Christmas is all about the food isn’t it? Mince pies, cranberry, turkey and on and on. But doesn’t it all taste that much better when home cooked?
More often that not, our doggy furiends are nestled at our feet while we buzz around the kitchen and so it’s the perfect time of year to spend a little time creating some festive treats just for them! You can make a batch ahead of the festivities or wrap them up in some festive twine/paper as the pawfect gift.
Preparation Time: 10 minutes; Cooks In: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
340 grams of wholemeal flour
30 grams of oats
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 egg
1 apple
125g cranberries
½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
150ml of water
You’ll also need:
A mixing bowl
Baking Trays
Greaseproof paper; and
Decorative cookie cutters optional (It’s Christmas so feel free to get festive!!)
Find two baking trays and then preheat your oven to 180C.
Line your trays using greaseproof paper, or alternatively you could greatse your tray as you would with any standard baking recipe or use a low-fat cooking spray like Fry light.
You’ll need to finely grate your apple being careful to remove the pips. Then chop your cranberries too.
Top Tip – Remember that if you’re using cookie cutters, large pieces of cranberry may make cutting a little more difficult. I sliced the cranberries while making this recipe but you could use a food processor to chop more finely.
Yep, throw them all the ingredients bar the water into the bowl and then mix together.
It really is that easy.
While you could use a food processor to do this, a few minutes and a wooden spoon will do just as good a job and with less washing up ;0).
Overall you want it to be dry and stiff to cut out the shapes so do add any water or extra flour in small quantities until you are happy with the dough.
Grab some flour and cover the surface you plan to roll on with a light dusting. Do the same with your rolling pin too. This will help stop the dough from sticking to the surface.
You can roll out your dough in small sections but overall you want the dough to end up around 3 cm thick.
I was kindly gifted this fab christmas tree cookie cutter by mum which is slightly easier on the fingers when cutting out a LOT of doggy treats, due to it’s fab handle, but have a rake around in that baking drawer and use whatever you have to hand.
I promise those furiends eating the treats won’t mind which shape you choose!
I also decided to trial some new Harry Potter cookie stamps that I purchased when we had our Dogwarts window display and made a small number of small round cookies too.
Using these slightly larger size of cutters, the recipe will produce approx 25-30 treats.
Let them bake for around 12-15 minutes and enjoy the smell of cinnamon as they cook.
When fully baked the biscuits should be hard when you press them and there shouldn’t be any give. Think crunchy instead of soft and brown edges are a great sign that they are fully cooked too!
If needed, you can pop them back in for 2 minutes at a time until you are happy.
While these never last long in our house, personally, if storing at room temperature, I’d use these over 3/4 days. Otherwise, pop into the refrigerator to for up to a week or you could freeze them too!
If you are gifting these treats, let them cool and then you could use twine or ribbon to wrap into bundles. Just remember to pop them into an airtight container if you plan to store them pre gifting.
There’s something quite satisfying about making homemade treats for your dog, so if you do catch the baking bug then you’ll also find 8 more recipes over on the Millie’s Pet Services blog here.
Don’t forget to join other dog owners over in the Dog Friendly Angus Facebook Group to share ideas and reviews for dog friendly activities, events and more!
Author Info: Vicky is the owner of Millie’s Pet Services a dog boutique and dog groomers based on the High Street in Carnoustie. Winner of the 2018 Angus Business Awards Best Carnoustie Business, Millie’s Pet Services opened in September 2017 offering advice and tips on all things ‘dog related’ from dog food and treats to collars, dog jackets and harnesses. You can find Vicky, and Millie, hanging out over on Facebook and Instagram.