19/12/2017

Turkey, Sage & Cranberry Dog Biscuits

Name: Turkey, Sage & Cranberry Dog Biscuits
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 250 g raw turkey mince (substitute cooked turkey, chopped); 50 g dried cranberries (finely choppped); 2 tsp dried sage; 200 g chickpea/gram or other flour (plus extra for rolling out); 2-3 tbsp yogurt, milk, stock or water

Turkey, Sage & Cranberry Dog Biscuits are an easily made Christmas treat, full of natural ingredients that your pooch will love.

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I’ve posted quite a few Christmas recipes for us humans, including Mincemeat, Mince Pies, Panettone Bread & Butter Pudding and Turkey Stock. So I thought it was about time our doggie friends got a look in.

As hopefully everyone knows by now, many traditional Christmas foods can be very dangerous or even fatal to dogs, particularly dried fruits and chocolate. So here’s a recipe that allows them to safely enjoy some of the flavours of Christmas in the form of a crunchy biscuit they’ll love.

Turkey, Sage & Cranberry Dog Biscuits

My Turkey, Sage & Cranberry Dog Biscuits are incredibly simple to make with just five ingredients. Compare to shop bought treats which often contain salt, sugar plus artificial preservatives, colours and flavourings.

Besides being a lovely treat for your own dog (I like to put some in wrapping paper and let our cocker spaniel Larkin open it on Christmas morning) they also make a great present for your doggie friends. Put some in a wide-mouthed jar, pretty tin or cellophane bag tied with ribbon. And a few biscuits in your pocket to share with dogs you meet on your Christmas morning walk will make you the most popular human out and about.

ALL NATURAL

These all-natural biscuits are simply fresh turkey mince (or you can substitute leftover cooked turkey), cranberries, sage and flour plus some liquid to bind it together.

I’ve used chickpea or gram flour in this recipe. But it doesn’t really matter what type of flour you use. Many dogs appear to be sensitive to wheat, so if you know that the dogs who’ll be eating these biscuits are fine with wheat flour then any standard plain white or wholemeal flour is fine.

I like to use chickpea flour as it’s protein-packed and suitable for dogs on grain-free and gluten-free diets. I always have it in the cupboard anyway as I use it for making Indian snacks like Onion Bhaji, Aloo Bonda and Socca flatbreads.

Admittedly, it can be a little sticky to work with, but also has the pleasing effect of turning the dough a lovely saffron colour.

A few other flours you could use are:

Coconut flour: relatively expensive, but grain-free and gluten-free. Smells lovely.
Oat flour: cheap if you make your own by whizzing porridge oats to a powder in a food processor. Often tolerated by dogs sensitive to wheat.
Rice flour: white or brown. Again, many dogs sensitive to wheat are fine with rice. I use it to flour the worktop when rolling out the dough due to the stickiness of the chickpea flour.

SIMPLE

The method for making the biscuits couldn’t be simpler. If you’re using raw turkey mince, place it in a heated, non-stick frying pan (no oil needed) and stir around until it’s browned and cooked through. I use a fork to break it up a bit and then stir in the sage.

Once it’s cooled the turkey is mixed with the cranberries and flour plus enough liquid to bring it together into a dough. I use yogurt as the binder but you could use egg, milk, low salt stock or even just water.

Then it’s just a matter of rolling out the dough (not too thick or the resulting biscuits won’t be as crunchy) and cutting into whatever shapes you fancy. Just make sure they’re a suitable size for the lucky dog that’s going to eat them.

You might find that, as it’s quite a ‘lumpy’ dough because of the cranberries and meat pieces, biscuits made with cutters that have a more intricate shape (like with my small Christmas tree cutter) won’t have a very neat edge.

But you can just cut out a plain circle and then press the more complicated pattern halfway down into the dough. Although I don’t think your dog’s going to mind about raggedy edges anyway.

The biscuits need 20-25 minutes in a moderate oven until browned and cooked through. This batch got a little over-browned, but no matter. I’ve never known a dog yet who refused one of my homemade biscuits.

As they cook, the kitchen will be filled with the delicious aroma of roasting turkey and sage. I always make them when Larkin’s out of the way as he goes crazy for them.

STORING

Once cooled on wire racks, the biscuits can be stored in a tin or jar where they’ll keep for at least 2 weeks.

I sometimes make big batches of dog biscuits for the freezer (Larkin always has a couple of biscuits at bedtime) and, if they’re not rolled out too thickly, you can feed biscuits straight from frozen. It won’t do the dog any harm and the biscuits will be nice and crunchy whereas defrosted biscuits can go soft.

VARIATIONS

Using the same proportions of wet and dry ingredients as in the Turkey, Sage & Cranberry Dog Biscuits. there’s a limitless variety to those you can make for your dog. Here’s just a few ideas:

Use minced pork, beef, lamb or chicken instead of turkey
Tinned tuna, salmon or salt-free sardine biscuits are great for dogs who love fish
Blueberry, Pumpkin Seed & Chamomile make a nice bedtime biscuit
Mashed banana, Peanut Butter & Grated Carrot: I use 100% nut peanut butter so no palm oil, salt or sugar
Grated apple & Cinnamon

What homemade treats do you make for your pets?