About the Recipe: Honey-Glazed, Ginger-Chicken and Wild Rice Treats

It’s been longer than I would have liked since I posted a dog treat recipe, but it is what it is. Plus, we still have some of the last treats—the Peanut Butter and Jelly Treats; and in reality, I made these treats last weekend…but I didn’t post it because it was a pretty busy weekend for me.

Our morning last Saturday started by shaving Presley…which is something that we’d put off pretty much all summer; and it was the main reason I didn’t want to put off making these treats again. After cutting his hair, I moved onto mowing the lawn. Then I went and got my own hair cut; and if I were all about equality between pets and humans, I would have had to let Jesse and Presley cut my hair for me. Thankfully, neither of them have thumbs so they can’t hold the clippers; and Rob is all talk—so I turned to a professional for my own hair.

Sunday was spent at the Fair Grove Heritage Festival at the Old Mill in Fair Grove, Missouri; and it’s a tradition (I have family there). I was actually super proud of my adult self—I was the one who made the plans for my friends, my mom, and I to meet and attend…and I followed up and through with those plans. It’s my shining adult moment for the year (until I visit Nancy in Omaha later in October—and if you’re wondering why that’s an adult moment, let me break it down: I’m going to drive my own car which I purchased with my own money all alone through several major metropolitan areas all alone with no parents with me…and I rest my case).

Also on Sunday, I made Rob “treats”, too, in the form of chocolate chip cookies. As I was making these treats for our boys, Rob implied that I never make him anything and I just bake for our dogs—clearly, he forgot all the bread, cookies, cakes, pies, and dinners I’ve made for him; but it’s a common complaint when you bake for dogs—the humans in your life beg for treats, too. It is what it is; and instead of working on this post, I made my lover chocolate chip cookies.

 Back to poor, poor, good-natured Presley who endured over 2 hours of shaving (off and on) without once snapping or even growling (the most violent thing he did during this process was lay down and refuse to turn the way we needed him) to end up looking like he got a homemade hair cut from his daddies…which has inadvertently revealed that he is now our gray dog and no longer really our black dog…poor gray dog deserved a treat or three for every bald spot where Rob got a little close and left a little too much skin showing.

FYI: he looks good now…well, I’m used to what he looks like now; and if it’s any consolation, I think we’ve resolved ourselves to having Presley groomed next time…

Anyway, later Saturday evening, I set about making these treats; and they’re gluten-free simply because I still had some left over flours I felt like I needed to use. When I made my whole-grain, gluten-free all purpose baking mix, I blended multiple different flours together to make it; and while I still have several grams of it left, I still had a lot of potato and some brown and glutinous rice flours left. So, I blended those different flours together. I ended up blending 360 grams of flour—which is a little less than a cup more than I really needed, but I knew I’d need dusting flour as well (not to mention that I started with only mixing brown rice and potato flours together without thinking that I would need to lighten up the mix with the glutinous rice flour—so it ended up being more than I needed that way, too).

For this recipe, I ended up mixing 120G potato flour with 127 grams brown rice flour (the left over amount from the previous flour mix) and 113 grams glutinous rice flour (enough to round out the grams to an even 360). If you remember, a cup of regular flour is approximately 120 grams. I estimated that I would need about 2 cups or 240 grams. I added the 240 grams to the mix and then used the rest of the mix when I rolled out the dough.

Potato and brown rice flours are some of the heavier, more dense flours; and I think they work just fine for these treats; and since I’m talking about the flours, I’ll go ahead and admit that I left out the baking powder by chance—but in the end, I decided that it wouldn’t make a difference and I didn’t really want these treats to rise anyway. I like them as a firm treat instead of a fluffy one—plus, I’m not sure if they would rise anyway with all that potato flour.

If you’re looking over the two different formulations of this recipe and noticing that the baking temperature is different—it’s not a typo. The GF recipe bakes low, and you’ll almost dry out the recipe as you’re baking them. One of the pitfalls to GF recipes is that those particular flours tend to brown more than others; and also, the additional egg (gluten-free recipes need more binders) adds more protein which also increases browning. So a lower baking temperature may not be needed, but I think it helps with the end result.

Just FYI: I haven’t tested the non-GF recipe; but I believe it should work out just fine. If you go that route and it’s not coming together very well, add a bit more applesauce (by the tablespoon) until it starts to mix well. Applesauce is kind of wonderful for this kind of baking especially. Your dogs will appreciate a little sweetness; and since it can sub for eggs or butter/oil, applesauce will add binding in recipes and moisten them—it’s great like that.

Now, I used fresh ginger—I got a finger of it from the produce section which was about 3 ½ inches long (and yes, you can kind of break off the size piece you need when shopping for it); and after peeling (the outer skin should come off easily with a vegetable peeler), when I ground it out, it measured to almost 2 tablespoons exactly (there were some of the more fibrous parts that I didn’t include at the very end—plus, I didn’t want to grate off my finger tips).

To me, fresh ginger smells amazing; but it’s spicy—not hot spicy, but it’s got kind of a bite to it (think horseradish). The ginger plant is related to turmeric and not only has anti-inflammatory properties (great for older dogs) but also aids in ailments from nausea and upset stomach to heart worm (source: http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/how-to-give-your-dog-ginger/). If you don’t want to buy fresh ginger and mess with grating it, then I think you could substitute with a tablespoon of dry—but again, fresh ginger smells so much better.

Now, I went the canned chicken route; but you could just as easily use leftover shredded chicken (and hopefully you didn’t salt it too much). If you want to cook your chicken fresh, I would definitely suggest cooking it with some sliced ginger in a crock pot, poaching/boiling on the stove top or baking it. Just be sure not to season it—your dogs don’t need the extra salt and probably won’t really care for the pepper.

Since the rice needs to be cooled anyway, you could also use leftovers there, too; and yes, the same cautions apply to the rice as the chicken, you don’t want to season it too much—especially salt or butter (depending on the initial reason you cooked the rice). And yes, any rice will really work so long as you have a cup of it. Truth be told, I used a black rice which wasn’t actually wild rice—the price of a pound of wild rice was over $4 and the black rice I bought was less than ½ of that; but it looks almost the same as wild rice and no one really needs to know—plus, wild rice sounds better.

We don’t eat rice all that often in my house (Rob doesn’t like it all that much), so I did cook mine especially for this recipe. I followed the package instructions to end up with a cup in the end; and I boiled it in some unsalted chicken stock to pump up the flavor. I love this stock for my dog treats since it only has 45 mg of salt—which is by far the least amount of salt I could find in an off the shelf stock (it’s Swanson’s—and this post is in no way sponsored)…even the reduced sodium versions have over 400mg which is just more than I

want to give my boys; and I’m posting the picture with the brand name because it really is the one with the least salt I’ve found so far.

Mixing the treats went easily. I threw the chicken, rice, ginger, eggs and applesauce in a bowl and mixed it up really well before I added the flour; and then mixed until there was no more dry flour. A caution is that you may want to use your hands as this mixture did bend my poor spatula (yet again) since it’s kinda stiff… it also stays kinda sticky, so you will want to flour your rolling surface, your cookie cutter of choice, and your rolling pin. You’ll also definitely want to use a silicone baking mat or parchment with this one especially if you use the honey glaze.

 

Again, when rolling and cutting treats, you’ll want to place the shapes as close together when cutting to get as many shapes as possible from the fewest amounts of rolls. This is mostly for ease of operation with the GF version; but if you’ve opted for a wheat-based flour, then you need to worry about the developing gluten every time you roll them out again. Also, be sure to keep your cutter well floured for the sharpest shapes; and an off-set spatula is a great tool to help remove them from your rolling surface even if you used a fair amount of flour.

 

Now, the honey glaze was included purely because, come on, it sounds really fancy; and in reality, it was super easy to mix…honey and water…then I just brushed it on the treats right before I put them in the oven. In reality, I don’t know that it did all that much for the treats other than increase the words used for their name; but it was an easy addition that I felt might add a touch of sweetness to them. Plus, my mom got some honey from an apiary from my hometown; and honey is dog safe in moderation (you don’t want to add too many sugars). The water was used to make it a bit more spreadable; and I think if (read: when) I did it again, I’d do a 2 to 1 ratio with the honey and water (that’s twice as much honey as water) because I really like the idea of a honey-glazed treat.

 

As they were baking, my house smelled of fried chicken (in a good way—just to clarify if any of you would find that bad); and my boys (both gray and yellow) reacted favorably. I took them out of the oven just before we went to bed; and I almost thought about waiting until the morning before giving them their customary odd balls. However, we hovered in the kitchen just long enough for them to cool to where I didn’t think they get their mouths burned; and even a week later, they love them.

The final product actually looks quite impressive. There are chucks of chicken decorated with flecks of black rice, plus they smell delicious. Ingredient wise, there’s only a few; and if you make them with wheat flour, there are even less. And they’re

really easy to mix and roll out. Again, another success!

Stay tuned for the rest of October…I’m planning pumpkin spice treats and probably something with sweet potatoes. Since my dogs like them, the flavors of fall are definitely going to make an appearance in the next couple of months.

As always, the actual recipe for these treats should follow (scroll down or click here); and feel free to comment, email, or contact via social media links to the right with your questions.  And don’t forget to follow Jesse (who is still various shades of yellow) on Twitter @Jdawg_yellow!

Honey-Glazed, Ginger-Chicken and Wild Rice Treats

Yields 36 bone shapes with 2 odd balls

Gluten-Free option

1 cup cooked and cooled wild rice

2 tablespoons ground, fresh ginger

1-12.5 oz can cooked chicken (well drained)

2 whole eggs

½ cup unsweetened applesauce

240 grams gluten free flour mix (plus more for dusting)

(check out my whole grain version, or the about the recipe section for this recipe for how I mixed mine) 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit  

Non-gluten free treats

1 cup cooked and cooled wild rice

2 tablespoons ground, fresh ginger

1-12.5 oz can cooked chicken (well drained)

1 whole egg

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 cups whole-wheat flour (plus more for dusting)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit 

Honey-glaze

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon water

Instructions:

Prepare rice according to package instructions (or use leftover rice). Instead of water, I would suggest cooking your rice in unsalted chicken broth for added flavor. Once cooled, mix with all ingredients except flour until combined. Add flour and mix until incorporated—it will be a stiff dough which you may need to finish mixing with your hands.

Once mixed, turn out onto a well-floured surface and roll or pat out until ¼ to ½ inch thickness. Cut shapes with your favorite cutter and place on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet making sure they don’t touch.

Brush on honey-glaze right before placing in the oven.

Gluten-free

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown

Non-gluten-free

Bake for 12-18 minutes depending on how hard you want them

For more detailed instructions, tips, tricks, or inspiration, check out the About the Recipe section 

About the Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly Dog Treats

I know it’s been more than a week since I last posted; however, last weekend, I had to make my dad a birthday cake (he actually requested the Carrot Cake that’s kind of a bear to make—and inspired the CarrotCake Dog Treats); and then I had to go to his party. Then on top of all that fun, I’ve been sort of under the weather lately; so I didn’t exactly feel like doing too much. After a week of coughing and blowing my nose constantly (all while still smoking like a chimney), I feel a bit better now; and was excited to tackle these treats for my boys.

The inspiration for these treats came while I was randomly driving down the highway the other day. I got to thinking about what I’d name my Barkery if I ever decided to quit my job and devote myself to making dog treats, like, as a profession (I don’t think I’d ever actually do that because baking is my hobby and if I did it as a job I’d have to find a new pastime which I don’t want to do; and overall, it would probably make me hate baking—and I don’t ever want to hate baking because I love it too much)…but anyway, I was thinking of my boys’ names and their initials… Presley and Jesse… P & J….

PB&J… Peanut Butter and Jelly…wait, that sounds like a super great dog treat… True Story—and they are great dog treats and super easy to make.

Since my last treat recipe was kind of crazy to make—it had so many ingredients and steps and on top of that was gluten-free; so I kind of wanted to make something easy this time. The peanut butter treat itself is so simple and only contains a few ingredients—which are all staples in dog-treat baking; and then to add a bit of a wow factor to something which would have otherwise been plain, I made a “jelly” icing to go on top. It adds a pop of color and makes me feel like I’ve done yet another special treat for my boys.

Dog treat staples

The treat itself starts with the name-sake ingredient, peanut butter; and I’ve talked about this ingredient before several times. Peanut butter is used in a lot of dog treats because dogs love it; and it’s fairly healthy for them in moderation since it’s a good source of protein and natural fats. When making treats, I buy a natural peanut butter with no or very little added sugar and no added salt. Also, I scan the ingredients to make sure it doesn’t contain any hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup as I want the treats I make for my boys to be as clean and natural as possible.

Applesauce is another ingredient I’ve used several times since apples are naturally sweet and are perfectly healthy for our four legged children; and just like with the peanut butter, I look for an all natural, unsweetened applesauce—again, just scan the ingredients and put the ones which have high fructose corn syrup back on the shelf. This recipe wasn’t originally going to contain applesauce; however, as I was formulating things, the dough just wasn’t “acting” the right way—I didn’t like the way it was mixing. So I added some and it corrected my dough to be just what I wanted.

Applesauce is another staple to keep on hand when making your own dog treats, which is actually why I had it to add even though it wasn’t part of my original plan. Now, if you’re vegan, you probably know that you can substitute applesauce for an egg or even butter in a sweet treat recipe (and I’ve talked about all that before—and it’s one of the reasons applesauce is such a staple ingredient to dog treats); and I think I needed an additional binder with the original configuration so it was a natural inclusion here as I didn’t want to add an additional egg—I really try to keep my treats as low fat as possible, too.

If you don’t have applesauce or don’t want to buy any, you can probably use an additional egg and a little bit of skim (or whatever) milk you have to make up the difference. Eggs are safe for dogs; but again, it does add additional fat and even cholesterol to the recipe. With the amounts we’re talking about, it probably wouldn’t make all that much difference—these treats will still be fairly healthy even if you use two eggs. Now to make up the difference for not using applesauce with the ½ cup measure, you’d use one additional egg and two tablespoons of milk.

Oats—old fashioned or quick cooking are also used in a lot of treat recipes; and I used them in these for the same reason I usually use them—I like the way they look in the treats. Other than looking wholesome, oats are also very heart healthy and an added whole grain—so it’s a win/win in the end. Plus, whole wheat flour tends to end up kind of gummy in treats making something slightly rubbery-ish; and I think the oats actually help absorb some of the moisture and improve the texture overall. 

And then the final ingredient is baking powder. I use an organic aluminum-free variety because I’m anti-aluminum when dog treat baking even though I think that health-myth has been debunked. If you scan the list of ingredients on your baking powder and find aluminum and don’t want to use it or go out to buy an alternative, baking soda will work in these treats if you use the applesauce (apples are slightly acidic and should react with the soda to achieve lift); or you can omit it altogether with the foreknowledge that your finished treats will be firmer and more crispy than the ones I made.

Truth be told, I wasn’t going to add a leavener at all because my original intention was to make these a bit crisper and thinner so I could sandwich the jelly between two treats and not end up with something that was too fat for an easy bite (I hope that makes sense—I mostly wanted to make sure that my boys could chew the treat without having the mess of them dropping a portion of it and pick it back up from the clean rug to eat it). In the end, I decided they were prettier not sandwiched…which led me to formulating an icing instead of a more jelly or jam-like topping.

As I just said, the jelly component is more of an icing as opposed to a true jelly. To ensure the treats were not messy when stored, I needed a topping which would dry hard and not be as messy as a true jelly—which is where I turned to the ever so wonderful tapioca starch; and if you’re intrigued by the sandwich treat idea (as I still am), you could skip the starch and just make the blueberry compote without it (decrease the water to only ¼ cup) and spread a little between the layers. But I’m getting ahead of myself a little…

All mixed up

Once everything was mixed up, it became really stiff dough which was perfect for rolling out; and I, again, used my cook top as my rolling surface. You will definitely not want to skimp dusting the surface with flour as this mix was kinda sticky. I kind of heavily dust the middle area, then turn my dough out there and dust the top of the dough a little more. Then I dusted my rolling pin and worked my way from the middle to the outside edges until it was a little less than ¼ inch thick. If you want fatter treats, feel free to not roll out your dough that much; but know it’ll affect your cooking time a little bit.

Flour your rolling surface well!

Another fun component to these treats is that you can cut them out using any cookie cutter you like; or you could get creative and free hand cut with a dull knife. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter because I liked the size it was (and I think hart shaped treats are kinda cute); and it’s a little smaller than my bone-shaped cutter so I ended up with more treats. The size of your cutter and how thinly you’ve rolled your dough will ultimately determine how many treats which you’ll get.

With any rolled treat or cookie, try to cut as closely to the edge as possible and as close to each cut as possible to ensure you get the maximum amount of cuts per roll of your dough. The dough will become stiffer and less appetizing each time it’s rolled as you incorporate more flour into it each time and it also works the gluten in the dough making the final products tougher.

Close cuts

A tip I’ll give you to get true shapes from your cutter is to keep it well floured so the dough doesn’t stick; and when you cut, go straight down then back up—try not to twist or squeeze the cutter. Also I’d encourage you to use a small off-set spatula to help you remove the shapes once they’re cut. The off-set spatula will help release the dough from the surface and you can use it to cut away any excess dough that may not have gotten cut with the cookie cutter.

Usually when making cookies, you usually try to allow them space and not to crowd the pan too much; however, cut treats usually don’t spread (these don’t). They will puff up a bit (if you used the baking powder); but you don’t have to worry about them becoming one blog on the cookie sheet so long as you make sure they’re not touching on the pan. I only left maybe a few millimeters in between each treat; and mine baked for exactly 11 minutes on 350.

Ready to Bake

Thicker or bigger treats may take longer; but just check them along the way. I also rotated my pans halfway through the cooking time since I put both sheet pans in the oven at the same time. When they’re done, they’re lightly golden and will be firm but yielding to the touch—and your kitchen will smell wonderfully like peanut butter. If you don’t use the baking soda, your treats will be firm anyway; so try to gauge the doneness by the color—and it shouldn’t actually affect the cooking time anyway.

Lightly golden out of the oven

When I think of PB & J, I automatically think of the classic—grape jelly (despite the fact that it’s probably the only flavor of jam/jelly that I don’t currently have in my house right now); however, grapes are not dog friendly (there’s some enzyme which messes with their digestion or brain or something—Just know that I’ve read grapes are bad for dogs enough times to not even question it at this point). So I turned to blueberries as my 2^nd choice since blueberries are a superfood and are just as good for our furbabies (in moderation, of course) as they are for us. Plus, I’ve made blueberry jam before and know it’s a fairly simple process; however, blueberries aren’t the only fruit that would be good in this situation.

Strawberries, apples (think apple-butter), raspberries, blackberries, peaches, plums, cherries or any combination thereof would also make intriguing ingredients for jam; and most of those fruits are perfectly safe in their whole forms so long as there aren’t any stems or leaves attached (strawberry leaves & stems are somewhat toxic); but when considering the stone fruits (peaches, plums, & cherries) and apples, be sure that the seeds or pits are totally removed before feeding them to your furbaby. Seed and pits contain toxins which will tax your dogs immune system as the seeds and pits are naturally designed to be rejected if ingested; and since these items would not be a part of your dogs diet in the wild (dogs would be most likely be carnivorous if left to their own devices), they have no way of dealing with these toxins like we can.

Mashing blueberries over medium-high heat

Now, after having said all that, they would be perfectly fine as a jam since we’d only be using the flesh of the fruit anyway; and all of those fruits are naturally sweet enough so there’s no need to add sugar (your dogs palate will think they’re really sweet even if yours doesn’t since processed sugars aren’t really a part of their everyday diet). With the exception of apples, you’d prep and cook them in a very similar way as I’ve outlined with the blueberries (cooking and mashing) but you’d probably want to go ahead and give them a slight chop to make them easier to cook. If you’re leaning toward apple butter, save yourself several steps and cook down applesauce (the same unsweetened variety you’d use for the treats and don’t add water) since that takes care of most of the hard part for you anyway (and feel free to add cinnamon or ginger to flavor it a bit more).


If jam making isn’t your thing (even in this bastardized form), you could use an unsweetened, all natural jelly or jam you pick up off the shelf in your supermarket (avoid marmalades and citrus fruit jellies/jams as citrus isn’t dog friendly—especially the rind; and curds since they’re usually made with butter and eggs added); however, use caution to avoid high fructose corn syrup and sugar-free varieties. Sugar-free isn’t the same as unsweetened; and sugar-free products usually contain synthetic sugar alternatives which probably aren’t good for your doggy to ingest. Also be sure to check over the nutrition label and pick the one with the least grams of sugars since almost any commercially produced jam or jelly will contain added sugar as adding sugar starts to soften fruits and makes them more appealing to human consumers; but your dog will react differently since they have no tolerance.

the whisk is useless, use a fork

With only needing a ½ cup to mix with the tapioca starch and to spread over 60+ treats, it won’t make that much of a difference; and big dogs like mine (they’re both in the 80+ lb range) can easily metabolize those small amounts of sugar. If you have smaller dogs, you may want to make my version or omit it altogether. 

This version of blueberry jam isn’t an actual jam—it’s more like blueberry compote; and it doesn’t gel like jelly—per say—as I watered it down to keep it from getting overly sticky due to storage issues (you don’t want to have them stick to one another or make a reach into a messy bag). Really, this recipe is as easy as mashing the blueberries and cooking them down a bit before mixing them with the tapioca starch. Don’t add in the starch while you’re cooking; instead, let the blueberries cool completely before adding it or the starch will thicken the mixture in a different way. Tapioca starch is similar to corn starch in its thickening capability; however, tapioca only needs very little heat to work.

Blueberry Gloop

By letting it cool, you’re making more of an icing which will harden than a sauce which will thicken; and if you’ve ever mixed cornstarch and water to make that gloop you can play with that gets hard when pressured and then soft when you release it, then you’ll be a bit ahead of the curve with this icing. It behaves similarly; however, with the ratios I’ve lined out, it’ll just be a little stiff when you stir it but spread on the treats just fine. If you want it a bit runnier to dunk your treats, then I’d suggest starting with ¼ cup less than I’ve outlined and increasing by the tablespoon until you get the desired consistency. But this recipe was kinda fun because it was fairly easy to spread, but stayed where it was put with very little running.

They started drying on the counter after they were iced; but I did move mine to the refrigerator for like 20 minutes to speed the process along. Then I counted them out and bagged them by the dozen and moved the majority to the freezer before putting the remaining short dozen in the fridge for immediate snacking…and this is why my dogs always appear when the fridge is opened.

My faithful baking companion

Presley (my black labradoodle) was waiting in the kitchen from the moment I pulled my mixing bowl from the cabinet; but Jesse (the yellow, husky-wolf mix) kept napping with his other dad until the smell probably became too much for him as he joined us probably like a minute before I pulled them from the oven. Needless to say, my peanut butter bowl and blueberry pan (after it cooled, of course) were thoroughly cleaned before I put them in the dishwasher; and both my boys took them without any further waiting once I’d let them cool before they were iced. After a quick sniff check, Jesse (my always cautious eater) took the iced versions with no further hesitation; and as per usual, Presley never paused at all.

As I’ve tried to point out with the alterations throughout, this recipe is also fairly versatile depending on what you want as your desired outcome. You can completely transform this treat to make different varieties with very little effort on your part—these could go from iced treats to sandwich treats with the omission of two simple ingredients; and your dogs will still go crazy for them. For more variety, switch out the fruits in the jam icing or try the yogurt-based icing used for the carrot cake treats…the possibilities are virtually limitless.

Overall, these were really fun and super easy to make. The peanut butter treats will make your house smell amazing; and I’m betting your dog will go crazy for them even without the icing. If you’re a novice baker or are too scared to try, give this one a go since I don’t think it can disappoint—plus, it uses simple, easy to find ingredients.


As always, feel free to use the contact links and/or the social media links to ask any questions or show me your treats after you’ve made them; and be sure to follow Jesse on Twitter @jdawg_yellow. 

 Check out the full recipe here, or keep scrolling down…

Peanut Butter & Jelly Dog Treats

PB & J Treats 

Yields 68 Heart-Shaped Treats with two odd round treats

Peanut Butter Treat Ingredients:

½ cup all-natural peanut butter

½ cup unsweetened applesauce

1 whole egg

½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat flour (plus more for dusting)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Mix peanut, applesauce and egg until well combined; and then add all other ingredients and mix until uniform and moist.

Dust rolling surface & rolling pin with extra whole wheat flour and roll out dough to between 1/4^th and 1/8^th inch thickness. Cut out shapes trying to get as many shapes from your first roll as possible; and continue to re-knead and roll out until all dough has been used.


Place shapes on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 11-15 minutes. Treats will be firm to the touch but slightly yielding and light, golden brown in color. Allow treats to cool completely before icing.

Blueberry “Jelly” icing Ingredients:

6 oz package of frozen blueberries (approximately 1 cup cup)

1/2  cup water

¾ cup tapioca starch

Add blueberries and water in a medium sauce pan and cook over medium high. As the mixture heats take a potato masher or heat-proof spatula and mash the blueberries and continue mashing blueberries with the flat side of the spatula as the mixture comes to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and continue to stir until reduced by approximately half.

Once reduced, allow to cool completely. This should yield about 1/2 cup of blueberry compote. Combine the blueberries with ¾ cup tapioca starch and mix until combined and smooth. Using a butter knife or small off-set spatula, ice treats.

Allow icing to dry on treats before storing. 

Yummy Iced or Plain!

Check out the About the Recipe Section for more tips and alterations…