Dog Cookies

 

Here's a recipe for Christmas cookies for dogs. I got it from a newspaper article last year. You can make them year-round, but it's so cute to make them at Christmas time with Christmas cookie cutters. You don't need an electric mixer for these--just a spoon and your hands--so they're easy to do. (You do need a rolling pin and cookie cutters, though, or at least some makeshift substitute.)

I usually use small cookie cutters to yield more cookies. This year Mom asked for some bigger ones, because one of her friends has a really large dog. I reached for the mid-sized Christmas tree, but Mom said, "Don't you want them to eat people?" So I made medium-sized gingerbread men instead.

I was going to mention that our dog doesn't like these cookies, but this year she proved us wrong:

 
 
 

She doesn't really like food, though. She's a terrier mix, and my theory is that she prefers live game, when she can get it. But as for these cookies--all the other dogs in the neighborhood like them, and our dog really does try hard to like them. One of our neighbors actually requested these this year, so it seems they're popular.

These cookies are made with whole wheat flour. DO NOT use any bleached white flour, because dogs' stomachs can't tolerate it. (Most white flour is bleached, unless you buy specially unbleached flour.) If you use bleached white flour, it will probably be on your pastry cloth, so clean it off first, or roll the dough out on something else.

These cookies are healthy for dogs. They have pumpkin, which dogs like (it calms their stomachs), and lots of fiber, and they don't have any sugar or much fat. People can eat these cookies too, if they want to.


Dog Cookies

1 cup canned pumpkin (not pie filling!)
1 cup water
3-4 tablespoons canola or safflower oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups oats
1 dash nutmeg
3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (the recipe says cake flour, though I'm not sure why. It also says to substitute another flour if the dog is allergic to wheat.)

Combine pumpkin, water, oil, cinnamon, oats and nutmeg in a big bowl. Add enough flour so that you can't stir the dough any more. Turn out the dough onto a pastry cloth heavily floured with whole wheat flour, and knead the dough (adding the rest of the flour as you go) until the dough is able to be rolled. (If it sticks to a floured rolling pin and a floured pastry cloth, you can't roll it out. Keep adding flour and kneading until it's less sticky.)

Roll dough out to 1/4" thick. Cut out with cookie cutters and put on an ungreased cookie sheet. (If you use parchment paper, you won't have to grease the cookie sheet or wash it sheet afterwards.) They don't really expand, so they can be almost touching each other.

Bake 40 minutes at 375 degrees. You can leave them at room temperature for a few days (in a plastic bag or other container.) For longer than that, put them in the fridge for a few days or, beyond that, in the freezer.