This is a... less conventional holiday tradition in my family, but for about as long as I can remember every year my sister, Brittany, and I have made dog biscuits for our friends and family. The funny part is we've never had a dog. Call it living vicariously through others/baking, if you will.
Now I know when you think "Holiday Baking", dog biscuits are not the first thing that come to mind. Lets be serious they are probably the LAST thing on your mind, considering all the delicious holiday cookies and cakes to be made! But give it some thought. Imagine, kindhearted readers, that you are a dog. At Christmas-time. All around you are the smells and sights of tasty Christmas-y things! Cookies, and turkeys, and cakes, and pies! It would be torture! Don't you think the lil pups deserve a special treat too? Enter Homemade Dog Biscuits!!
This is yet another recipe hailing from a kids craft-type book (see: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread). In this case the book is "Gifts Kids Can Make", by Sheila McGraw. It's awesome and also TOTALLY 90s....
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| Nothing says 90s like a bedazzled denim purse |
That was fun! Anyway, you can tell we always use this book for the dog biscuit recipe because it opens right to that page every time (I can't help but think it's some Harry Potter stylz magic - nerd, I know). So here it is:
THE RECIPE:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 package (1/4 cup) orange powdered cheese - a.k.a. buy yourself some KD (or some generic version) and steal the cheese from that!
2 tbsp chopped parsley (the book claims its good for your dog - I just like that it adds little green freckles to the biscuits)
1/4 cup of water
1 egg
Milk
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together the flour, cheese powder, and parsley.
2. Beat egg and mix it into the water. Then add the water/egg mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients.
3. With a mixing spoon (I find a spatula works the best), begin to blend everything together. It's going to be tricky and you will eventually have to get your hands in there and do a bit of kneading to get everything completely blended and formed into a ball. Keep in mind the mixture should be stiff and elastic-y, if it feels too sticky add more flour.
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| I give you... The Dough! |
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| I have a problem, dear readers... it's called: "I like photos of raw eggs too much". (see: Chocolate Chip Cookies) |
4. Sprinkle flour onto a flat surface and roll out the dough until it's about half a centimeter thick (roll the dough like you MEAN it! It likes to bounce back into shape).
5. Get yourself a fun dog bone shaped cookie cutter and cut out the dough. In the book, they handcraft their cookies into little croissants, bagels, and egg bread (they even decorate them with poppyseeds!) but I honestly like the simple bone shape better and also you get way more cookies out of it!
6. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and position your biscuits on it. They won't spread so get em' nice and cozy on there (especially, if like me, you make a double batch).
7. Brush the biscuits with some milk before popping them in the oven - this helps them brown... not that it really matters, I don't think your dog with notice or care whether or not his biscuits are browned.
[Funny story, I 100% forgot to do this while baking my own dog biscuits so improvised and did it randomly in the middle of them baking... then just now I forgot to type it into the recipe steps and had to come back and add it in].
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (rotate your cookie sheets if you use more than one), then turn the oven down to 200 degrees and continue to bake for about 60 minutes.
9. Remove biscuits and allow them to cool and harden! (Because who wants chewy dog biscuits?)
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| Fresh out of the oven! They actually smell good enough to eat! |
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| Mid-Baking Milk Glazing - oops Photo Cred: Dad |
This recipe makes about 20 small-ish dog biscuits, but it really depends on what size cookie cutter you are using. I always make a double-batch (what else is new right?)
Dear readers it's now that I come to the sad part of this blog post... for the past few years I have always gone to one store *cough*SolutionsatYongeandEglinton*cough* and bought those cute Chinese Take-Out boxes to put the bog biscuits in! They're cheap AND fun! But when I went to buy some today.... they had DISCONTINUED THEM! Needless to say I was a little more than peeved. Anyway, I bought a somewhat-decent-ok substitute.
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| Biscuits all wrapped up for the season! |
F.Y.I. if any of you are questioning why I would put a recipe for dog biscuits on a food blog (intended for human food...) then if you muuuust know you COULD technically eat these and they actually kind of smell delicious while they're baking (imagine if you made Kraft Dinner... then baked it in the oven! Yum!)
And one more thing, just for fun!! This is currently my favorite dog video, and I watch it daily as a sort of personal torture because I want a bulldog SO badly!! If this doesn't melt your heart I am convinced you have no soul.
I'd say happy eating but perhaps Happy Dog-Treating is more appropriate? I promise your dog will love you just a little bit more if you make these :)
Jo
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