Ingredients

Directions

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour, unbleached
• 1/2 cup wheat bran or oat bran
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 1/4 cup carob powder

 Carob powder, a favorite cocoa substitute, is made from the ground roasted beans only. A long roast produces a dark, bland carob powder, a shorter roast produces a lighter, stronger-tasting carob powder.

Carob powder can be used to replace cocoa at levels from 25-50%. While carob performs like cocoa, it differs in sugar and fat content. Cocoa may contain up to 23% fat and 5% sugar while carob has .7% fat and a natural sugar content of 42-48%.

Nutritionally, carob has none of the allergy-producing antibodies or the caffeine stimulant theobromine found in the cocoa bean. Carob contains as much vitamin B1 as asparagus or strawberries, the same amount of niacin as lima beans, lentils or peas and more vitamin A than eggplant, asparagus and beets. It is also high in vitamin B2, calcium, magnesium and iron.

In addition to being a delicious and healthful foodstuff, carob powder can be used as a flavoring for your favorite pipe mix.

Sugars make carob gummy and able to act as a thickener to absorb water and help bind together watery stools. Tannins from carob, being water insoluble, do not bind proteins as some tannins do. Carob tannins do bind to (and thereby inactivate) toxins and inhibit growth of bacteria. A double-blind clinical study has shown carob is useful for treating infants with diarrhea. Carob powder, sweetened to taste in applesauce can be used for this purpose.

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• Combine vegetable oil and water in a small bowl.
• In another, larger bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.
• Using your mixer (with a cookie beater or bread hook), combine all the ingredients and mix until they are thoroughly combined. You will end up with a nice compact ball of dough.
• Cover the mixing bowl with a clean dish towel or plastic wrap and set it in a warm place away from drafts.
• Let the dough rise until it is doubled—it will actually be twice as big. You can tell that it has doubled when you gently punch a little hole in the dough and it doesn't bounce back. The hole, or indentation stays.
• Roll the dough (with a rolling pin on a cutting board that has been sprinkled with flour) to a 1/4” thickness.
• Cut the Valentine cookies into the shapes that you would like to use, using cookie cutters.
• Place the dog cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
• Bake the holiday dog cookies at 275 degrees F for 1 hour. You may have to adjust the time (and check the cookies frequently), depending on the size of the dog cookies that you make.
• Turn off the oven, and let the Valentine dog cookies finish drying overnight in the oven. They will be hard and crisp when they are done.