Homemade Dog Treats and Joy of Cooking Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday afternoon, at my husband's request, I was baking one of his new-found favorites (now so much a favorite that I have baked these cookies twice a week for the last two weeks straight), chocolate chip cookies from the 1943, war-time recipe found in Joy of Cooking. Whenever I cook or bake, my dogs are my constant kitchen companions, begging for food--but I like to say they're helping. As I put the last batch of cookie dough in the oven, it occurred to me that I could probably just as easily make homemade cookies for them, too, so I got on-line and Googled "healthy, homemade dog treats." Of course a plethora of recipes resulted, and I opted for one from cesarsway.com. Below are the recipes for both the people cookies, and the puppy cookies. These are my modifications, but for the original chocolate chip cookie recipe, look in the 75th edition of Joy of Cooking, published in 2006. For the original dog treat recipe (and several other dog-friendly recipes), click here.

On the left are the people cookies yielded by the Joy of Cooking chocolate chip cookie recipe. On the right are the dog cookies yielded by the recipe posted on Cesarsway.com.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (for People)

What You'll Need
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup Reese's Pieces candies

What You'll Do
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Whisk together flour and baking soda, and set aside.
3. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until well blended.
4. Add egg, salt, and vanilla to butter/sugar mixture and beat in.
5. Add in the flour mixture and stir until smooth.
6. Stir in chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces candies.
7. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake one sheet at a time for 8 to 10 minutes.

What You'll Get
This recipe yields between 32 and 36 cookies.

Above are the finished cookies, featuring bittersweet chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces candies. They are so popular with my husband that I have baked them twice a week for the last two weeks in a row.

Cheesy Whole Wheat Cookies (for Puppies)

What You'll Need
2 1/2 cups whole wheat (unless your dog is sensitive to wheat, in which case you can use regular flour or oats)
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

What You'll Do
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Knead all ingredients together until dough forms a ball. (To keep the dough from getting too crumbly, you may have to add small amounts of water as you knead.)
3. Roll dough to about 1/2 inch thick.
4. Slice dough into the shape and size you desire (I just did rectangles).
5. Place dough pieces on lightly greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.

What You'll Get
The number yielded here really depends on what shape and size you decide to use, but the resulting cookies are very crunchy and my dogs seem to think they're delicious.

My dogs love these crunchy, easy-to-make, homemade dog cookies, comprised of whole wheat, salt, egg, water, and shredded cheese.