Christmas Trees Dog Treats

To make these cookies, you'll need to have some Christmas cookie cutters.

If you are just going to make these cookies once a year (for your own dog and as gifts), then you probably don't need heavy duty cookie cutters.

The best place that I've found to get occasional use cookie cutters is Hobby Lobby or Michaels. Both have cookie cutters for under a dollar. Wal-Mart sometimes has some around the holidays, but they are not as reliable a source.

# Place all the ingredients (except the carob or yogurt coating and colored sprinkles) in your bread machine and use the dough setting.
# When the dough is ready, remove it, divide it into 2-3 pieces and roll the dough until it is 1/4" thick.
# Cut out your shapes. For Christmas, I like to use trees, stars, Santa, snowmen, stockings, etc.

# Place the dog cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet or baking mat.
# Bake the Christmas cookies at 275 degrees F for about an hour. When they are done, they will be lightly browned.
# Turn off the oven, and let the cookies continue to dry overnight in the oven.
# The next day, melt the coating or make the dog treat icing that you will be using.

# Either dip the cookies in coating or brush the melted coating onto the cookies with a pastry brush.
# While the coating or icing is still semi-liquid, put the decorative colored sprinkles on top of the cookies.

I think you'll have fun with it, and you certainly will save money. You will end up with a quality homemade dog treat that will rival any good pet bakery treats.

And you'll be able to do this--for pennies on the dollar!

If you use yogurt coating or carob coating, you can use this healthy icing with some of your "people" recipes, also. So consider other uses for these coatings in addition to this dog treats recipe.

Use them for "people" cookies, drizzle them on cakes and coffee cakes. Coat pretzels with them. Use them in candy molds to make little candies. You will find many, many uses!