A Peanut Butter Dog Cookie

Atticus always joins me in the kitchen while I bake, so I thought that I'd bake something especially for him this time. I read through a few dog biscuit recipes to get a rough idea of proportions. I decided to keep it basic for the first batch and go with peanut butter as the main flavor because I know Atticus loves it.

This recipe made a lot of biscuits, but with my chowhound I'm sure they won't last very long.


Atticus's Peanut Butter Cookies

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup organic cornmeal

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup peanut butter

1 Tsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup water

1 cup and 2 Tsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, oats, corn meal, and baking powder in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until evenly combined.

Add the eggs, peanut butter, and oil and beat until incorporated.

Add 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of water. Beat until the dough comes together. Add the tablespoons of milk one at a time as needed to bring the dough together.

Separate into manageable-sized disks according to the size of your rolling surface. Roll out one disk at a time into an even thickness. Mine came out to be a little more than 1/4 inch thick, but you can add thickness and baking time if you want a biscuit that more closely resembles the thickness of store bought ones.

Cut out cookies into desired shape and place on a lined or greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 16-18 minutes or until firm.

Since making these, I've read some articles about the use of cornmeal in dog food, and it seems to be a highly disputed subject. I used cornmeal because I thought it would add texture and weight to the cookies, and I saw it in other recipes. I will play around with the next batch I make and possibly make some changes like adding apples/apple sauce, omitting the cornmeal, and adjusting the proportions of the other ingredients accordingly.

Atticus highly approves of these cookies!

Let me know what your hounds think.


Happy baking, y'all!

A whole wheat, oat, and strawberry muffin

This recipe came out of a late night baking experiement. It has been quite a while since I have tried my hand at developing a new recipe, but I was wide awake, Atticus was being wild, and I had two cartons of strawberries on the verge of going bad in my fridge.

I used my other whole grain muffin recipes as a starting place and worked from there.

Whole Wheat, Oat, and Strawberry Muffins
Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup AP flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsps baking soda
1 Tsp cinnamon (I might cut this down to a tsp next time)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs (lightly beaten)
5 Tsps butter (melted and cooled)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1 Tsp vanilla
2 cups fresh strawberries (sliced)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers or spray with non-stick baking spray.

Combine the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl until consistently incorporated.

Add the slightly beaten eggs, cooled butter, oil, milk, and vanilla to the to the dry ingredients and mix.

Fold in the strawberries.

Fill the muffin tins and bake for 18 minutes or until the center of the muffin bounces back when lightly pressed.

I took these to the office, and everyone seemed to enjoy them. This was my first time to bake with strawberries. I was pleased with the result. If you try them, please pop back over and leave feedback.

Happy baking, y'all!

A Whole Wheat Morning Glory Muffin

I am on a mission to develop healthy-ish, but still tasty, breakfast muffin recipes. These pumpkin muffins were a start, but I still feel a little guilty eating something with chocolate chips more than once or twice a week. When Mom mentioned that she had baked Morning Glory muffins a few weeks ago and that they froze well, I started looking for recipes. Let me tell you that there a quite a few different types of muffins that fall under the Morning Glory title. After a few hours of reading recipes, I decided to just work with the basic muffin recipe from my pumpkin muffins and use ingredients that I already had at home.

Morning Glory muffins

I am thrilled with the way these turned out. The whole grains, carrots, and apples don't over power the muffin like I was afraid they would, but they do make for a hearty taste. Steve, who usually turns up his nose at anything that appears to be healthy, was skeptical of the grated carrots, but he ended up eating a few after dinner last night and gave them a thumbs up.



Whole Wheat Morning Glory Muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup AP flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups peeled and grated carrots
1 large peeled and grated apple
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup raisins
4 large eggs
2 ripe bananas
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla

Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Grate carrots and apple. Combine with raisins, cranberries, and walnuts. Add to the dry ingredients and  stir until incorporated.

In a medium sized bowl, mash bananas and whisk together with eggs, oil, molasses, and vanilla. Add to the mixture in the large bowl and stir until evenly incorporated.

Coat 18-24 muffin tins or use cupcake papers. Fill tins and bake in at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.