Dog Treats

Also on the agenda last night was learning how to make some dog treats for Jocelyn, Lauren's dog. She's usually well-behaved and deserves an occasional treat for having to lay on the kitchen floor, watching us cook all the food you see on this blog and never getting to eat any of it (aside from what might fall off the counter). These treats smell awesome and you'll see from the ingredients that they are edible for humans too, but don't let your nose fool you:

Peanut Butter Puppy Poppers

  • 2 cups whole-wheat flour
  • 1 tbsp. baking powder
  • 1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp honey
Preheat oven to 375'F. In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder. In another bowl, mix peanut butter, milk and honey, then add to dry ingredients and mix well. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Bake for 20 minutes on a greased baking sheet until lightly brown. Cool on a rack, then store in an airtight container.

We didn't have a bone shaped cookie cutter and the dough was pretty fragile so we rolled it into little balls.

Regarding the taste of these dog treats, as it turns out fat (butter/shortening) and sugar are what make cookies awesome. Leaving them out gives you a chew-activated flour bomb, waiting to absorb every last drop of moisture in your mouth. Joss likes them though. Or at least I think she does. Its hard to tell if she eats it because its food and a human is giving it to her, or if she would steal them off the counter when nobody is looking. Case in point, she eats carrots, celery, apples and tomatoes, but only if you throw them to her.

Later, Lauren made a second batch of treats using a different recipe. They smell better and taste worse. And yes, they are every bit as hard as they look.

Apple Cinnamon Drops
  • 1 large apple
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/8 cup whole wheat flour
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 ° F (180 ° C).

Core, slice and mince the apple (use a food processor if you have one). In a large bowl, combine the minced apple bits, honey, water, cinnamon, and oatmeal. Gradually blend in the wheat flour, adding enough to form a stiff dough.

In a small bowl, add 1/8 cup wheat flour. Spoon the dough by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches (5cm) apart. Using the bottom of a glass dipped in the wheat flour (to prevent sticking), flatten each spoonful of dough into a circle. Adjust the size of the drops based on how big a treat you like to feed your dog.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and flip each cookie to brown evenly on both sides. Reduce oven temperature to 325 ° F (180 °C). Return to oven and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Let cool overnight.

And once again, Jocelyn loves them.

6:54 AM | Labels: , , |

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1 comments:

Rach said...

I have no idea if this applies to dog treats....but my best trick to make regular cookies softer is put them in an air tight container with a piece of bread....works like a charm every time. But I don't know if dogs would like a chewier treat.

March 23, 2009 at 7:19 PM  

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