My mother taught me to bake a lot of things, but one thing she didn’t teach me how to make was cornbread. She showed me how to make cornbread with the box mix, but she always burned the bread. She always followed the instructions to the letter but somehow it always ended up burnt on the edges and we had to dig out the good stuff from the center.

That would’ve been fine except the only time my mother really makes cornbread is when she’s serving chili. Chili that has baked beans… which I hate. I love cornbread though, but unfortunately was usually disappointed on chili nights.

So one night I decided to take matters into my own hands. I would make the cornbread, I told my mom, and make it I did. I followed the instructions on the box, put in the oven and waited in 15 minutes of anticipation hoping it wouldn’t burn. And it didn’t. Since then, I’m in charge of cornbread at the Bailey house.

I see different blog posts online all the time about how to make cornbread fancier by adding this or that and I’m never usually a fan. If you hadn’t caught on, I’m a plain food kind of gal. But one that always caught my eye was was using cornbread mix to make corn dog muffins.

I’m always game for handheld foods mainly because they’re good for eating anywhere other than a table and I’m a busy person. So I decided to give the idea a shot with one major change – I wasn’t going to make mini muffins like everyone seems to do because, one, I don’t own a mini muffin tin and honestly don’t understand the point of them, and two, I was hungry, and I wanted something bigger than mini.

So two boxes of cornmeal mix and two hot dogs later I was ready for the oven. It only takes two hot dogs to make 12 corndog muffins, and that’s probably the most frustrating part of this. Now I have to find something to do with 10 more hot dogs.

But it was it worth it. I took the plate upstairs to have a study session with my roommate and we just sat there eating and working. It was fantastic, although I do recommend putting a paper towel in your lap to catch the crumbs. Otherwise, clean up is a mess.

WHAT YOU NEED

2 boxes of cornbread mix

2 eggs

⅔ cup of milk

2 hot dogs

HOW TO MAKE

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a cupcake pan with liners or spray the bowls with non-stick spray.

Prepare the cornbread batter according to package directions.

Split the batter evenly between the 12 sections in the cupcake pan.

Cut each hot dogs into six pieces.

Stick one piece of hotdog, straight up, into each muffin. Don’t worry if it sticks out over the top of the batter –

the muffins will rise.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy.