Some Challenging Little Canine Candy Canes

My human mommy and I spent most of this day wrapping up our holiday treat baking for my canine friends. You might recall that we made yummy little gingerbread men last week. This week, we tackled canine candy canes.

Mommy found the canine candy cane recipe at DogTreatKitchen.com, the same place where she found the recipe for the little gingerbread men. Once again, the ingredients were simple and healthy:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup nonfat powdered milk
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons red food coloring
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint oil flavoring (optional)
• 1 large egg (for an egg wash)

While I supervised, Mommy whisked the flour, powdered milk, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Then, in a smaller bowl, she poured the warm water over the bouillon cube and stirred until it dissolved. (Mommy feels the need to start adding some helpful hints now. If she ever made this recipe again–and she says she probably won’t–she would dissolve the bouillon cube in a cup and then pour the liquid into the bowl.) Then Mommy whisked the eggs into the chicken liquid. She made a well in the dry ingredients, poured the wet ingredients into the well, and stirred thoroughly to combine.

At this point, things started the get a little tricky, so we don’t have any photos to share with you. If we did have photos, they might have been of Mommy pulling her hair out.

The recipe says to knead the dough for about two minutes, adding more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. (Mommy definitely added more flour.) Then separate the dough in half. Form a well in one of the balls of dough and add the red food coloring and peppermint flavoring into the well. (Just another quick note: Best of luck trying to find peppermint oil flavoring in your grocery store the week before Christmas. Mommy went to three different stores, and they were all completely sold out. So we used mint extract. It’s close.) Wearing food-safe gloves, knead the coloring and flavoring throughout the dough.

The recipe says to wear the food-safe gloves for this step because the food coloring will stain your hands red. Mommy’s gloved hands and a small section of the kitchen looked like a murder scene during this step . . . and even with the gloves protecting her hands, they ended up being slightly stained. Also, adding the extract and food coloring made the dough sticky, so Mommy added a bit more flour to the now red dough ball.

Mommy wrapped the dough balls in plastic wrap and popped them into the freezer for 30 minutes. (There is also an option to chill the dough balls in the refrigerator for two hours, but at this point Mommy just wanted to finish this little nightmare as quickly as possible, so she went with the freezer option.)

While the dough balls chilled, Mommy and I spent some much-needed chill time outside collecting oranges from our backyard orange tree to share with our human friends and neighbors. Mother Nature makes the very best treats!

Back inside, Mommy preheated the oven to 350 F and divided each ball of dough into tablespoon-sized balls. She then rolled each ball into a worm shape about five inches long, twisted one plain strip with one red strip, curled the end to shape a candy cane, and placed the candy cane on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (This all sounds pretty simple, but it was actually quite a challenge . . . so much so that Mommy only used about two-thirds of the dough and then tossed the rest into the trash. And by the way, Mommy donned another pair or food-safe gloves to do all of this. The red-stained gloves proved that this had been a good decision on her part.)

After the candy canes were on the baking sheet, Mommy whisked an egg in a small bowl and used a pastry brush to thoroughly coat each candy cane with the egg wash. (Finally, an easy step.) Then into the preheated oven those candy canes went. The recipe says to cook for 10 minutes, but we let our treats stay in for 12 minutes.

Voila! Canine candy canes. Mommy said to take a very, very good look because it is highly unlikely that we will ever, ever make these treats again.

Too bad, because I can tell you that the canine candy canes are quite tasty . . . but, based on Mommy’s comments throughout the day, probably not worth the trouble.

At the end of the day, we bagged the candy canes with those yummy little gingerbread men to give to all or my doggy friends. Then we put the oranges from our tree into pretty bags to share with our human friends. Tomorrow, on Christmas Eve, we’ll take a nice morning walk around the neighborhood delivering tasty treats and spreading holiday cheer.

But first, after a day spent tackling the challenging canine candy canes, Mommy needs a little cheer of her own!