Pancake on a stick: the early-bird relative of the corn dog and classic grade-school breakfast food. It’s created by swapping the frank for a sausage link, the corn batter for pancake batter, and the ketchup for maple syrup.

There are a few key differences in pancake batter and pancake on a stick batter, though. A typical pancake is meant to be super tender, usually made with all-purpose flour. Switching to a higher protein flour, like bread flour, and whisking a bit longer than usual creates a subtenant batter that’s superior for frying. When you follow this recipe, you’ll notice the batter is a bit more viscous than your usual pancake batter.

You can use any breakfast sausage, but I’m partial toMeatEater’s most versatile venison breakfast sausage recipe, which is perfect for creating this fun dish.

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Special equipment

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1. Heat an oven to 425 degrees and the deep fryer to 350 degrees. For the deep fryer setup, I use a cast iron Dutch oven with a thermometer. This oil temp will yield a clean, golden color. Liquid fryer shortening, peanut oil, canola oil, or vegetable oil are all good options.
2. Place sausage links on a cookie sheet in oven. Set timer for 15 minutes, aiming for a slight golden-brown color on the collagen casings.
3. Mix the bread flour, salt, granulated sugar, and baking powder together. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, eggs, and melted butter.
4. When the dry and wet ingredients are fully incorporated, mix the two bowls together. Whisk for about 5 minutes, or until there are no lumps left. A good test to make sure your batter is thick enough is to dip a spoon in and see if ¼-inch of batter sticks to it. If it’s less than that, keep whisking. When the batter is ready, transfer it to a tall, narrow container. I use a quart jar.
5. After the sausage links come out of the oven, let them cool for 5 minutes. When the sausages are cool enough to handle, stick them with the kabob skewers the long way. Slide about half of the link over the skewer. Pat the links dry with paper towel to get rid of any surface oil.
6. Create a small assembly line at your fryer, going from links, to batter, to fryer, to cooling rack. To start, dip the sausage skewers into the batter and make sure the batter completely covers the meat. Quickly transfer the skewers from the batter to fryer as soon as they’re ready. Hold the skewer by the bare end and fully submerge the batter in oil for about 10 seconds before letting go. This prevents them from touching the fryer walls and deforming.
7. Fry each skewer for about 6 minutes with regular rotations. You can cook multiple skewers at once, but don’t overload the fryer. When finished, place the pancakes on a stick on a wire cooling rack for a few minutes. Serve with maple syrup for dipping.