from Kris B.

I was happy to discover that King Arthur Flour thinks about our canine family members too!  You may remember a few years ago when there was a safety scare surrounding commercial dog food.  The brand that our dogs were eating at the time was included in the potentially harmful list.  Needless to say, we immediately started feeding them something else.  Because I cook from scratch for us, I toyed with the idea of making homemade dog food for the furry kids.  At least then I would know exactly what they were eating.  I did quite a bit of research.  It is not surprising that I found all kinds of information and opinions; much of it conflicting.  The one thing that stuck with me was that making dog food at home does not necessarily provide that right balance of nutrients for your dog.  With that, I gave up on making their daily food.  I have, however, made many homemade treats recipes.  Our dogs, like their humans, enjoyy a good snack!  The King Arthur Homemade Dog Biscuit Mix is a fantastic addition to our snack list!

The King Arthur Flour Homemade Dog Biscuit Mix contains white whole wheat, oats, brown rice flour, flax, non-fat milk, carrots, “natural flavor,” spice, and yeast.  I’m not sure what the “natural flavor” is, but I’m fairly sure that the “spice” is poultry seasoning.  I was baking the biscuits in the morning, earlier than one’s adult child gets up on her day off.  When said adult child finally arose and made her way to the kitchen, she asked, “Why are you making stuffing for breakfast?”  I laughed and then told her it was not stuffing; it’s dog biscuits.  She said that it sure does smell like boxed stuffing. lol!  She confirmed my own thoughts that I had while mixing the dough.

This mix requires that you add an egg, vegetable oil, and lukewarm water.  In addition to the mix itself, the required yeast is also supplied.  All of the ingredients are combined, either by hand, with a mixer, or on the manual setting of a bread machine, to form a smooth dough.  The instructions say that you may need to add extra flour or water.  Once mixed, my dough felt very sticky; however, I resisted the temptation to add extra flour.  Since the dough was to rest for an hour before rolling, cutting, and baking, I decided that I would add flour at the rolling stage if I thought that it was still too sticky.  I’m glad that I waited!  After the hour of resting time, the dough felt just right!  I was able to roll it and to shape the biscuits using a cookie cutter without any sticking.  Working with the dog biscuit dough was quite easy!

The biscuits bake at 300 degrees for dark biscuits or for slightly less time for lighter biscuits.  The instructions suggest consulting with your dog concerning their personal preference here. 🙂  Once baked, the biscuits should cool in the oven for several hours or overnight.  “They are done when they are dog biscuit hard.”

The King Arthur instructions say that this mix makes 16 medium sized dog biscuits.  I got fifteen bone-shaped biscuits that are slightly larger than medium sized Milk-Bones and eighteen two inch hearts.  The instructions on the box say to roll the dough into a 12’x6’ rectangle.  To me, at this size, the dough seemed way too thick.  I rolled until the dough was maybe 2/3 of an inch thick.  My finished biscuits are about the same thickness as Milk-Bones.  With three dogs, the fact that I got 33 bones from one box of mix is a bonus!

As is the case with humans and cookie dough, all three of my dogs had a bite of the dough before it was baked.  They were sold on the recipe and blanketed the kitchen floor for an hour waiting for the “cookies” to come out of the oven.  We may or may not not have waited the full amount of time suggested for the biscuits to harden.  :-/

Adidas, Piper, and Harley give the King Arthur Flour Homemade Dog Biscuit Mix four paws up!

And if you need gifts for your dog-loving friends’ fur babies, King Arthur Flour offers the Deluxe Dog Biscuit Gift Set.  It comes with two boxes of homemade dog biscuit mix, a bone shaped cutter, and a dozen paw treat bags with stickers.

 

from Tracey G

I’m always interested in alternative baking/cooking, and by that I mean, traditional foods made in different ways to accommodate one thing or another, either health issues or taste preferences.

Mixes interest me because of their ease of use, and not having to go out and purchase all the “special” ingredients separately, but of course if I had to, I would, lol. I’ve tried a few of King Arthur Flour’s Gluten Free mixes and I’ve been happy with them all. I think so far my favorite of them all has been the Yellow Cake Mix, which is funny because I don’t usually care much for yellow cake, lol. But anyway, I thought I’d try the King Arthur Flour Gluten Free Cookie Mix – and what I really liked about this cookie mix is that YOU make it what you want it to be. It comes without “mix ins” – you decide what to add. I decided on chocolate chips as they are a pretty standard cookie!

The ingredients you add to the KAF Gluten Free Cooke Mix are simple, butter (or shortening, which I used due to my cholesterol issues), an egg and water. The mixing is a little different than with standard cookie mixes, wherein you mix half of the mix and beat in the butter, then you add the egg and water and beat until fluffy. At this point you beat in the rest of the mix. Once you’ve done that you can then add 1-3 cups of whatever add-in you choose. I, as I said, added in chocolate chips, 1 cup of them. I used my cookie scoop (it’s approximately the tablespoon size) to drop the dough onto my parchment lined cookie sheet, then once you do that you are directed to gently flatten each ball with your hand.

You bake them in a 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes, just until browned. Now here’s where I had some issues, lol. The first batch I bet I baked WAY too long, they just never looked browned! Or, never looked the kind of brown I expected, and that might have something to do with using shortening instead of butter in combination with the rest of the specialty flours etc. I don’t know, but I do know that the first batch I over-baked a bit (ok, maybe a lot), but they looked just like the batches I baked for 12 minutes, lol. They are then directed to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving them to a rack to cool completely. So, I think my lesson here is 10-12 minutes is fine – even if they don’t look how you expect.

Now came taste testing time! I have to say they are really good – of course they have a different texture, sort of a “gritty” feel, for a lack of a better term, and that they became just as addictive as “normal” chocolate chip cookies, lol. I can honestly say that I highly recommend this mix, it’s full of so many possibilities – it’s a literal blank drop cookie canvas, you’re only limited by your imagination!

I must say though, I’ll be glad when they are all eaten so that temptation is gone! But… they do taste pretty good for breakfast too, because of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t try that out, you know for informational purposes…ahem…