My daughter Zoe is in the Girls Scouts and recently has been working to help the local Pasadena Humane Society. One of the things they did, besides making cloth beds for cats, was to make dog biscuits.

Michele told me it was easy and that Piper, our dog, liked them. Alas, they were all given away, so I didn't have a chance to see them. I had some free time on Sunday and decided to give it a try.

The recipe is from the Pasadena Humane Society:

2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup powdered milk
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ cup ice water
6 tblsp margarine, shortening or meat drippings
1 egg beaten
1 tsp. brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, milk, salt and sugar. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles cornmeal. Mix in egg. Add enough water so that the mixture forms a ball. Pat out with your fingers the dough ½ inch thickness on a lightly oiled cookie sheets. Cut with biscuit or cookie cutter into shapes. Save the scraps and pat them out with the next batch. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Store in zip lock bag in the freezer.

We had also made some baked beans from scratch this weekend, so I had some bacon grease saved from that to use instead of margarine. Everybody loves bacon, even Piper.

I mixed up the ingredients and was a bit concerned over the use of garlic, but when I put the garlic in front of Piper, she seemed to like it.

I mixed things up and got the dough to a good consistency when I reached my first dilemma. I didn't really want to roll out the dough and start using cookie cutters on it. I've done the cookie cutter thing before for gingerbread cookies and didn't feel that a dog would exactly care.

So I reached deep into my youth and remembered the way my Grandmother used to make sausages. She'd mix up the meat, place a small amount into her hand, squeeze, and then toss the resulting shape into the frying pan. I thought that Piper likes sausage, so away I went, making Sicilian sausage shaped dog biscuits.

Onto the parchment paper went the dog sausage biscuits and into the over for about a half hour.

Sure enough out popped the biscuits, and damn if they didn't smell good.

For the real test I handed one to Piper. At first she was a bit hesitant as you can see, but soon was munching away happily.

The recipe wasn't hard at all, so if you have a dog, you might enjoy making your own treats.

Posted by michael at April 23, 2007 08:08 AM