup butter
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 2 tsp lemon extract or zest and juice from 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup - 1 Tbsp flour
• 1 Tbsp corn starch
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup milk
• additional confectioners sugar for rolling

Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in vanilla, lemon and milk
2. Add starch, flour, salt and baking powder and mix until combined
3. Roll into a log and freeze at least one hour
4. Slice into circles and then half moons if desired.
5. Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees.
6. After cookies are cool, roll in powdered sugar

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Homemade Samoas

It's been a while since I've been to this website. Life has been so crazy that I haven't had time to update as much as I would like. Worse, I haven't had time to cook as much as I would like.  But I knew I needed to share a couple more recipes with my few loyal readers.

I realized the other day that it was almost Girlscout cookie season. I made these a couple months ago but haven't had the time to update this blog with a post. I used a 70% dark chocolate instead of regular semi sweet. It cuts the sweetness of the caramel a little bit, and you only need the smallest amount of chocolate on the bottom of the cookie to give a fantastic richness.

It's easy to find plenty of recipes for these same cookies anywhere on the internet, but that does not diminish my appreciation for them, nor my need to share.

Samoas

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• ⅛ tsp baking powder
• ¼ t salt
• ¼ t vanilla
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 1 ½ cup toasted coconut
• 7 oz soft caramels
• pinch salt
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 4 oz chocolate

Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Add flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla and 1 Tbsp milk to form cookie dough
2. Wrap cookies and chill for 1 hour. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut rings from the cookies
3. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Let cool completely before putting chocolate and caramel on them
4. Melt caramels with milk and mix in toasted coconut
5. Melt chocolate. Dip the bottoms and drizzle over the tops.

It's been a while since I've been to this website. Life has been so crazy that I haven't had time to update as much as I would like. Worse, I haven't had time to cook as much as I would like.  But I knew I needed to share a couple more recipes with my few loyal readers.

I realized the other day that it was almost Girlscout cookie season. I made these a couple months ago but haven't had the time to update this blog with a post. I used a 70% dark chocolate instead of regular semi sweet. It cuts the sweetness of the caramel a little bit, and you only need the smallest amount of chocolate on the bottom of the cookie to give a fantastic richness.

It's easy to find plenty of recipes for these same cookies anywhere on the internet, but that does not diminish my appreciation for them, nor my need to share.

Samoas

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• ⅛ tsp baking powder
• ¼ t salt
• ¼ t vanilla
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 1 ½ cup toasted coconut
• 7 oz soft caramels
• pinch salt
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 4 oz chocolate

Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Add flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla and 1 Tbsp milk to form cookie dough
2. Wrap cookies and chill for 1 hour. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut rings from the cookies
3. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Let cool completely before putting chocolate and caramel on them
4. Melt caramels with milk and mix in toasted coconut
5. Melt chocolate. Dip the bottoms and drizzle over the tops.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad