Sunday 25 January 2015

A Sunny Sunday and Dog Biscuits

Even though it's cold out, at least it's sunny which is wonderful. Sunday is usually my catch up day; you know, laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. If I had a sunroom off the back of the house instead of a rickety old deck that needs replacing, I might instead be sitting in a sunbeam reading some sci fi/fantasy novel and drinking tea (or in the evening, watching the stars and drinking a hot toddy).

The laundry and running around is done and I noticed earlier this week that my supply of dog biscuits is very low. We have a big dog (as my husband would say, he isn't a Great Dane, he is an Awesome Dane) and he does like his biscuits as a reward for being a good boy (like when I put him in his kennel before I go to work). I don't mind buying dog food, but have you noticed how expensive dog treats are? I mean, a smallish bag will run you around $10 or more! When I look at the ingredients (and for my animals, I like to stick to as all natural as possible and limit by-products and ingredients that are multisyllabic and unpronounceable), I honestly don't see why I couldn't make something myself that would be fresher and cheaper, plus I would have total control of the ingredients.

I looked at various dog biscuit recipes online and a lot of them still added salt, sugar, etc. Why would a dog need this? I decided to figure out my own recipe that would work; plus, I went to the baking supply store near my work (Ayre's Baking Supplies) and they had these cute little bone cookie cutters in different sizes.




Here's the recipe I came up with:

DOG BISCUITS

 

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour*
1 3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup ground flax
1 Tbsp. baking powder
3/4 cup natural peanut butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups chicken stock (start with 1 cup)
4 tsp. dried parsley
4 tsp. dried mint
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and either grease some cookie sheets or line with parchment paper (I freaking love parchment paper for this kind of stuff). 

Pulse flour, oats and flax in a food processor until combined. Put the ground dry ingredients in a bowl with the baking powder, parsley and mint. Add peanut butter and mix until mixture resembles coarse pea sized lumps. Add 1 cup broth and egg and mix until a coarse, dense dough forms. If you need to add more liquid, do so.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead into 2 balls. Roll out 1 ball to about 1/3" thick with a rolling pin. Cut out as many biscuits as possible and arrange about 1/4" apart on your cookie sheet. Gather scraps and reroll, cut out more biscuits. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the tops are browned. Let cool. 

Depending on the size of your cookie cutter, you should get between 120 to 140 biscuits.

* If your dog has a wheat allergy, you can replace with brown rice flour or whatever works.

My husband wandered into the kitchen to see what I was doing. "Dog biscuits huh? Are they your typical healthy type baking?" I answered in the affirmative. "He won't like them," was his verdict. "He's not you," I replied with a smile. So, the litmus test:




Results? Paws down pretty yummy! My hubby pretended to eat one and the dog actually growled at him.

You can change up the recipe by adding cheese instead of peanut butter or whatever strikes your fancy. Dog loves them, they're healthy, they're fairly inexpensive to make and the added flax makes his coat super shiny.

Maybe one day my pup and I will be lying in a sunroom together sharing a sunbeam; him eating biscuits, me reading.











 

2 comments:

  1. That was awesome.
    You guys are just awesome.
    My weekend was 6+ hours of report cards on Saturday, and then a nice lazy Sunday - went to do some grocery shopping shopping, tidied up the pantry, did some laundry ... that sort of thing.
    This got me thinking of something ... you need to check out some of the tiny house blogs on my blog-page. I would love one as a cottage next to a lake ... this has been floating in my brain for weeks.
    I'm really getting to like this blog thing ...

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    Replies
    1. Hey Sammy! I totally love the tiny house idea, I bought him the book of plans to make them last year. I think one on wheels would be great for camping (especially for things like Pennsic or whatever, you could make it all Tudor cottagey looking).

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