Buckwheat-Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

My trusty Cooking Assistant and his sister are on a gluten-free diet experiment.  This may seem like pampering, but the two hounds have been scratching, and it's definitely not fleas. Since the scatching starts shortly after they've eaten dog biscuits so I begain suspecting the bargain dog biscuits I'd purchased, where really a bargain?  But which ones were causing the scratching?  They had about five different kinds.  

Basset hounds are obsessed with food. I've learned to cut their food portions a bit just to give them a few extra biscuits. They need bribes for everything, and they can only eat so many carrots.

But the cheaper the store bought biscuit, the cheaper the ingredients.  It's not good to be a tightwad when you have a scratching dog.  Constant scratching can mean food allergies--corn, wheat or soy--the cheap filler ingredients, could be a problem.

  

Homemade biscuits?  We'd love that experiment!

The buckwheat flour cost more than wheat flour, but I was determined to try the gluten-free diet.  

Pumpkin is the ingredient of the season and pumpkin is good for dogs. You can find everything pumpkin now, even pumpkin dog biscuits. 

But I bet you can't find a gluten-free, buckwheat-pumpkin-peanut butter dog biscuit anywhere.  If you do find any, let me know.  Meanwhile, why not try this recipe?

Local pumpkins are everywhere now.

First--if you get a fresh sugar pie pumpkin, you'll have to bake it first. 

Baked Pumpkin

1. Preheat oven to 350F. 

2. Poke the pumpkin about six or seven times with a fork, so as it bakes, steam escapes.   Then bake it for 45 minutes, or until it is fork tender.  If you have more than enough pumpkin to make the cookies, the remainder can be blended into a fall vegetable soup.  Scrape out the seeds and use the cooked flesh.

Buckwheat-Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

(Makes about 76 biscuits)

4 to 5 cups buckwheat flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked pumpkin

1 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup molasses

1 to 1 1/2 cups water

1. Blend buckwheat flour, tapioca flour, cinnamon and salt, in a large bowl.   Mix well.

2. Combine pumpkin, peanut butter, molasses and 1 cup water in a blender.   Mix flour and pumpkin-mixture together.  Stir until a stiff dough forms.  Adjust liquid or flour measurement.  The dough should be like a stiff cookie dough, but it will be fairly sticky.  Set the dough on wax paper, cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350F.   Roll dough to 1/4-inch and cut into desired shapes.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Turn oven off and allow biscuits to get crisp.