There are a lot of things that don’t make sense about me baking my own dog biscuits. Like, I don’t even have time to bake homemade cookies for the human members of my family. And truth be told, on the canine side we make do with Milk-Bones 95 percent of the time.
But there are special occasions. Like the dog’s birthday. Of course, the dog doesn’t know it’s her birthday. Okay, sometimes there’s just this weird, hippie dog-mom feeling that overtakes me, and I am moved to make homemade dog cookies.
That I cut out in the shape of bones.
This is a recipe that I got from my former next door neighbor, who made them for her dog, Rocco. The recipe is called Hanukkah Noshers. I’m not sure what the connection to Hanukkah is. There’s not an alarming amount of oil in them, or any oil for that matter. My former neighbor wasn’t Jewish, so far as I knew. And presumably, neither was Rocco. Over the years, my dogs — atheists, I guess — Sam, Maddie, Bailey and Stella, have all loved them. But then, none of them were fussy eaters. Bailey, in particular, consumed any substance with gusto.
The ingredients make these sound delicious. They look wonderful. They come out of the oven smelling great. But honestly? They taste terrible.
Hanukkah Noshers
- 1⁄2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 egg
- 1⁄2 cup natural peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1⁄4 cups water
- 4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1⁄2 cup cornmeal
- 1⁄2 cup quick-cooking oats
- 1⁄4 cup chopped peanuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine applesauce, egg, peanut butter, vanilla and water. In a second bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, oats and peanuts. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well. Roll dough out on floured surface to 1/4” thick and cut into shapes. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes.
