Peanut Butter-Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

A Guest Post from Finn the Cooking Assistant (aka the dog picker)

We are late posting this week due to harvesting the last of our summer garden, dehydrating apples and pears, and of course baking. I love the rain and change of weather because it means more baking.  I figured we'd make carrot cookies from the recipe posted last week, but something better came along.

Pumpkins.  For these biscuits you can use just about any kind of winter squash.  You could even use the Jack O'lantern pumpkins, but they aren't usually considered good for eating.

Neither are the decorative ones like these with the raised bumps.  But who doesn't want something cool for this time of year?

Spaghetti squash also probably wouldn't work.  But get one of those, too, because those are just plain good eating.

Most of the other squash will work.  The Lady pokes them with a fork and slides them in the oven for about 45 minutes.  Some people cut the squash in half, but the skin is so tough it's hard to cut into many varieties of winter squash.

Our biscuit inspiration came from Trader Joe's.  They have the best dog biscuits and when the pumpkin biscuits came out, I was turning back flips. Sure we could keep buying those biscuits, but homemade trumps everything if you can get the flavors right.

The Lady surfed the net and found this recipe that called for canned pumpkin.  She modified it, since fresh pumpkin seemed appropriate for the season, and of course we used River Farm eggs and Nash's flour.  And she added more peanut butter, and I think it's obvious why we need more of that.  With homemade you have to kick up the flavor. 

The thing you need to remember is the dough must be thick enough to roll out.  If the dough is too sticky, it needs more flour.  More flour, but not too much because you will need even more when you roll the dough out and too much will make the cookies crumble.

Sugar pie pumpkins are the best for this recipe.

We use eggs from River Farm where the chickens lead a good life, but you can use any eggs, and if you want to make these treats vegan, you can use a half-cup of flax seed egg replacer.

Peanut Butter-Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

(Makes 30 to 60 biscuits, depending on size)

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup cooked pumpkin

1/4 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 325F.  

Blend flour and cinnamon together.   In a blender combine eggs, pumpkin and peanut butter.  Blend until smooth.  Stir into the flour, adding enough flour for a stiff dough.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Flour a cutting board and pat dough out.  Roll dough to 1/4-inch thick.  Cut with any kind of cookie cutters.  Place on a parchment lined sheet.

Bake for 40 minutes.  Turn off oven and allow biscuits to crisp. 

Carrot cookies of a different sort.