Monday, May 26, 2008

Baking for Brandy

No, not this brandy... this Brandy!! Yup, today I fired up the good old oven of mine (twice!) and made my dad's sweet yellow Labrador some cookies. And they weren't just any cookies either... they were biscotti!! She loves her cookies, so I figured that since biscotti are crunchy like her doggy biscuits I would try my hand at making those!

For a base recipe, I used an eggless formula that I've had in my recipe box for a while (many Christmases ago!) and modified it to make a savoury, puppy-friendly snack. The initial recipe was vegan, but since I don't know many vegan dogs I decided to play around with some bits and pieces of my pantry.

Basic Biscotti
Makes 42 Small Pieces
2 tbsp ground flax seed
1/3 cup hot water
1 1/3 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cups sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 375, place the rack in the upper third of the oven.
  2. Whisk together the flaxseed and hot water, set aside.
  3. Mix the flours, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
  4. Seperately, beat together the oil, sugar and flaxseed slurry.
  5. Add the dry ingredients and beat until well incorporated.
  6. Divide the dough into 3 balls, knead each to smooth out.
  7. Add extra ingredients at this point, keeping the consistency fairly sticky.
  8. With floured hands, shape each ball into a 9" log, flattening slightly, and place on a lightly greased and floured cookie sheet.
  9. Bake for 25 minutes in the upper third of the oven. Reposition the oven rack to the middle position.
  10. With a sharp serated knife, cut each log into 14 slices.
  11. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip and bake 5 to 7 minutes.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 53.4
Total Fat: 1.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 0.4 mg
Total Carbs: 9.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.6 g
Protein: 1.0 g

Here's what I did to make Brandy's biscotti:
  • Swapped the whole wheat flour for rolled oats
  • Added about 3 tbsp of dehydrated veggies, as well as 1 envelope each beef and chicken bouillon to the oil mixture
  • Used olive oil
  • Cut sugar to 1/4 cup
  • Added 1/4 cup buttermilk powder
  • Added 2 tbsp cheddar cheese powder
  • Doubled the salt
  • Added about 1/4 cup extra water

Basically, it was fun to play around with the different ingredients in a basic recipe. The result is perfectly edible for people too, I'm sure, but I don't think the puppy will give up her share any time soon!

4 comments :

  1. One very lucky puppy! She does love her veggies though, carrots, green and red pepper, asparagus, green beans, etc ;-) Brandy want's to know if she can help mix?

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  2. That was really sweet of you! My dog's 1st birthday is coming up - it's great to have something to bake for him that he's SUPPOSED to eat!

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  3. Very good to the dog - these certainly look good enough for humans to eat - and vegan dogs should be ok, too. ;)

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  4. Brandy just loves the "cookies" and leaves not a crumb for her buddies!

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Thanks for the feedback!