Trust the Vegetarian: For Delilah

Sunday, July 1, 2012

For Delilah

My poor Delilah is sick. She has a UTI. She has quite a few of these, but this one really knocked her for a loop. She was lethargic - and if you know Lila, you know that lethargic is not a word to describe this hound. She has been taking amoxicillin for a couple days, and is now feeling much better (and back to counter-surfing). But still, I decided that I would bake her up some special biscuits to make sure she gets totally well, and stays healthy.

The controversy over the bladder benefits of cranberries is continuous; some people swear that cranberry can keep the UTIs away, but some people - including Dad's doctors - say that it does nothing. The idea is that the juice is acidic and changes the pH in your bladder so that bacteria can't stick. Whether it's proven or not - and that depends on who you ask - I decided I was going to make some cranberry-based treats for Lyle.

Yum!

I found a recipe for cranberry coconut dog treats on a blog called Pup Culture Magazine, but it had a glaring error in the amount of baking time, so I am going to retype it here with my minor changes. For instance, it says to use oat flour, but my dogs happen to be fine with gluten. I also used old fashioned oats rather than quick cooking rolled, and all was well.

These were not so quick, like any recipe that calls for cookie cutters, and the dough is a little sticky and hard to cut, with all the coconut and cranberries. It took me quite a while, but as you can see, they were well worth it.

Giving paw for biscuits!

While they are mostly for Delilah, Daisy has also enjoyed these biscuits. And Lila is obsessed - although she eats turkey poop, so don't take it from her. Bizarrely enough, take it from my mother. She hates probably 50% of the things I make, and yet I had to yell at her to stop eating the dog biscuits. She also has been passing them out to my sisters and cousins. Mom said if I added nuts, they would be one of her favorite cookies. WHAT!? I do have to admit I tried one, and they are pretty good. There is nothing weird in them: just flour, oats, and baking powder, and they are flavoried with dried cranberries, coconut (it calls for unsweetened but I only had sweetened), honey and vanilla. But these are dog treats, Mom! Stop raiding the dog biscuit jar :)

Recipe:
cranberry coconut dog treats

yield: approximately 2 dozen treats

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups flour
1 cup oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cup coconut flakes
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups water

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray 2 cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, oats, baking poweder, honey, vanilla extract and wateruntil combined. Mix in dried cranberries and coconut.

3. Sprinkle table liberally with flour and roll dough out to about 1/2" thick. Cut out with cookie cutters and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

4. Bake until cookie bottoms just begin to brown, 15-20 minutes.

5. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Serve to sweet, droopy basset hounds (or your favorite breed!).