Tutorial Tuesday with DawnMTeasdale -- Homemade Dog Biscuits

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesday! This week, we learn how to make homemade dog biscuits with WESTie DawnMTeasdale with a quick, easy, step-by-step guide packed with helpful illustrations.

This is Ella.

She’s a sweet little girl who has a lot of personality, and is always ready for a treat….

I’d like to share with you a recipe for one of Ella’s favorite homemade biscuits. They are tasty, super easy to make, and the recipe allows for variations, but one of the best things about it is that they can be whipped up in one hour – from start to finish. Once you’re done, you will have 400-500 grams of finished biscuits, about the same size as box of commercially prepared treats, and of course there is the added benefit of knowing that they contain nothing but wholesome ingredients because they're homemade.

Start by preheating your oven to 350°F and then assemble your ingredients -there are only four!

Ingredients

• 2 - 4oz jars of baby food (this time I used strained sweet potato and turkey, but you could use any variety of strained baby food)
• 2 – large eggs
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 400g (approx. 3 cups) rice flour – brown or white

I normally use brown rice flour so that Ella can share them with her gluten free friends, but you could also use whole wheat flour.

Beat the baby food, eggs and salt together in a large bowl until blended. Then, stir in flour until the dough comes together - you want a soft, slightly sticky dough (you might need a bit more/less flour).

  

Roll dough into balls (about 1 inch in diameter) and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Flatten each of the balls with back of a spoon; I then poke the flattened balls with a fork, otherwise the biscuits tend to puff up during baking and take up quite a bit more space to store once baked.

Because Ella is small, I cut each of the flattened dough balls into fours using a pizza cutter to make a finished biscuit that can easily be broken into two or four pieces - that way I can break off just the right size for her. If you want a larger finished treat you can skip this step.

The dough is easily rolled out as well, so if you want to get fancy, you can cut it out into fun shapes, or bars using the pizza cutter – just don’t forget to poke them with the fork.

Bake for 30-45 mins at 350°F (it depends on how hard and crunchy you want the cookies to be – Ella likes hers crunchy!) The bottoms should be slightly browned when they are ready.

Remove and cool thoroughly on wire racks before storing. I store these crunchy treats in a brown paper bag.

• Storage note: If you make a softer treat, you will want to store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Ella’s got a suggestion for variety she’d like to try:

CHEESE PLEASE – she suggests ¼ cup of finely grated cheddar (incorporate it into the flour before adding to the wet mix).

These also make great gifts - your doggy friends will love you for it!