Shortbread

I make cookies; I've been a cookie baker for years.  When I lived in Canada I sold my cookies at a great Farmers Market every weekend.  I always sold out and quickly had a list of regulars who asked to have their cookies set aside so that they wouldn't show up and have their favorite flavor gone already.  So when I decided to make cookies for my dogs it was a very easy transition.  One day I opened up a box of cookies and when the smell hit me; that was that.  How can I expect my dogs to enjoy something that tastes like cardboard.  After all Luke (Mr. Fussy Pants) likes flavor; he likes really good flavor so I attempted to make him some yummy cookies.

I'm making cookies today; I have my regular peanut butter recipe ones that I make them but I'm going to switch it up a bit and make something new today.  Luke's favorite cookies are shortbread; our shortbread with the butter.  So Luke's new cookies will most definitely contain butter.  If you want baking to taste good you have to use butter, real butter.  Of course there are a few vegan bake goods out there that I have tasted that don't have any butter in them and they are pretty darned great but if you can eat butter, use it. Do not use that garbage they sell made to look like butter but is a butter impostor.

Cookies are a treat; they are not a training treat used throughout the day, they are a special treat.  So they are not the perfect food for a dog; but like us they are to be enjoyed in small amounts.  (wink, wink)  But I still try to make the dogs cookies pretty darned good, nutritionally compared to a regular type human cookie.   So I will be using very different ingredients while trying to make them taste great, have a bit of a shelf life and some nutrition as well.

The very first thing that gets the boot in my dog cookies is wheat flour; if I use it at all it is in a very small amount.  I use white and/or brown rice flour and other flours that are rich in protein.  So I will set off to invent a new cookie today; one that is to Luke's taste.  Because I use only human grade ingredients I will be tasting a long the way trying to discern if it will be to his Majesty's liking or not.  Elsa will pretty much eat anything but it still has to taste good.  I actually bought an organic treat for these guys the other day.  Made from a very well known organic company and even Elsa spit in out; literally.  She spit it onto the living room floor.  Luckily the store I bought them at took them back.  Good feedback for the company that made them.

Off to the kitchen now.

Here is a cookie I made a couple of years ago for the dogs.  They loved them but they are made with whole wheat flour.  If I made them again I would switch out one cup of for a cup of another type of flour.

The Great Pumpkin