Homemade Dog Treats!

In the flurry of baking that went on just before Christmas, I finally got around to something I've been meaning to do for quite a while: homemade doggie biscuits.  As we progress in our quest to be more self-sufficient and eat as local as possible, we're working on including our animals as well.  I also like the idea of our doggies not having preservatives, colourings and other unpronounceable ingredients in commercial biscuits.  I chose to try this recipe for cheddar cheese dog biscuits, because our dogs love cheese!

The recipe calls for whole wheat flour, rolled oats, corn meal, eggs, milk, butter, water and chicken bouillon cubs, plus the cheddar.  I used a combination of local whole wheat, rye and spelt flours because I wanted to use up some of the grains in the pantry.  I also substituted my local oat flakes for the rolled oats.  The eggs, of course, came from our chicken coop.  Butter, milk and cheddar came from the store - but we're hoping to remedy that by spring when our goats, hopefully, have babies and start producing milk!  The corn meal and bouillon cubs were store brought, but I'm thinking I could replace the water with my homemade stock to get that 'meaty' flavor.  The recipe comes together quite quickly and is oven baked.

The result - a hit with my dogs!  The cookies are chewy, not crunchy like the commercial biscuit we've been using.  We gifted some little bags of the biscuits to friends with dogs, so I'll be interested to see what the reports will be!  Because there are no preservatives, the biscuits must be refrigerated and last up to a week.  We kept enough for about five days in the fridge and froze the rest.  We made a small size, an inch square, because we (mostly) have small dogs.  Because of the fiber, we've been cautious about feeding them - too much fiber can be a bad thing!

In an interesting coincidence, opening our presents Christmas Day, my sister Cathy had sent a great little kit for making doggie treats: a paw-printed container, a recipe book with eighty recipes and some cute cookie cutters shaped like a bone or a cat!  Stay tuned as we try some of these new recipes!