When I started baking homemade dog treats, almost 5 years ago, my focus was crunchy treats. It didn't take long to realize that it was a process not only requiring the perfect baking time, but drying time as well. Our original Bodacious Biscuit Love Peanut Butter Dog Treats are crunchy, but it takes a couple of days to achieve that. Once baked and cooled, they have to sit on trays in our temperature controlled biscuit room for 36-48 hours.
The final product is a dog biscuit that's crunchy, but not too crunchy.
Over the past few months, I've been creating new homemade dog treat recipes every week. At first, I continued to focus on crunchy treats. That all changed when I started receiving emails and private messages with requests for soft baked treats.
Most of the biscuit recipes I shared, prior to that point, could easily be converted into a soft baked treat in 2 easy steps. Roll the biscuits a little thicker and, once the biscuits are baked and cooled, immediately put them in an airtight container. The biscuits will stay soft.
That was a quick and easy solution.
Like with most things in life, a quick and easy solution is usually a temporary fix. For example, lets say you get a bad storm one evening accompanied with high winds. A branch crashes through your living room window. A quick and easy solution, to guard the inside of your home from the outside, is to put plastic up and seal with Duct Tape.
The plastic and Duct Tape is a temporary solution. It works. It solves the problem until you're able to get a new window put in.
The 2 easy steps for converting our crunchy treats into soft treats was a temporary fix. What I needed to do was create recipes that were specifically soft baked dog treats.
In other words, once baked and cooled, there was no urgency to immediately put them in an airtight container. If you left soft baked dog treats out on the counter overnight, they'd still be soft baked in the morning.
That was the inspiration behind last week's homemade dog treat recipe.
Prior to creating a soft baked version of our Bodacious Biscuit Love Peanut Butter Dog Treats, I had to take a good look at what soft baked actually meant.
As a 30+ year baking veteran, when I think of soft baked, the first thing that comes to mind is a soft baked sugar cookie.
Although there's an endless selection of store bought dog treats available, there's not too many soft baked options.
Soft baked does not translate to chewy.
Between the requests I've received over the past few months, and the sweet pup who inspired me last week, I realize there's a need for soft baked treats. The reasons vary from digestive and oral issues all the way to preference.
All of the above was my inspiration for this week's new, homemade dog treat recipe. And, it will continue to inspire me in the weeks ahead.
To make these scrumptious Bodacious Soft Baked Apple Cheddar Dog Biscuits, you'll want to combine the following a bowl or mixer...
2 cups flour
3/4 cups applesauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons baking powder
Mix well.
For this recipe, I didn't need to add any water. However, once you mix all of the ingredients, if the dough is too dry, add a little warm water.
Flour the counter and the mound o' dough and roll the dough a little thicker than 1/4 of an inch. Use your cookie cutter of choice. You can roll and cut this dough as many times as needed.
Bake these gems on a non-stick cookie sheet at 350 for 20 minutes. The time will vary depending on your oven. The final product should be golden brown on the bottom and spongy to the touch.
These homemade dog treats smelled incredible while baking in the oven. They puffed up nicely and had the perfect soft baked consistency I was aiming for.
Coco, Sophie, and Lobo inhaled these treats during snack time.
Unfortunately, due to food allergies, Willa was not able to try these treats.
They all gave a paws up.
Enjoy and happy baking!
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