Dog Biscuits

October 7, 2013 Olga Elder

The more I know about farming and the food we consume the more engaged I become in sourcing our ingredients. I'm a stickler about our food and those choices are the same for all the animals on our farm. I honestly don't know how it could be otherwise.

My, shall we say, enlightened perspective regarding our food has led to many of our food staples falling under the category, made from scratch.

Any of you that have experienced the shift from....
store bought:homemade in any of your food choices knows...
it is always for the better.... in so many ways.

Today, our transition from store bought is all about our four legged kids treat...

We have a ritual, as soon as our pups hear the spoon hit the side of the coffee mug, there they are. It's pretty cute, you can change everything about the moment, the setting, the cookies, the time, it wouldn't matter...the sound does it. They know, it's morning treat time!

I'm sure those of you with pets can appreciate the journey through expensive food options. I love our kids and cost just couldn't be a factor, even on our farm income. I learned to do with out pedicures some time ago. I'll find something else to do away with before I feed our kids unidentifiable food!

Meet our Pups!

Isabelle

Earthquake (aka Quake)

Could you resist?

Not quite as photogenic but all personality.

After much searching I finally came up with this recipe, adapted from one I found on mydogsbreakfast.com. A really fun blog all about pet treats. As always, I make a recipe exactly as I find it the first time. Then an occasional tweak here and there for my taste...or should I say, Izz and Quake's taste? So, here it is. Hope your furry friends like them too.

Ingredients:
1 Cup water
1 egg (farm fresh of course)
5 Cups Buckwheat Flour
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/3 Cup Honey (sourced locally)
1/3 Cup Molasses (sourced as locally as possible)
2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons Ground Ginger
Rendered Bacon Fat

Place the dry ingredients — buckwheat flour,flour, ginger and cinnamon — into a mixing bowl first and mix together. Then add the wet ingredients, water, honey, molasses and egg. I used the stand mixer but you could mix by hand. Mix it until it forms a dough ball. It does roll out easily but be sure to flour your surface well. I also had some rendered bacon fat on hand so I brushed each cookie. I cannot say whether it affected the cookie in flavor or texture but it sure sounded like a good idea. I'll continue to use the bacon fat. Our dry kibble foods, regardless how good the quality are just that; dry. In the processing they loose the natural fats.
I like mine a bit thicker, 1/4″ and 1/2″ thick. I used a bone shaped cookie cutter for maximum affect.

Bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Viola, a treat you can feel mighty proud of.You cannot imagine how good they smelled coming out of the oven. So much so I had to taste. At first I thought, a dog treat, really? Why not, look at the ingredients. Mighty tasty morsels they are, serious.

The original recipe used all buckwheat flour because the author was after grain free. I don't believe grains are meant for our canines but ours dogs don't have allergies and the all purpose flour gave the dough just a bit more gluten to work with. I think you could change that 6 cups to whatever combo you like. I also think the sky is the limited for flavors and such. Have fun with it!

I'm even thinking I'll stack a few together, tie them with some pretty ribbon and give them as holiday gifts.