Re: Spoiling my dog

For those who don't know, we share our house with a Bassett Hound named Belle. As many dog owners have found out to their dismay and in some instances too late, as in Chinese made dog treats with propylene glycol [anti-freeze] in  them, it is difficult to find healthy safe and nutritious treats which don't cost a fortune and have zero preservatives. The preservatives in commercial products are necessary because of shelf life requirements. The photo below is of today's batch of homemade biscuits. I would estimate that this batch of 32 cost about $3.00. This is roughly 1.75 pounds, so the cost is a very reasonable  12 1/2 cents per ounce - cheaper than most "store bought" biscuits and of higher quality. I have posted the recipe elsewhere, but have made some recent changes to the technique, so here it is again.

Modification to the Dog biscuit recipe - easier, better, far less mess!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Using a food processor ( I use a normal size Kitchen Aid):

Install the Nylon pastry blade.  I think the standard metal blade would do this as well, but one could cut oneself.

Into the processor bowl add:

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats (oatmeal)
1 cup peanut butter
 one 15 or 16 oz can of yams (sweet potatoes) in syrup, pouring off and reserving  the juice before adding.

(My local supermarket frequently has both the peanut butter and yams on "buy one get one free" specials and we stock up.
You can pulse or whatever you desire, but I just turn it on. While running,  pour in the reserved yam syrup. Don't worry if it looks like it isn't incorporating the peanut butter at first, because it takes a while. It will eventually form a nice somewhat soft and sticky dough with all the ingredients incorporated far better than the hand mixed method I used to use. 

This last batch, I stopped the processor once and pushed the mix down and then gave it a final 15 seconds or so.

Put down some bench flour and  flour your rolling pin and "dump" the dough onto whatever surface you will use. I would NOT do this on a porous (like, say, granite) countertop. We have Corian which works great and cleans up easily, Conversely, a plastic rolling sheet is cool, too.

Spray a large cookie sheet with Pam or a similar non-stick cooking spray.

Roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and use a cutter (mine as you can see, is shaped like a dog bone) to cut out the biscuits, placing them on the  cookie sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes. They may be a bit soft to the touch , but will firm up as they cool. I turn the oven off and let them cool in the oven. 

As they are minus preservatives, I let them cool down to ambient and place them in a Ziploc bag which I keep refrigerated. This recipe makes about 30 biscuits which at about two per day lasts about two weeks, and they will remain fresh in the fridge for that long.

These are essentially peanut butter cookies for dogs minus all the sugar. They smell so good while baking that you may be tempted to try one.  They're actually good, but need sugar to meet human's taste . Belle the Bassett will almost speak in tongues for one of these.