Gingerbread cookies for your furry little friends!

While I was baking like crazy this holiday season, I thought about Bella, my spoiled rotten dog... wouldn't it be nice if she could get a special treat during the holidays?

Ah-ha! A couple months back, David's mom had sent me a link for dog recipes. I had tried frozen doggy treats from this website, which Bella LOVED, so I subscribed to the newsletter. Sure enough, in a recent newsletter, there was a recipe for gingerbread dog treats! Yay! New treats for Bella, and an excellent Christmas/Hanukkah gift for my other friendly pooches out there!

Gingerbread Dog Treats

Ingredients

• 1 cup molasses
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the molasses, honey, water, and oil in a medium bowl.
3. In another large bowl mix the flour, the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Combine well. Divide this dough in four sections and roll each piece into a ball, wrap each ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 – 5 hours.
5. After the dough is well-chilled, put dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll dough out into 1/4" thickness. Cut dough with a cookie cutter into gingerbread men or other fun shapes. 
6. Bake 10 – 15 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges and firm.

Now, this recipe yields A LOT of dog treats! I recommend either freezing them, cutting the recipe in half, or passing them out to friends for their furry loved ones! 

This recipe is a lot of fun because you can use all kinds of cookie cutters! It's not like your furry friend will notice a difference, except for maybe the size, but these cookies end up making nice little gifts for other people who own dogs. The small holiday tins sold in craft stores are perfect containers for these treats! Since it's the holidays, I used a few different cookie cutters: gingerbread men, christmas trees, candy canes, stars (small and large); and for basic dog treat shapes, circles (small and large).

I didn't taste these treats, but I can definitely speak for Bella... she LOVED them! As soon as she smells the ginger, her tail starts wagging frantically!