Korean Street-Style Corn Dogs

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

Half beef hot dog, half melty mozzarella, wrapped in a yeasted dough-batter that puffs into a chewy, bready shell, rolled in panko and fried at a steady 350°F. Finished the way the street stalls do it: a shower of granulated sugar, then zigzag stripes of ketchup and mustard. Sweet, salty, crunchy, and stretchy all in one bite.

Ingredients

• 2 cups bread flour (240 g), plus more for dusting
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (1 packet)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup whole milk, warmed to 105°F
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

• 3 beef hot dogs, halved crosswise
• 6 oz low-moisture mozzarella, cut into 6 batons about 2 1/2 inches long
• 6 wooden skewers or chopsticks, 8 to 10 inches
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch, for dusting

• 2 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
• 6 cups neutral oil such as canola or peanut, for frying

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, for dusting
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoons yellow mustard

Instructions

1. Make the batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the bread flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, instant yeast, and salt. Add the warm milk (105°F, no hotter, or you will kill the yeast), the beaten egg, and the melted butter. Stir hard with a sturdy spatula for 1 to 2 minutes until you have a thick, smooth, very sticky dough-batter — closer to a stiff pancake batter than a bread dough. It should slowly fall off the spatula in a heavy ribbon.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes, until visibly puffed, bubbly, and nearly doubled. This rise is what gives the shell its chew and puff, so don't shortcut it.
3. Meanwhile, build the skewers. Pat the hot dog halves dry. Thread one hot dog half onto a skewer, pushing it about 1 1/2 inches up, then add a mozzarella baton above it, leaving 3 to 4 inches of bare skewer as a handle. Press the two pieces snugly together. Repeat for all 6.
4. Dust the assembled skewers all over with cornstarch, tapping off the excess, then set them on a plate and freeze for 15 to 20 minutes. Cold, dry skewers hold the batter and keep the cheese from blowing out.
5. Set up your coating station: pour the panko into a wide shallow dish, and line a sheet pan with parchment. Stir the risen batter down gently just once or twice — you want to keep some of the gas in it — and scrape it into a tall, narrow container such as a 2-cup measuring cup or a pint glass, which makes coating far easier than a bowl.
6. Pour 3 inches of oil into a deep heavy pot (at least 4 quarts) and heat over medium to 350°F on a clip-on thermometer. Adjust the burner as needed to hold 350°F throughout; below 335°F the shells get greasy, above 365°F they brown before the inside cooks.
7. Coat one skewer at a time: dip it straight down into the batter, twist and rotate to coat the hot dog and cheese completely, then lift straight up, turning the skewer as you go so the batter clings evenly. Immediately lay it in the panko and roll, pressing lightly, until thickly and evenly crusted. Set on the parchment and repeat with 2 more skewers.
8. Lower 2 to 3 coated skewers into the oil, keeping them apart. Fry at 350°F for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 minutes, rolling them with tongs every 30 seconds so they color evenly, until deep golden brown all over and the shell sounds hollow when tapped. Transfer to a wire rack, not paper towels, so the crust stays crisp.
9. Repeat with the remaining skewers, letting the oil come back to 350°F between batches. Coat each batch only right before frying so the panko stays dry and shaggy.
10. While each corn dog is still hot, roll or sprinkle it generously with granulated sugar — the sugar needs the residual heat to stick and lightly melt into the crust.
11. Snip a small corner off a zip-top bag (or use squeeze bottles) and pipe fast zigzag stripes of ketchup across each corn dog, then cross them with stripes of yellow mustard. Serve immediately, while the mozzarella still pulls.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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