Cornmeal Buns

We are in the planning stages of my daughter's upcoming COWGIRL birthday party. We have decided to do hot dogs and s'mores. Of course, we can't do anything the regular way. We are always trying to find a way to make the run-of-the-mill food taste awesome. (We have a reputation to uphold, after all.) So I thought instead of making hot dogs with buns AND cornbread, there should be a way to make cornmeal buns. One quick Google search took me right over to Martha Stewart, who never disappoints. So we made a trial batch over the weekend, and like I said, Martha never disappoints! These buns will be making their official debut at the cowgirl party in September.

A few notes:

• The buns came out a little dense, but I think that is from over-mixing. I tried to get the dough to be "smooth, soft, and (...) not stick to your fingers when squeezed, about 5 minutes," but it wound up being more like 10, and it was still sticky. Lesson learned: stick to 5 minutes, and let it be sticky.
  
• I used regular cornmeal this time, but I think next time I will make it with stone-ground. It will have more corn flavor since less of the kernel is taken out in this process. I think it might also help the bun to be less dense.
• Since the recipe is written for slider buns, it is supposed to yield 12. But shaping them oblong for hot dog buns instead, produced only 9 (3-oz each).

ENJOY!