That's What Bob's Cooking: Candy Canes....for your dog

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Candy Canes....for your dog

In this hustle and bustle time of year, lots of us take time to stop and make treats to share with family and friends.

My partner and I don't have children, well in a traditional sense. But we do have a wonderful Italian Greyhound and a warm and fuzzy, black and white cat, Zoey an Franc.

While I've attempted cat treats, nothing compares to greenies, according to Franc. As for the dog treats, I always have a fresh batch, right out of the oven.

Yesterday I decided, while I was making all kinds of delicious treats for family and friends, why not make a little treat for Zoey, and a few of her friends.

Doggie Candy Canes (aka breath mints!)

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup nonfat powdered milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup warm water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 large eggs
2 tsp red food coloring (see tips)
1 tbsp peppermint oil flavoring (optional)
1 large egg (for an egg wash)
Additional flour for kneading

Instructions:

Whisk together the flour, powdered milk and baking powder.

In a small bowl, pour the warm water over the chicken bouillon, stir until dissolved.

Whisk the eggs into the chicken water.

Form a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients.

Stir until thorougly combined.

Knead the dough for about two minutes.

Add more flour until the dough is no longer sticky.

Seperate the dough in half.

Form a well in one of the balls of dough.

Add the food coloring and peppermint flavoring.

Wearing food safe gloves, knead the coloring and flavoring throughout the dough.

Cool the dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours or in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350° F

Divide each ball of dough into tablespoon sized balls.

Gently roll each ball into a "worm" shape, letting the dough rest when needed. Each strip should be about 5 inches long.

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

Twist one plain strip with a red strip, and curl the end to shape a candy cane.

Place on the baking sheet.
Whisk the extra egg in a small bowl.
Using a pastry brush, thoroughly coat each candy cane with the egg wash.
Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

BONUS recipe:

Zoey's Homemade

Dog Biscuits
with Peanut Butter & Bacon

Ingredients:

2 pieces bacon, thick cut, cooked
and crumbled (I used bacon bits)
1/8 cup bacon grease (I used oil)
2 cups whole wheat flour (for gluten free, use any gluten free flour, amarath, garbanzo, etc)
1/4 cup ground flax (optional)
1/4 cup wheat bran (if gluten free use brewers yeast)
2 tsp baking powder (use a gluten free, or make your own)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (for gluten free use almond butter)
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325° F
Cook bacon until crispy. Drain on a paper towel.
Pour the bacon grease into a glass measuring cup.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ground flax, wheat bran, and baking powder.
Crumble the bacon, once cooled, and stir into the flour mixture.
In a microwave safe bowl, warm the peanut butter. Approximately 30 seconds.
In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg. Then pour in the peanut butter, water, and bacon grease. Use a fork to whisk together the wet ingredients until completely combined.
Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the peanut butter mixture.
Stir until combined.
Knead lightly in the bowl with your hands.
Lay down one large sheet of parchment paper, roll your dough onto it, then lay another piece of parchment on top. You'll essentially have a dog treat dough sandwich. See the video for tips.
Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness.
Lightly spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
Cut shapes out of the dough and place on your prepared baking sheet. Gather the extra dough, knead into a ball, and repeat the process of rolling and cutting until there is no more dough.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Turn off the oven and leave them there to cool for 2 hours or overnight.
Storing - These homemade dog biscuits will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. They will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Yield - Using a 1 inch bone shaped cookie cutter, you will get 40 homemade dog biscuits.

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My Complete Profile

I was born and raised on the East side of Portland Oregon, by two native and second generation, Oregonians, my Mom and Dad (Jack and Joan). Oregon, and the Northwest are deep in my blood. That being said, I have always had an interest in cooking. I would love to add a warm loving story here about how my Mom nurtured my love of cooking by setting me up on or near the counter top to help with whatever she was cooking. Well, that's not exactly the case.

Being a child of the 70's and 80's, I had a great exposure to classic foods like Spam, Tang, Rice-a-Roni and Hamburger Helper. While many of these premade, sodium roller coaster, treats where regulars on our table, my Mom would have to hold the title as "casserole queen". Casseroles are her favorite and her specialty. Whereas, my Dad was more of a spur of the moment kind of cook. His creations included many of the items from our makeshift pantry. Sometimes, i think he was thinking, "the more ingredients, the better it'll be!". I think my first attempt at cooking would have to have been making cookies, either peanut butter (with the criss-cross fork tine print on top), or chocolate chip cookies. Over the years I have made so many of both of these recipes, I have surely lost count.

During middle school, my Mom encouraged me to take Home Economics, thinking that all kids, boy or girl, should know how to cook out in this world. This sparked a growing interest in cooking. So when I entered my junior year of High School, at David Douglas, I enrolled in the culinary arts program, we called it Food Services I. This was a class that had been offered many years before, where the students ran a restaurant, The Kilt, during the lunch periods. Unfortunately, since the class had not been offered in several years, so we didn’t have enough students to open the restaurant, that year. Within the first few weeks of this class, my instructor asked if I'd like to be involved in an outside "club" (kind of like a version of Eagle Scouts) that was mentored by local business owners. It sounded interesting so I joined (not to mention it got me out of the first 2 periods of the day).

At our first meeting I was approached by Sylvia Poesdel, the owner of the Portland landmark restaurant, Sylvia's Italian Restaurant & Dinner Theatre. She asked me if I would be interested in an afterschool job, coming to work for her to learn the cooking/chef trade on the job. I jumped at the chance and started in October of 1985. During my senior year I rejoined the culinary arts program (Food Services II) and this year we were able to reopened the restaurant, which the rest of the students voted me to manage. I just absolutely loved it! I worked at Sylvia's until after I graduated, in 1989. I learned a lot about the restaurant industry, and I would have to say it would be one of just a few life altering jobs I have had throughout my career.

After high school, while I was working at Sylvia's, I applied to culinary arts school. The Two things kept me from continuing my career in culinary arts, were financial and having worked out in the field, I saw so many negative attributes to being a chef, I decided that since I love to cook, I wanted it to be a hobby, and not a drag to go work each day.

When I left Sylvia's, I worked at a hotel, then Safeway. From there I joined Fred Meyer in the Service Deli, and was quickly promoted to a manager. During the next 8 years, I worked throughout the Portland and Southern Oregon areas. In 1998, I earned a promotion to the regional specialist position (District Manager) in Seattle. During this career move, I learned so much about the Food Service industry. I was charged to develop a new service salad case program, as well as work on a new catering program. I had the opportunity to work with manufacturers to develop these new programs.

In 2000, I met the love of my life, Craig. I also, moved from the food service program to the grocery department as an assistant manager. In the capacity I learned to develop my management skills as well as managing inventory. By being the best in my category, I earned the position of manager, where I moved from store to store cleaning up and reorganizing as I went. I also was entrusted with training future Food managers for the region. At which point I was pursued by another company to run a store for them, and enter back into the restaurant industry. During these 3 years, I learned the Restaurant Supplier side of the business. While I enjoyed the time I spent in this opportunity, I yearned to go back to the Grocery industry, and spend more time with my first love, cooking, and writing about my adventures….in the kitchen!