Cornbread Stuffed Hot Dog Muffin

I was inspired by this idea I saw at Tasty Kitchen http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/healthy-mini-corn-dog-muffins/ for a Healthy Corn Dog Muffin. The recipe looked easy, however I want easier!

I am a HUGE fan of Trader Joe's and thankfully I live down the street from one now (just opened a few months ago). I finally tried their Cornbread muffin mix and I LOVED it! Mr Tasteful actually raved about how good it was (which he doesn't often when it comes to cornbread). I had been using the Jiffy box mix for a long time and would doctor it up to taste more to my liking. But after trying TJ mix I cant compare it to anything else I have tried out of the box. However that doesn't mean you cant use your favorite recipe for cornbread!

Before I started making these Muffin Hot Dogs, I got my little Cupcake her own bowl and spoon to mix up her own concoctions.Thankfully that distracted her enough to allow me about 10 minutes to get this going.

Pre-heat oven to 350
1 or two boxes of cornbread mixture (or make yours from scratch) depending on how many muffins you want. My 1 box made 8 HUGE muffins
2 Hot Dogs (I prefer Hebrew National Hot dogs because they are Kosher therefore all natural)or more depending on how many muffins you have.

First follow you cornbread box mix directions for batter then set aside. Next slice hot dogs into 1 1/2 inch sections, I was able to get 8 slices all together.

Next grease your muffin pans with oil. I love the spray Canola Oil TJ has. Then start spooning in batter into muffin pan. I have a 12 slot muffin pan, however I was only able to make 8 large muffins. I read someplace if you have spaces unfilled in your muffin pan to fill the empty muffin slots half way with water. This is suppose to help create even baking.

Once your muffin slots are filled take hot dog piece and place one hot dog into each muffin batter. Push all the way down, then evenly spread batter around to cover up.


Bake for 25 minutes (just verify if your mix has instructions for cooking time. My mix did not have it for muffins, so after 20 minutes I checked), check to make sure it is done by inserting a knife or toothpick into muffin, if comes out clean then it is done.  Let cool for 5 minutes. Then take a knife and cut around edges to loosen up. I then took my cooling rack placed on top so I could flip my muffin pan upside down, then took my knife and started banning  the pan, this helped muffins to come out...I did have 2 muffins that got stuck, so just make sure you put enough oil in your pan.

Any muffins left uneaten, I just put in a freezer bag and put in freezer for later.