Dog Days of Summer

As you all know by now, I have a little beagle named Otto, who I’m head over heels in love with.  I, of course, have no question that he is the cutest little guy on the planet, and like to take every chance I get to spoil him. 

That being said, he’s a bit of a problem child.  He has chronic allergies which means I have to be pretty careful about what he eats.  Being free of common allergens (wheat, corn, eggs, dairy, soy, etc.), these homemade dog biscuits are the perfect treat, not only for Otto, but for any dog. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1 Tablespoon molasses  
• 1 cup shredded apple
• 1 banana
• 1 cup Brown rice flour
• ½ cup oat flour
• 1 cup Rolled oats

This is really easy to put together, so go ahead and turn your oven to 350° before you begin.  Measure ¼ cup coconut oil, while it’s solid, and set it aside.  If you don’t have coconut oil and really don’t want to go buy some, you could probably substitute apple sauce, or maybe peanut butter.  I will be showing you another fabulous use for coconut oil in the near future, though, so just go buy some.   

Try not to flip it across the countertop and onto the floor like I did.

Peel and grate an apple.

Back to the coconut oil, place the bowl into the microwave for 15 – 30 seconds, until it’s mostly melted. 

Add the molasses.

Stir in the grated apple.   

Peel your banana (slicing is optional) and smash it with a fork. 

Add the banana moosh to the bowl, and stir. 

Add the oats.

Stir until they’re well incorporated. 

Add both flours, don’t worry about sifting or whisking, just dump them on top. 

Then stir them in.  The mixture will look somewhat crumbly. 

If you squeeze it in your hand, though, it should feel like a slightly stiff dough and should hold its shape nicely. 

If that doesn’t happen, add warm water, 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency.  I didn’t have to add any water to mine.  Press all the crumbles into a log/mound in the bowl. 

Move that to your rolling surface.  I rolled the dough on a sheet of parchment so it wouldn’t stick, but you could do it on a floured surface if you prefer.  Either way, press it into a disc shape. 

Then roll it until it’s about ½ inch thick.

I came across this cute dog bone shaped cookie cutter in a kitchen store awhile back, and picked it up figuring I’d get around to making these eventually.  It’s very little, so that I don’t have to worry too much about calories, but you can make any size and shape you want.  If you have a big dog, make big biscuits.  I made some of mine with a small round cutter, as well, just to mix it up. 

Push firmly, straight down with your cutter.  The cutout will probably stay inside the cutter, making it easy to move it to the baking pan and just gently pop it out. 

These aren’t really going to spread, so don’t worry about leaving a lot of room between them. 

Man, I am good.  Somehow I managed to get exactly the number of cuts out of the dough as it took to fill my pan. 

That’s not garbage, though. 

Scoop it together and press it into a square shape. 

Then roll it to ½ inch again.  The secret to rolling a square is to roll diagonally.  Roll toward each corner, going in a circle until to reach the thickness you want, pressing the edges together if they start to crack.

Then, using a pizza wheel cut it into rectangles.  Wow, I must have been cooking while intoxicated again.  Oh well, Otto doesn’t care one whit what shape they are.  If you want, you can actually cut them all this way, rather than using a cookie cutter.    

Place the pan of cut biscuits into the 350° oven and bake for 35 – 40 minutes.  They should be starting to brown on top.  You’ll also notice that your whole house smells amazing, and no one would ever guess you were baking dog biscuits.  You’re going to wish they were cookies for you by the time they’re done.   

Turn the oven off and prop the door open with something.  Allow the biscuits to cool in the oven for an hour or longer. 

When they’ve cooled completely, place them into an airtight container.  I like to use glass jars for stuff like this. 

Aren’t they just the cutest little things?  On top of that, you know exactly what you’re feeding to your little four legged friend.  They deserve the best, don’t they? 

And what does Otto think of them?  He absolutely loves them!  So much, in fact, that of all the pictures I tried to get of him eating them, this was about the only one that wasn’t a total blur of movement, chomping, licking, and tail wagging. 

What kind of dog do you have and what is his favorite treat? 

*Outtakes  

 

   

nuts to that

Is it chocolate or is it a nut?

I had a request for cookies with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts in them. I've heard of this combo before but I'm not really fond of chunky bits of nuts in my cookies so I've never bothered with them. But they asked, and so I make.

I figured though, if I'm going to fill a cookie with these pale bits of stuff, it needs to be something other than a typical drop cookie. So I decided to make a super chocolately brownie style cookie.

Reverse Chocolate Macadamia Nut Chip Cookies

What you need:

• 8 ounces unsweetend chocolate
• ¼ c butter
• 1 ½  cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups. DON'T do that; it's too much)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 c chopped macamadamia nuts

What you gotta do:

Okay, first off, I used too much flour. I made mine with a full 2 cups and they didn't spread at all as they baked, and they were a little crumblier than I'd hoped for. So, I'm thinking that if you reduce it to 1 1/2 cups, they should have a better shape and texture.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in the microwave. Start with a minute and a half at 50% power, stir, and then a minute at 50% power, stir. You don't want the chocolate to melt entirely in the microwave. Don't worry, the residual heat will get rid of the rest of the chunks.

In a big bowl, mix the eggs and sugar together.

Add the vanilla and the melted chocolate to the big bowl. Stir until it's lovely and dark and glossy.

I had thought I'd be able to bash the macamadamia nuts in the bag they came in with the bottom of the baking powder jar to break them up. Didn't work.

So, chopping them with a knife. They're a much softer nut than say an almond or a pecan, and they seem to shave better than they chop. mmm shaved nuts.

If you feel like sifting the flour, baking powder, and salt before you add it to the big bowl, go right ahead. I didn't. I just piled it all on top (srsly, don't use this much flour) and gave it a bit of a premix before I mixed it all in.

Yay, flour. I was having a seriously spilly kinda of day.

Yup, definitely too much flour.

It all mixed in though... there are times when chocolate really just isn't very photogenic.

Add the nuts and the white chocolate chips to the dough.

Now, if you only used 1 1/2 cups of flour, chilling the dough before you scoop it onto the baking sheet will probably work well to give you a nice soft cookie. Mine though retained their shape a little too well after chilling. So, I left the dough on the counter after the second round.

It didn't help much. There are some things that just can't be fixed, and too much flour in your cookie dough is one of them.

Good enough. They're chocolate, there's lots of them, and though the texture is a little less than ideal, they don't taste half bad. You could do this with bittersweet chocolate, but then they'd be too sweet to eat more than 3 or 4 at a time.

Bake them at 325 for 10 minutes and let them cool on a rack before you pack them up to take to work. Or pile them onto a plate to eat in bed.