There was a post by /@wildatheart41 which I commented on here, talking about how I made baby food, cream of wheat, and milk powder treats.
I just made a batch in the pyramid trays I was talking about and it's a success! 1018 treats -- 509 per batch -- in about 40 minutes (and I go kinda slow), for $3 or less per batch. And they're around 0.6-0.7 calories per treat!
This is the recipe that I used with some alterations (see notes below). Here's my version of the recipe:
Soft and Chewy Dog Treats
Ingredients:
Edited to add more comments on how to get the best-formed treats, after making these once more.
I just made a batch in the pyramid trays I was talking about and it's a success! 1018 treats -- 509 per batch -- in about 40 minutes (and I go kinda slow), for $3 or less per batch. And they're around 0.6-0.7 calories per treat!
This is the recipe that I used with some alterations (see notes below). Here's my version of the recipe:
Soft and Chewy Dog Treats
Ingredients:
- One 128 mL jar/pouch of baby food
- 4 Tbs Cream of Wheat
- 3 Tbs skim milk powder
- In a bowl, empty out the jar of baby food with a spatula and add in the cream of wheat and milk powder. Mix well for at least 1 minute, until mixture is fully combined and smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go.
- Place pyramid pans on top of baking trays for stability.
- Using the spatula, scoop the batter out of the bowl onto the middle of the pyramid pan and smooth out the batter into the pyramid cavities; edit: scrape the spatula across the surface back and forth, squish the batter down into the cavities to remove air bubbles, and scrape back and forth and squish down the batter again so that the cavities are evenly filled.
- Start from the middle and work outwards, being more careful at the edges. Try to fill the cavities so that there isn't extra batter on top (you should be able to see the grid pattern) but it doesn't have to be perfectly clean and neat. There might be air bubbles in some of them, it's okay.
- Let sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes (this is so the cream of wheat and milk powder can re-hydrate). While you're waiting you can preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place the baking trays (with pyramid pans still on top, of course!) in the hot oven on the middle rack and bake for 11-15 minutes. I suggest 12 or 13 minutes.
- Once time is up, take the trays out of the oven. You can let them cool as-is in the pyramid pans, or pop them out onto a cooling rack or spread out on a plate. I left them in the pans while I wrote this post (so a while). .
- Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- That 40 mins completion time does not include the time it took me to pop them out of the pyramid cavities. Sorry, I wrote this post and then I popped them out. That took like 15 min/tray.
- I used these silicone pyramid trays which are really flimsy, but they work great for this. In fact they might even be extra easy to pop out because they are so flimsy.
- I used 128 mL Jars of baby food because that's the only size I could find. For these I used Chicken, Zucchini, Green Beans, and Rice and Blueberry, Sweet Potato, and Banana baby food. It doesn't matter, just triple check the ingredients for ones toxic to dogs! The consistency varies a bit with the type, but it's pretty forgiving.
- The chicken treats came out better formed than the blueberry, and I think it's because there is a bit of fat in chicken. So for best results consider using a meat-based baby food. You could also use spray oil on the pans but that would affect the calories significantly. Edit: how well they are formed has more to do with the technique of filling the cavities than meat vs non-meat (see above in method). However the meat-based baby food does result in treats that come out of the pans cleaner and are less crumbly than the non-meat baby food.
- Re: my cream of wheat and milk powder ratios... because I used a larger-sized jar of baby food I had to recalculate the amount of cream of wheat and milk powder, and then I got sidetracked/distracted, and then I put in more of the cream of wheat and milk powder than the recipe called for. It works though and I think the consistency is just fine. And I'm sticking to it because it results in exactly the perfect amount to fill one pyramid pan.
- As you may have noticed, this recipe has milk powder in it! The milk powder makes it particularly sticky, which makes them chewy. But! Dogs are lactose intolerant (?) so use this recipe at your discretion.
- I have also made this recipe without the pyramid pans and it's also great! It just takes FOREVER to form them into the little treats. They looked like miniature peanut butter cookies when I did it that way (adorable!). The consistency of the batter makes this really perfect for pyramid pans. And it's so much faster.
- They taste like muffins. My pup, and a little pug who we take care of sometimes, really love them! I may or may not eat some as a snack when I get hangry on walks or during training.
- Re: the cost... I live in Vancouver, BC, where food is averagely cheap. A 500 g bag of milk powder costs $8 max, 800 g box of cream of wheat costs $4 max, and the baby food jars cost $2 max. By my calculations each batch cost me about $2.60, but probably even a little less.
- Re: the calories... pay attention to the calories in the baby food. The chicken baby food I used is 90 calories/jar, but I've also used beef baby food which is 150 calories/jar. This will affect how many calories each treat is, for those keeping track of your pup's diet!
Edited to add more comments on how to get the best-formed treats, after making these once more.