DIY Canine Treats and Presents for the Holidays

DIY Canine Treats and Presents for the Holidays

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In search of a particular reward for a pal – or, higher but, a pal’s canine? Think about making your personal canine biscuits, coaching treats, or grooming merchandise. You’ll save a bundle, have enjoyable, customise your items, and even enhance their high quality.

SWEET POTATO CHEWS

For those who’ve ever picked up a $20 bag of candy potato chews and thought you would make them your self for lots much less, you’re proper. In truth, nothing might be easier. 

Reduce uncooked candy potatoes or yams into slices (lengthwise or crosswise) between 3⁄8 and 1/2 inch thick. Bake at 250° F for an hour, flip slices over, bake for an additional hour, and repeat till they’re fully exhausting. Or allow them to end drying in a meals dehydrator set to low warmth. As soon as fully dry, these chews have a protracted shelf life and don’t require refrigeration. A number of of my tester canines most well-liked these to all the opposite treats.

EVERYONE LOVES BISCUITS

DIY Dog Treats and Gifts for the Holidays
For those who begin amassing dog-related cookie cutters, it’s possible you’ll not be capable to cease. These lovable kitchen instruments can be found within the form of many beds and varieties of canines.

Years in the past, wheat was a foremost ingredient in dry canine meals and biscuits. To fulfill the demand for gluten-free meals and treats, some producers substitute peas, beans, and different legumes for wheat and different grains, however these substances have grow to be controversial, too. As we speak, a spread of different flours are extensively out there, making it simple to create biscuits and treats for canines with any kind of dietary restrictions; you may simply make treats which can be freed from gluten, legumes, fats, sugar, nuts, or salt. Experiment with substitutions! 

When making biscuits, mix dry substances with a mixer, meals processor, or by hand, then add different substances to create a stiff or gentle dough. Line cookie sheets with kitchen parchment paper or evenly grease them earlier than baking to stop sticking.

Stiff doughs could be rolled flat with a rolling pin and formed with a cookie cutter, pizza cutter, or knife. Alternatively, form stiff dough as a log or cylinder, wrap it in plastic wrap, refrigerate till agency, then slice the roll into discs and bake. 

Gentle doughs could be pushed by means of a cookie press to create totally different shapes or rolled into balls and pressed flat along with your hand or the tines of a fork. 

If utilizing a silicone mould, spray it evenly with oil to stop sticking, then add the dough and press firmly.

Leaving treats at room temperature for a day or two after baking helps harden biscuits, making them sturdier and crunchier. Relying on substances, home-prepared canine treats might final a number of days to every week or extra at room temperature or longer within the fridge. For long-term storage, freeze in air-tight containers. 

For vacation baking, combine cookie doughs forward of time and refrigerate or freeze them till just a few days earlier than reward giving, then bake and gift-wrap.

Elements which can be perennial canine favorites embrace peanut or different nut butters, carob (which tastes like chocolate however is secure for canines), shredded coconut, carrots, cheese, bacon, and diced or pureed meat, fish, or poultry. Elements to keep away from embrace chocolate, raisins, macadamia nuts, onions, and the sweetener xylitol (verify peanut butter labels to keep away from merchandise containing xylitol). 

DIY DOG TREAT RECIPES

DIY Dog Treats and Gifts for the Holidays
All of those wholesome biscuit doughs could be rolled flat and formed with cookie cutters or formed with a cookie press or by hand earlier than baking.

To check recipes for this text, I used all the substances talked about right here in a wide range of cookies, crackers, and coaching treats, which have been enthusiastically examined by 30 canines of various sizes, breeds, and ages. Listed here are their favorites:

Meaty Canine Biscuits

  • 3 1⁄2 cups almond, equal (see sidebar), or all-purpose flour mix
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1⁄4 cup butter
  • 1⁄2 cup finely chopped cooked bacon, fish, meat, or rooster
  • 1⁄2 cup milk or coconut milk

Mix substances and blend nicely to create a gentle dough. When you have a cookie press, experiment with totally different shapes and press cookies onto parchment. For those who don’t have a cookie press, create balls and press them with the tines of a fork. Bake at 275 ° F for 30 to 45 minutes or till mild brown.

Blueberry Banana Biscuits

  • 3 cups almond, equal, or all-purpose flour mix
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 2 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 2 eggs
  • 2⁄3 cups unsweetened peanut butter or nut butter

Mix substances, roll to 1/2 inch thickness, and reduce to desired dimension and form. Bake at 350° F for 20 to half-hour or till barely brown.

Peanut Butter/Bacon Biscuits

  • 1 3⁄4 cup tiger nut, almond, or equal flour
  • 1/2 cup toasted carob powder
  • 1 cup rolled oats 
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 cup milk or coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup diced cooked bacon
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened peanut butter or nut butter
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil

Mix substances and kind 1/2-inch balls. Press into evenly greased silicon molds or place on parchment-lined cookie sheets and press to flatten along with your hand or the tines of a fork. Bake at 350° F for 18 to twenty minutes or till brown.

Pumpkin, Carrot, Coconut Biscuits

  • 1 3⁄4 cup almond, equal, or all-purpose flour mix
  • 1⁄2 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened peanut or almond butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup grated carrots
  • 1 cup shredded dried coconut

Mix substances, roll to 1⁄4- to three⁄8-inch thick, and form with cookie cutters. Bake at 350° F for 30 to 35 minutes or till mild brown. 

Savory Cheese Ribbons

DIY Dog Treats and Gifts for the Holidays
You’ll be tempted to share these Savory Cheese Ribbons along with your canine – however ask first!
  • 2 cups almond, equal, or all-purpose flour mix
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1⁄2 cup chilly cubed butter
  •  1⁄4  cup milk or coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence or dried savory herbs resembling rosemary, thyme, basil, marjoram, lavender, parsley, and/or oregano

Mix substances and blend nicely to create a gentle dough. When you have a cookie press, use a star-shaped or sawtooth tip and transfer the tip whereas urgent the plunger to create ribbons. Reduce the ribbons into 2- to 4-inch lengths. Bake at 350°F for 18 to 25 minutes till mild brown. 

Double Candy Gentle Treats

Most packaged “gentle” treats comprise vegetable glycerin, a plant-derived candy syrup that acts as a moisturizer and preservative. Meals-grade vegetable glycerin is straightforward to search out on-line and in pure meals shops. I experimented with gentle treats by including vegetable glycerin to totally different recipes with good outcomes. Honey additionally works nicely in gentle treats. 

  • 2 cups cooked, mashed candy potato or pureed pumpkin
  • 1/2 cup grated apple or 1⁄4 cup applesauce
  • 1⁄4 cup honey or vegetable glycerin
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1⁄2 cups almond or equal flour

Mix substances and scoop dough with a spoon to kind mounds on ready baking sheets. Bake at 350° F for 20 minutes. Refrigerate after baking to take care of gentle consistency and forestall mould progress.

A Information To Ingredient Substitution

Some alternative flours could be substituted for equal quantities of wheat flour however others require changes. The next substances could be substituted on a one-to-one foundation (equal flours) for wheat flour: 

  • A number of gluten-free flour blends comprise almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot starch, tapioca starch, cassava flour, rice flour, potato starch, or different substances designed to switch equal portions of wheat flour. Search for “gluten-free flour” or “Paleo flour.”
  • Almond meal (floor entire almonds) or blanched almond flour (floor after skins are eliminated).
  • Buckwheat, millet, rice, or sorghum flour.
  • Oat flour (use rolled oats, quick-cooking oatmeal, or make your personal oat flour by grinding oats in a blender or meals processor).
  • Sunflower seed flour (could also be labeled as “sun-flour”).
  • Tiger nut flour (constructed from a tuber, not a nut).

OTHER REPLACEMENTS

  • Cassava flour: Change 4 cups wheat flour with 3 cups cassava flour.
  • Coconut flour: Change 4 cups wheat flour with 1 cup coconut flour and add 1 or 2 eggs or extra liquid (coconut flour shortly absorbs liquids).
  • Inexperienced banana or plantain flour: Change 4 cups wheat flour with 3 cups banana flour.
  • Carob powder, plain or toasted: Change 1/4 to 1/2 cup of wheat (or equal) flour with an equal quantity of carob powder.

GLUTEN-FREE FLOURS

These extensively bought gluten-free blends and plenty of like them can be found in supermarkets, pure meals shops, and on-line. 

  • King Arthur Gluten-Free Measure-for-Measure Flour. Incorporates: Rice flour, entire grain brown rice flour, entire sorghum flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, cellulose, and xanthan gum, and is vitamin fortified.
  • Krusteaz Gluten-Free All-Objective 1-to-1 Flour.Incorporates: Entire grain sorghum flour, brown rice flour (rice flour, stabilized rice bran with germ), entire grain millet flour, rice flour, modified meals starch, entire grain quinoa flour, xanthan gum. 
  • BakeGood Paleo Flour Mix, Gluten-Free 1-to-1 All Objective Flour. Incorporates: Almond flour, arrowroot starch, coconut flour, tapioca flour.

Gummy Treats

DIY Dog Treats and Gifts for the Holidays

Gelatin is the important thing ingredient in candy or savory gummy treats. Unflavored gelatin powder is obtainable from Nice Lakes, Knox, and different extensively bought manufacturers. Examine labels when you favor gelatin from grass-fed cattle. Gelatin is beneficial for getting older joints, elevated mobility, improved digestion, robust bones, and pores and skin and coat well being. Sadly, gelatin doesn’t freeze nicely. Use gummies as coaching treats or additions to your canine’s dinner. 

To make gummies for canines, sprinkle 2 tablespoons gelatin powder over 1⁄4 cup unheated coconut water, bone broth, soup inventory, or different liquid and let stand a minute or two till the gelatin is absorbed. Warmth 1⁄2 cup of the identical liquid till nearly boiling, add it to the gelatin, and stir.

If desired, add 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 cup chopped meat, fish, rooster, pumpkin puree, or different additions. Pour right into a evenly oiled silicon mould, loaf pan, or tray. Refrigerate till agency. Take away gummies from silicon molds. If utilizing a loaf pan, take away the one slab of chilly gelatin and reduce it with a knife or cookie cutters. Refrigerate gummies, tightly sealed, for as much as 2 weeks. 

DIY DOG SHAMPOO AND GROOMING GIFTS

DIY Dog Treats and Gifts for the Holidays
Refillable glass jars and bottles with pump or spray tops can be found in most well being meals shops.

These simple items are value making for your self in addition to dog-loving buddies. Pure meals shops and on-line retailers promote a wide range of tins, jars, spray bottles, pump dispensers, tubes, and different containers for grooming merchandise. 

Fundamental Shampoo

  • 2 cups heat water
  • 1⁄2 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons baking soda
  • 1⁄4 cup pure liquid castile cleaning soap like Dr. Bronner’s 
  • 4 drops important oil, resembling lavender, chamomile, or peppermint

Mix and shake to combine. Keep away from the eyes when shampooing. Lather and rinse nicely.

Itchy Pores and skin Rinse

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 1⁄4 cup aloe vera juice or gel
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin
  • 10 to fifteen drops lavender or chamomile important oil

Mix substances, shake nicely, and apply by spraying or dabbing onto affected areas as wanted.

Soothing Canine-Paw Butter

Canine-paw butter protects toes in cold and hot climate, soothes cracked or sore paw pads, and blocks winter salt burn. It will also be utilized to cracked noses. Avoid wasting for your self and your folks as that is an efficient lip balm and an ideal moisturizing salve for cuticles, fingers, and toes. 

In a wide-mouth pint-sized glass canning jar mix:

  • 1⁄3 cup olive, sunflower, candy almond, or jojoba oil
  • 1⁄3 cup coconut oil
  • 2 tablespoons shea butter or mango butter
  • 2 tablespoons beeswax (chopped or beads)

Place the jar in a saucepan containing a cup of water to create a double boiler. Over low warmth, gently stir the substances with a wood chopstick till they’re totally mixed. 

Non-obligatory: add the contents of a vitamin E oil capsule

Non-obligatory: add 10 drops tea tree, lavender, chamomile, or different important oil

Go away a metallic spoon within the freezer whilst you make the salve. To check its consistency, dip the frozen spoon into the melted mix and apply to your hand. If it’s too stiff, add a little bit oil; if it’s too liquid, add extra beeswax. When it’s excellent, pour it into small jars or tins.



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