I know what you’re thinking…what the heck are you going to bake with carrots, parsley, and ground BEEF?? It’s simple, really. You see, my best friend’s dog celebrated his 9th birthday today, so Aunt Steffy here decided to celebrate his last single-digit birthday with some homemade dog biscuits.

They’re SUPER easy to make. I was dreading seeing how the dough would roll out and cut, but geez, I wish that all of my cut-out cookies would roll out and keep their shape like that! And they’re quick, too. I had planned on being stuck in the kitchen half the day making these but we ended up with time to spare.

I looked everywhere for cookie cutters and finally had to order them from Amazon. The set came with 7 cutters – three different sized bones, two different sized fire hydrants, a paw, and a dog house.

Now, I can’t attest to the taste of these dog biscuits myself. They are safe to eat of course; there’s nothing in them that I haven’t eaten myself before. It’s just that by the time I realized that, hey, maybe I should taste these!, it was already after Fred had licked all over  the whole ball of dough. (Hey, he was standing down there looking at me with those puppy-dog eyes and begging for a sneak peek! What was I supposed to do??)

But I can attest to the fact that dogs go absolutely nuts for them. We took them to my parents house for Mother’s Day (sorry mom, no cake). We set up a test panel of 6 dogs and they received an average rating of a 9.8 out of 10. Seriously, one of my parent’s dogs bit one of his puppies when she accidentally came in between her dad and the treat. That being said – proceed with caution!

DOG BISCUITS

Adapted from Joan on Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1 cube beef bouillon, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooked ground beef
1 cup grated carrot
6 tablespoons shortening
1 egg
1/2 cup cold water

DIRECTIONS:
Stir the flour, milk powder, crumbled beef cube, and salt together. Add ground beef, shredded carrot, shortening and egg. Mix the meat mixture into the flour mixture while gradually adding water to form a stiff ball of dough.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4″ thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Note: the cookies can be placed pretty close together to maximize space – if anything, they shrink during baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the bottoms are browned.