Pumpkin Pie for Pups

   Back when we used to live in somewhat of a bigger house, and we had only Jack, some of my family would bring their dogs. One of my cousins would bring her beagle, Tessa, and my grandmother would bring her dog, Zayda. Nowadays there isn't much room for all of the people and the dogs, which is a shame, but if you are planning on having dog guests this Thanksgiving this is the recipe for you!

   This is the first time I've created my own recipe, and I modified it off of what I saw in other similar dog recipes and human recipes. Unfortunately I couldn't find any recipes for "real" dog pumpkin pie, just pumpkin treats. If you see the need for improvement in the recipe, please feel free to share it.

   Keep in mind that this pumpkin pie isn't necessarily "healthy".  It's just a lot healthier than human pumpkin pie. Be smart about how much of it you give to your dog!

Recipe:

Crust:

1 3/4 c. Flour*

1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1 Egg**

3/4 c. Milk***

1/3 c. Melted Coconut Oil

Pie Filling:

3/4 c. Honey

1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger

1/4 tsp. Ground Cloves

2 Eggs**

15. oz Pure Pumpkin

12 oz Evaporated Milk

*I used whole wheat. Feel free to use rice, rye, buckwheat, etc. You can even use potato, coconut, bean, or almond flour to make it grain free!
**I used extra large. I hate it when recipes aren't specific, so I will be specific for you. LOL
***I used skim milk.

For the crust:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.*

1.  Mix the flour and cinnamon in a bowl.

 

2.  Mix the milk, egg, and coconut oil in another bowl. Make sure to melt the coconut oil right before you mix it in because it solidifies fast.

 

3.  Pour the wet mix into the dry mix, and stir until you can't anymore. Then knead it. It takes a bit of time and hard labor, but it works.

A Dog's Gotta Doo What A Dog's Gotta Doo

4.  Roll the crust into a circle. Aim for about 1/4" thick. If you are like us and forgot to get a rolling pin, coffee cups do nicely. Kidding. I do not want to be held liable for some freak accident where the cup breaks and slices off someone's finger. Lol.

 

5.  Oil an 8" or 9" pie pan, place the crust into the pan, press in the edges of the bottom, and trim off the rest. My pie pan was clear glass. I've heard things cook at different speeds with different materials.

 

6.  Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees F.

 FYI: There will be quite a bit of pie crust left. I donno what you should do with it. If you feel it's safe to give to your dogs uncooked, feel free. If you think your dogs will like bland baked pie crust by itself, there's another option. An idea I had after we already cooked the pie was to form it into a bone shape and bake it, then put it on top of the pumpkin pie. Kind of like a lattice top, only bone shaped.

For the filling:
*Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.*

1.  Mix the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves together in a small bowl.

2.  Beat the eggs in a separate, large bowl.

3.  Stir in the honey, pumpkin, and spice mixture.

4.  Slowly stir in the evaporated milk.

 

5.  Allow the pie crust to cool, then poor the pumpkin mixture onto the crust.

6.  Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.

7.  Lower the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until you can stick a knife or fork into the pie and it comes out clean.

8.  Chill for two hours.

 9.  As you can see ours didn't turn out very pretty. I kept poking at it with knives since I was worried it would burn since it was my own recipe, and the circular crack just happened by itself. Good things dogs don't care about the appearance of their food. If you cooked that crust bone, great. Place it on top. If not, I decided to add a layer of kibble to my puppy pumpkin pie. I used Rotations dog food. If you've got dog kibble or treats made with kibble, that would be perfect.

 

   The crust is really crunchy, which probably makes it not so appealing to humans but the dogs love it. On the ends you kind of have to "saw" through it with a knife. Other than that it's like any other pumpkin pie! Remember: feed sparingly. Don't give your dog the whole pie!

Last Crumb

More Please!

Don't worry, Midget got some too. She decided to grab the pie off the plate and take off with it though, so I didn't get a chance to take a video or picture!











-Cynthia