In looking up recipes, I noticed a lot of them included garlic powder/salt, onion powder, and/or raisins--all of which I thought were toxic to dogs. I finally managed to find a recipe that did not include any of these and still seemed wholesome and tasty. It's a peanut butter biscuit recipe and I thought it would be a nice touch to dip them in carob chips. If you're not familiar with carob, it is similar to chocolate with the same texture and color, though it has a (in my opinion) very different flavor. It is like a dark chocolate, but more bitter and not sweet at all. I am not a huge fan, but then again, I'm not really a huge fan of chocolate either (gasp!). I bought my carob chips from the bulk section at Whole Foods.
It's really important to get quality ingredients for your dog treats. We keep Kuma on a grain free food. Sometimes I think he eats better than we do. He rotates between chicken, duck/turkey, rabbit, and salmon flavors. I made sure to use whole wheat flour and plain peanut butter--no Jiffy or Skippy, look for just peanuts in the ingredients list and make sure there isn't added sugars or extra unreadable things. I wanted to get the fresh made peanut butter from Whole Foods (they have it at Sunflower as well), but the machine wasn't working so I bought the Whole Foods brand crunchy peanut butter instead.
These dog treats are really simple to make and create a nice golden brown treat. Kuma taste tested them and has been gobbling them up all night (A-Let me know if your doggies like them too!). I used a small dog bone shaped cutter and got at least 50 biscuits out of this recipe. You can use any shape you like, I think little hearts or animal shapes would be cute too.
I hope your four-legged furry friend enjoys these as much as the birthday boy did!
Kuma's Peanut Butter Kookies
adapted from bullwrinkle.com
- 1/2 c. water
- 1/2 c. vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 3 Tbsp peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 c. whole wheat flour
- 1/2 c. cornmeal
- 1/2 c. rolled oats
- 1/2 c. carob chips (more or less depending on how many cookies you want to have carob dipped)
In a large bowl, blend together water, oil, eggs, peanut butter, and honey with an electric mixer. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, and oats. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and blend until well mixed.
Remove dough from bowl and roll out to 1/4-1/2 inch thick on a well-floured surface. I like to separate the dough into quarters and roll out each quarter one at a time so you don't have a huge piece of dough to work with.
Cut out shapes in dough and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cookies are a golden brown.
Turn off the oven. Once all biscuits are cooked, place all of the biscuits on one cookie tray and place back in the turned off oven. Let the cookies sit in there until the oven cools down. This process will help to crisp up the cookies.
For the carob dipping, place chips in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 30 seconds on 50% power in the microwave. (It is ESSENTIAL that you do not microwave on full power because this will ruin your carob chips and make them unusable. Same goes for using the stove, do not melt carob chips on the stove. The heat is too intense and will ruin your carob chips.) Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir until most pieces are broken down. Microwave again for 30 seconds at 50% power. Continue microwaving and stirring until the carob chips are the desired consistency
Dip or drizzle carob chips over the biscuits. Sprinkle immediately after you have added the carob, before it gets cold and hardens up.
Tika and Fitz loved them. They will probably be banging down your door any day now.
ReplyDeleteWe should get them all together soon. Dinner making party at my place?
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