Handmade Doggie Bones!

Looking for a special gift for someone with a furry crumb cruncher this Christmas? Handmade Christmas gifts are the best! (even if you didn’t hand make them!)

Can’t you just envision a cute doggie bone cookie mix in a flour sack with cute doggie bone cookie cutter attached with a red ribbon?  Have you seen them in stores?

Well let me tell you, I’ve tried some of those cutesy gourmet store bought doggie bone mixes and they just smell AWFUL!!  I don’t know what it was with one I tried, but the stench was not worth the cutesy gift! Now granted the mixes that I’ve used call for apple sauce and the recipe that I’m sharing from the Left Over Queen does not.  It’s hard to imagine that apple sauce would create a questionable smell experience.  Another thought is that the wheat flour could have gone bad. That’s the trouble with whole wheat goodness, it has a shorter shelf life than the “bleached till there’s little redeeming value plain white flour”.  My thought is that it might be a better idea to make the doggie bones with the freshest whole wheat flower…I mean uh..flour and present them as the gift.  That way the folks recieving the gift, don’t have to make them, they can just toss them to the furry crumb cruncher(s). If you head on over to The Left Over Queens’s blog, she has to lovely Thanksgiving recipes that could easily be used for Christmas too!

Happy Washing!

~Regina

Handmade Doggie Bones

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup non-fat dry milk powder (we actually had this in our hurricane stash!)
1/2 tsp salt
6 TBS butter
1 egg
1 cup water
3 tsp wheat bran
3 TBS Peanut Butter

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Put butter and egg in food processor and process until smooth. In a bowl mix the flour, milk powder, salt and wheat bran together. Add flour mixture, PB and water alternately to butter and egg mixture and pulse processor until the dough has come together into a nice ball (you may not need to use all the water).

Roll the dough out onto a floured surface and roll to about 1/2 inch thickness. If you have a cookie cutter, cut the shapes out. If not, you can use the Roberto method. Cut small (about 2 inch long) rectangles in the dough with a knife.

Fold piece in half lengthwise. Squish the middle of each end towards the center to make the 2 rounded knobs at each end. Flip over to smooth side and place on a cookie sheet (don’t worry about spacing, they aren’t going to grow).

Bake for about 15 minutes, flip and then bake another 3-4 minutes. Place on cookie racks to cool and keep out overnight to harden.

Makes about 60-70 cookies.