Do you ever bake for your pups? I do! In fact, I’ve been my dogs’ personal chef for more than 5 years. I’ve spent a lot of time in my kitchen, experimenting with Fido-friendly ingredients and coming up with a variety of recipes. Now, I’ve published a dog treat cookbook called Proud Dog Chef: Tail-Wagging Good Treat Recipes. Plus, I regularly host virtual cooking classes for veterinary offices and canine clubs, where I teach fellow pet parents how to whip up fresh yet simple snacks for their dogs.
Through my many years of treat making practice, I’ve faced my fair share of baking struggles. Enter: Cracked and bowed treats!
Cracks In Homemade Dog Biscuits?
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in the middle of recipe testing for my cookbook when all of a sudden, I went through a weird few days where I burned every single tray of treats. When I pulled batch after batch out of the oven, I was left with dark brown, severely cracked, and bowed messes. I must admit, it made me very frustrated.
I couldn’t figure out why it was happening. My oven was set to the same temperature as it usually was (350ºF), and I was baking for around the same length of time as always.
So what the heck?!
After a night of rethinking my baking abilities, I decided to march myself down to the store and pick up an oven thermometer. Turns out … my oven wasn’t calibrated. It was 50º hotter than I was setting it to. So, while I set my oven to 350ºF, it was really baking at 400ºF. That’s a huge difference. Phew … it wasn’t me after all!
Top 3 Reasons Dog Treats Crack and Bow
- Not enough liquid in the recipe. (Try adding 1 tablespoon of water. If the dough still feels too dry, add more!)
- Treats are cooked at too high of a temperature. (Everyone’s oven is slightly different. Grab an oven thermometer to check if your oven is running hot. If everything looks good, maybe the recipe creator’s oven was off. Adjust and test!)
- Treats are left in the oven too long. (Once you pop a tray of treats into the oven, keep an eye on them.)
Throughout my time making homemade dog treats, I’ve baked with various flours. While I work exclusively with grain-free and gluten-free flours today, I have created whole wheat treats too. I do notice certain gluten-free flours are more susceptible to cracking than others. While us pet parents set out to make Instagram-worthy bites, if you pull out a batch of cracked treats, I promise that your dog won’t mind!
Kitchen Confidence
Often times, people don’t bake homemade treats because they don’t have a lot of kitchen confidence. If your first experience is a bad one (like those few days were for me), then you may shy away from baking in the future. But, don’t worry! Flops happen from time to time … and that’s okay. What matters is figuring out why it happened and how you can fix it.
For me, I will always keep a thermometer in my oven from now on. But the message goes for anything. If you follow a recipe and find your dough is too crumbly then add more liquid. If your dough is too liquidy then add more flour.
There is always a solution and I’m always an email away to try and help you solve it 🙂
RE: Baking Treats
I think it’s fun to cook/bake/make treats for my fur kids, just as I would if we had human kids. I started baking pumpkin dog biscuits for our lab, Molly, a few years ago. I’m pleased to say she will choose a pumpkin “cookie” over a milk bone. They are popular gifts too. I have severe Rheumatoid Arthritis so it’s hard for me to use rolling pins and cookie cutters (I do love all the fun shapes and use cookie cutters when making treat gifts). In lieu of cookie cutters, I roll out my dough and use a pizza cutter to cut strips and then go across to make rectangles and squares. My girls have found no difference in the taste ;). It’s funny to see them waiting by the oven for the batches of cookies to come out. Of course we always do a “quality control” taste test lol! 🙂 I have a baking silicone pan with the paw prints. I love it, especially for making frozen treats in the summer! Thank you for sharing your cooking tips and congrats on writing a cookbook. I would certainly buy a copy! 🙂
Hi Emelia! Your message made me smile 🙂 I too get a kick out of the dogs waiting at the oven for their treats. They always know when it’s something for them! I’m also happy to hear that I’m not the only one who tastes the treats before serving them to my pups hahahahaha. Amazing! I LOVE your idea of using a pizza cutter to create designs! Very smart — I’m going to try it! It’s always great connecting with other proud dog moms, like you. Thank you for writing!
Milk bones are bad, that’s why he doesn’t like them. Does are not stupid, they know real food if given the chance to eat it.
Karen’s video sums it up
https://www.facebook.com/doctor.karen.becker/videos/10154217975977748/