peanut butter

“Bow-Wow Peanut Butter Dog Treats”

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 12 Comments

Hubbard

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We all need to just have fun sometimes…doing something a bit silly. Today was my day! Or maybe, to be honest, one of many days, but that is another story.

I have been holding onto this little recipe for some time now. It was given to me by my friend and baker extraordinaire Gina Olds. Although she makes a mean baguette and the flakiest of croissants what used to be a hit at our house was her homemade dog treats! Not for me, nor Wouter, but for our dog Ella. When Gina closed her neighborhood bakery it was a rather sad day. Suddenly, like Old Mother Hubbard, our cupboard was a bit bare!

Gina gave all the pups in Historic Germantown a treat when they stopped by her bakery to visit…which they did every day because she gave them a treat! It was kinda like which came first the dog visit or the dog treat if you know what I am getting at. To see some of the many reasons why I like Gina so much check out her blog Heart Written Words.

Her dog treats were so good, natural with no chemicals or sugars, that some of the babies in our neighborhood used them for teething biscuits! I am not kidding! True story.

Peanut butter is the “hook” flavor..who doesn’t like peanut butter? I know some of you cannot eat it, but it is for the dog…right? Use Almond butter if peanut butter cannot enter your home. Your dog will love them, and you, just as well.

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Sources for Dog Bone Treat cookie cutters:

http://www.joann.com/wilton-metal-cookie-cutter-3in-blue-dog-bone/8218257.html

http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Bone-Piece-Cookie-Cutter/dp/B0027CU0GS

https://www.etsy.com/listing/161298099/dog-bone-cookie-cutter-custom-treat

Other ingredients you will probably have on hand are flour, baking powder, egg, milk.

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Baked for almost an hour…dry and crunchy, peanut butter dog treats. So easy. What great holiday (yes I just said that word) gifts for your dog friends.

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I must get every crumb!

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Is this all there is?

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Bow-Wow Peanut Butter Dog Treats

  • Servings: 24-30
  • Print

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Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 – 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup smooth peanut butter (or almond butter)
  • 3/4 cup “0” fat milk (Ella is on a diet!) you can use whole fat
  • Special tool: Dog Bone cookie cutter

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle or dough hook mix together the flour, baking powder. Mix on low to blend.
  3. Add egg and peanut butter. Mix on medium speed until well blended. Turn mixer to low and drizzle in milk until a dough forms.
  4. Divide dough in half and roll out on a lightly floured board to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into bones using shaped cookie cutter. Place bones on a parchment paper lined sheet pan.
  5. Bake for about 1 hour or until treats are hard and crunchy. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container.

As you can see from the photos of Ella above she ate every crumb and longing looked for more as she licked her lips!

These can be made with large or small bone shaped cookie cutters…I used a larger size but next time I will use a smaller size and make twice as many.

These treats make wonderful gifts for your dog friends!

Teresa Blackburn       http://www.foodonfifth.com         http://www.teresablackburnfoodstyling.com

Sources:

Dog Bone Cookie cutters – Michaels or online

French rolling-pin/Marble slab for rolling pastry – Williams Sonoma

 

My George Washington Carver Peanut Butter Cookies (Gluten Free)

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 28 Comments

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When I was in elementary school in West Tennessee we had a “real lunchroom”. There were home cooked, seasonal meals for lunch every day. The ladies who cooked wore simple white uniforms with nets covering their hair. There was a cafeteria line and you could see into the kitchen in the background with all the food prep and cooking going on.

 Peanut Butter Cookies appeared as a dessert for our school lunches at about the same time as we were  studying George Washington Carver and his peanuts. For years I actually thought he invented the peanut! I remember a black and white photo of Mr. Carver in one of our school books standing in the middle of a field of peanuts. I took to calling these school cafeteria cookies “George Washington Carver Peanut Butter Cookies”.

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Mr. George Washington Carver standing in a field of peanuts.

This mental collision of a particularly loved food (peanut butter cookies), being able to watch the ladies cooking in our school kitchen every day and the awareness that the legume in the cookie I loved so much were directly connected to a botanist at the Tuskegee Institute down in Alabama was just the first of many such childhood food epiphanies.

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  On “George Washington Carver Peanut Butter Cookie” days I would attempt to swap my real food for someone else’s cookie. There were always a few friends who did not like peanut butter. On a good cookie swap day I might have up to 4 to eat later on. They were worth giving up my homegrown tomato slices or creamy mashed potatoes for. Those cookies set the bar very high. I have looked for that cookie since and have never found anything even close. Divine is what they were with just the right amount of crisp edges and softness in the center.

These little gluten-free cookies are very peanut buttery and crispy (I wish they were a bit softer, but I will work on that). They have sated my quest for a while. This recipe is based on one I made for a client recently for an editorial photo shoot. It is gluten-free and very easy.

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Easy to mix….1 inch balls…

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… the traditional “fork marks”!

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Ready to bake.

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Bob’s Red Mill Golden Flaxseed Meal instead of flour.

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Sprinkled with a bit of sanding sugar ready to eat still warm from the oven.

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 There has not been a time in my life that I do not think of Mr. Carver whenever I eat anything with peanut butter. I wonder if he liked peanut butter cookies and what he would think about making a cookie “gluten-free”? Did he have Peanut Butter and Jelly on white bread for lunch while diligently working in his lab or surveying the fields upon fields of peanuts that helped to change the way we now eat?

George Washington Carver Peanut Butter Cookies

  • Servings: 24 cookies
  • Print

pnut butter cookies GWC

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cups creamy peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup raw/turbinado sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar (baking sugar)
  • 2 tbsp flaxseed meal
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 2 egg whites
  • sanding sugar for garnish

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a couple of baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk together the egg whites & sea salt in a bowl until frothy.
  3. Into egg whites stir peanut butter, raw sugar, brown sugar & flaxseed meal. Mix well. Batter will be stiff and may appear to “seize”, but just ignore this and mix until ingredients are well incorporated.
  4. Using a tablespoon measure, shape batter into balls and place about 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets.
  5. Using a fork, make criss-cross marks on each ball pressing slightly to flatten.
  6. Bake 20 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned. Sprinkle cookies generously with sanding sugar & cool on a wire rack.

Ice Cream Dreams

~ Teresa Blackburn ~ 19 Comments

Last Friday it was 98 degrees in the shade and the job was to shoot some real ice cream dessert shots.

My part of the shoot was to dream up some ideas as long as they were ice cream-like. I wanted the flavor profiles to be a little outside the box while using familiar ingredients with a bit of a twist. I wanted interesting textures and a refreshing look.

My Ice Cream Dream #1   “Peach & Raspberry Buttermilk Ice Cream served with Ines Rosales Crackers Drizzled with Chocolate Sauce”

 Ice Cream Ingredients:

3 cups good quality buttermilk

1/2 cup turbinado or raw sugar

1 generous TBSP Balsamic Vinegar (I used a Mango flavored Balsamic Vinegar. But any of the fruit flavored ones on the market would be equally delicious or just plain Balsamic.)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups fresh, ripe peaches, peeled  & cut into small chunks

1 cup fresh raspberries

Directions:

1. Prep ice cream freezer as per instructions for your particular freezer. I use a Cuisinart electric freezer that works so beautifully every time.

2. Pour cold buttermilk into a bowl & sprinkle sugar over the surface. Let it sit until sugar has melted about 5-7 minutes. Stir mixture together. Add balsamic vinegar & vanilla extract & blend well. Taste for sweetness. If desired you can add a bit more sugar to suit your taste.

3.  Pour chilled mixture into the freezer bowl and freeze mixture until it is soft-frozen according to freezer instructions. At this point add in the chopped peaches and whole raspberries.  When mixture is frozen, cover and place in refrigerator freezer until ready to serve.

Other ingredients to complete dessert:

A package of Ines Rosales crackers (Whole Foods). (If you cannot find these then use Matzoh crackers that you have brushed with honey & sprinkled with sugar.)

A good quality dark chocolate syrup

Additional raspberries for garnish

To Assemble Dessert:

Place one Ines Rosales on each serving plate. Top with a generous scoop of Peach & Raspberry Buttermilk Ice Cream. Top with another Ines Rosales. Drizzle chocolate syrup over top and garnish with a scatter of raspberries. The crispy, salty, sweetness of these crackers were perfect with the very slightly balsamic flavored Peach Ice Cream and the hint of dark chocolate.

My Ice Cream Dream #2   “Benton Bacon Sugar Cookie Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich”

I found the Benton Bacon Sugar Cookies last week at the wonderful little grocery in The Gulch “The Turnip Truck”. I was intrigued enough to bring a package home to couple with  dark chocolate ice cream to create an unusually fantastic ice cream sandwich.

Note: if you cannot find these same cookies you can easily make your own by adding some cooked, chopped Benton Bacon pieces to your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe.

Once again this coupling of salt, crunch and creamy cold was a very fine treat.

To Do: Sandwich a scoop of dark chocolate ice cream between two cookies. Place in freezer wrapped in waxed paper until ready to eat.

My Ice Cream Dream #3   “Frozen Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sundae”

I recently ran across this easy one ingredient ice cream idea so it is in no way my original idea. I found it at instructables.com. Of course I gilded the lily somewhat.

Ingredient list:

4-6 ripe, with lots of brown spots, bananas, peeled, cut into chunks and frozen

large bakery or homemade chocolate chip cookies

peanut butter

chocolate sprinkles

Sea Salt

Directions for ice cream:

1. Place frozen bananas into a food processor and process until bananas become the consistency of ice cream. You might have to scrape down sides of processor during this part. Mixture should be “scoop-able”. That’s it.

2. Melt peanut butter in microwave until it is can be poured.

To Serve:

Place a cookie on plate, top with a scoop of the banana ice cream, add a drizzle of the peanut butter, add chocolate sprinkles and sea salt flakes over the top and serve.

Be Sweet, Stay Cool.