Recipe | Pumpkin Drop Cookies

Spring is here in NYC! All of a sudden, Central Park has become really lush, which moved me to snap this picture. But for me, winter is officially over when M says it’s time for spring cleaning. That happened about 2 weekends ago, and I’m still at it. The problem is that I got stuck on the pantry items that needed to be used up or chucked away, like the extra can of pumpkin puree left over from Thanksgiving. That got me sidetracked into baking things like pumpkin hazelnut donuts and pumpkin tea cakes. And I still had about half a cup of puree left and a kitchen to finish spring cleaning.

Recipe | Doggie Custard Tarts

I was so impressed with the treats at Three Dog Bakery in L.A. that I decided to bake something from their cookbook, Cooking the Three Dog Bakery Way.  Unfortunately, the cookbook doesn’t give away the secrets of the amazing-looking goodies I saw at the bakery, like the sliders, s’mores, and donuts.  (I did get a hint from the woman who worked there, so I’m gonna experiment!)  I wanted to make something that looked like a human treat, and the recipe for “Pawtite Pies” seemed very close to custard tarts–the kind you get from Chinatown.  As it was baking in the oven, it even smelled like a treat fit for humans.

As soon as the tarts cooled, we gave some to Miss Mindy, who took it to the next room to gobble it up in private.  Erin and I couldn’t help ourselves either and took a bite. Ohmygoodness, they were so good that I momentarily considered serving them for brunch this weekend.  Continue for the recipe and more pics.

Recipe | Doggie Birthday Cake with Frosting

Every now and then I come across a list of Rules when Entertaining.  Many are helpful, but I adhere to just one rule:  Don’t try a new recipe on guests.  This is a very practical rule for reasons like not having dinner done until 11pm.  But Erin and I broke this rule big time for Bailey’s party. Among the new recipes we tried was the doggie birthday cake.  I had to make several game-time decisions when the recipe didn’t make sense.  Like when the recipe called for “2 medium carrots or 10 baby carrots.”  This had me scratching my head because my 2 medium carrots equaled at least 20 baby carrots.

In the end, it all worked out fine.  Bailey and her friends pretty much inhaled the cake.  But I would do things a little differently next time.  My cooking notes are at the end of each recipe.

Recipe | Easter Egg Treats for Dogs

We had a pretty low-key Easter weekend.  No pastel-tinted eggs, no bunnies in saccharine marshmallow or hollow chocolate, no rack of lamb.  Instead, we indulged Bailey.

Since I started baking doggie treats, I’ve been trying to figure out how to decorate them.  Sugar is the key ingredient in getting frosting or icing to harden for human goodies.  But that much sugar can’t be good for puppies.  There’s melted carob, but that gives you only one color–brown.  Easter (and this season’s fashion) is all about the pastels.

I tried to think of ways to get icing to harden without sugar, and even tried reading a scientific study on the toxicity of gum arabic.  I almost bought this, which seems to me like buying canned frosting, i.e., cheating.  Then I came upon a novel way to decorate doggie biscuits using natural ingredients.

Going all out: Red Velvet Cake

I’m still recovering from this weekend.  On Saturday, I hosted a dinner party for Erin and her friends to celebrate her 30th.  S offered to cater the event from Carmine’s, but after taking a look at the menu, I decided that I could do it myself with better food at a fraction of the cost. M thought I was crazy and protested on the ground that my problems are his problems; my messes, his messes.  So I promised that he wouldn’t have to clean up after my cooking (per the usual deal) and that I wouldn’t get too ambitious with the menu like at Thanksgiving.

M’s protests got me wondering, at what point is cooking dinner for 15 people not worth the effort?  It took me about 14 hours to plan the menu, order the groceries, and cook and bake everything.  And the clean-up.  Was it worth it?  Well, let’s just say that I enjoyed every minute of it, but I won’t be doing it again for a while.  Although in all fairness, I’m not sure if it was the dinner prep that’s left me still in recovery mode, or staying up ’til 4 in the morning singing karaoke with the birthday girl…

After all that, I’m looking ahead to planning another birthday party … Bailey’s!  Thankfully, this will be more low-key.  Of course there will be treats for the dogs, but we’ll also have something for the humans.  Perhaps some Bailey-shaped maple butter cookies.  For Erin’s birthday dinner, I baked a red velvet cake with cream cheese/mascarpone frosting.  It was so good that I couldn’t help saying it was so good in front of the guests, which I know, I know is bad form. But it was really good, so perhaps I’ll make a cupcake version for Bailey’s party.  I followed this recipe to the dot, minus about 5 tablespoons of red food coloring.  6 tablespoons seemed excessive, a typo even.

I have a few more ideas that I want to try when my mom comes for a visit tomorrow, so stay tuned for more doggie and human treat recipes and pictures.

Recipe | Maple Butter Cookies (for Humans)

Photo: Sarah

It’s time, I thought, to post a recipe for humans.  Since I just bought a cookie cutter in the shape of a schnauzer and it’s maple season, this recipe I used during Christmas seemed perfect. But I was having one of those days when nothing seems to go right.  I stayed up way too late trying to send my editor something before the weekend started so that I could take the weekend off. Boy did that backfire.  I ended up sleep deprived and cranky, and my distracted mind was affecting my baking.  I’d forgotten that I had filled my flour container not with the usual all-purpose flour, but with white whole wheat flour (sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?).  And since I had run out of plain old granulated sugar, I used raw turbinado sugar instead.  The substitutions shouldn’t make a difference, right?

Recipe | Doggie Cupcakes

Photo: Erin

I’m bummed that I’m out of town on Macaron Day in NYC. But if you’re a New Yorker reading this, you should definitely go and get your free macaron and even support a good cause at the same time. And you can yell maaa-ca-roooons! like on SNL.

Macaron Day’s logo, “macaron, the new cupcake” had me thinking, has the macaron really overtaken the cupcake? While I’ve probably eaten more macarons than cupcakes so far this year, I’m not sure that the macaron is the new cupcake–yet. Think about it: for birthdays, the go-to dessert is the cupcake, not the macaron. I haven’t asked any school-age children, but I’m guessing that parents still bring cupcakes, not macarons, to class for birthday parties. If you’re in the mood for cupcakes on the UWS, you have to choose from Baked by Melissa, Crumbs, and Magnolia Bakery, all dedicated to the cupcake. But for the macaron, nada. (If I’m wrong, somebody please enlighten me.)

So when Erin told me that Bailey’s friend was having a birthday this weekend, of course both of us thought of making doggie cupcakes for the occasion. Continue for the recipe.

Recipe | St. Patty’s Breath-Freshening Biscuits

Photo: Erin

After I heard about Bailey’s dental woes, I decided that breath-freshening biscuits were in order. Not only do mint and parsley help freshen the breath for both humans and dogs, but they also turn these biscuits speckled-green, which are perfect for St. Patty’s day coming up this Saturday. And if you’re feeling really festive, shamrock cookie cutters may even inspire you and your pup to break out in an Irish jig.

Click through to see more photos and the breath-freshening dog treat recipe.

Recipe | Doggie Oreos

Today, the Oreo turns 100. It’s apparently the top-selling cookie in the world, which I can easily believe. After all, don’t we all have an Oreo story? Mine goes back to the time when I lived abroad. I was living alone in a foreign city, with no family or old friends on even the same continent. I loved the adventure of being an expat, but I knew I was feeling homesick whenever I craved an Oreo with milk. It was weird because I had never craved an Oreo before. Thankfully, even shops in rural China sold Oreos. I confess there were times when I ate a whole box of Oreos with Chinese milk, i.e., milk that you bought off the dry-goods shelf, not the refrigerator.

But when I saw this recipe for homemade Oreos, my first thought wasn’t I have to make Oreos from scratch. Because really, how can I improve on the Oreo? Instead, I immediately thought, I could adapt this recipe to make Oreos for dogs! So I did. I substituted chocolate with carob powder, which is safe for dogs. And I used all-natural or organic ingredients so that these could be healthy treats for Bailey and her friends.

Photo: Sarah

Continue for the recipe for homemade doggie Oreos.

A Pup After My Own Heart

M and I dog-sat Bailey this weekend. She’s been a bit sad because of the cone head she has to wear to stop her from scratching a scab. Poor Bailey–she must think we have her in handcuffs. There were no treats in Bailey’s weekend bag, so Friday night I baked some biscuits for her. That perked her up. And she seemed more motivated. She started doing old tricks better and even danced on her hind legs.

Photo: Sarah

Bailey reminds me of me. In college, I used to put a Lindt truffle next to my alarm clock every night to get me out of bed in the morning. Too bad dogs can’t eat chocolate. But they love carob! This train of thought led to the brilliant idea of dipping the biscuits in melted carob chips. Carob’s harder to work with than chocolate, but a little bit of oil makes them spreadable, just like chocolate.

Photo: Sarah

I needed some motivation, too, after starting the weekend a bit sluggish. A friend asked me to bring a French dessert to her Oscar party, so I baked some motivational treats for myself, too: lavender and orange macarons!

Photo: Sarah