Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Cocobanana

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Many moons ago I worked in a health food store called Natural Rythyms.  They sold vitamins and various other health aids.  There was a small sitting area where you could sit and enjoy a salad from the salad bar, or a sandwich from the limited menu.  They also sold baked goods.

It was a part-time job I took to help with the expense of my daughter’s wedding, so I only worked on Saturdays.  I didn’t wait a lot on customers, I was mostly in the back washing dishes, except for when I was baking muffins. Still I recall those days fondly because I got to spend time with one of my favorite people and I got to bake muffins.

Let me be clear.  I created my own muffins.  And it was all dependent upon what mood I was in and what ingredients were available.  But there was one thing you could be sure of, the muffins had chocolate chips in them.

It’s a wonderful feeling when a customer comes in and says, “Oh, I was hoping you had this muffin today, it’s my favorite.”  One of my muffin creations was Orange Chocolate Chip and it was very tasty.  I would think about it all week long, what type of muffin did I want to bake on Saturday?

So imagine my surprise yesterday as I was thinking of a treat for Tasty Tuesday when my mind began wandering back down the creative trail, but this time to dog treats.

Here’s what I came up with.  I’m calling it Cocobanana.

1 banana
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup cooked oatmeal
1 egg
2/3 cup oat flour
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
 

Before you start gather your ingredients.  The key point is to get the egg out of the fridge and let it sit for a few minutes, this will keep the cold egg from solidifying the coconut oil.

I’m not sure if you know this or not, but coconut oil is solid when the temperature is below 70°, you can buy coconut oil in the liquid form but it’s super pricey so I say, buy the solid and melt it.  My understanding is it’s not good to heat coconut oil in the microwave, so I put my coconut oil in a small glass dish and set that in another dish with hot water.  I changed the water a couple of times until the coconut oil was entirely melted.

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While the coconut oil is melting, break your banana up into about six pieces and add the egg, beat with an electric mixer until blended well.  My banana was a little too fresh so it wasn’t mixing well.  I mashed it with a potato masher and then worked it with the egg.  It’s okay to have small lumps of banana in this.  I then added the already cooked oatmeal and blended that as well, then the coconut oil.  Now mix in the oat flour.

At this point I added the shredded coconut but I used a spatula.  It was a fairly stiff dough, but not unworkable.

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I dropped by 1/2 spoonful onto my baking stone and cooked at 350° for about 25 minutes. I peeked in on them at about the 15 minute marker and they hadn’t moved at all so I pressed them down a bit with a fork.

My original intent was to add Carob chips to them which would have been perfect for both dogs and humans, but since my local grocery store didn’t have the chips, I used M&M’s in four of them.

Thoughts:  The cookies were browned on the bottom and the edges, but the inside was still moist.  Not raw but moist.  Jodi Chick thought the cooked oatmeal might have been too much or the banana might have been too fresh.  I’m going to try this recipe again, with dry oatmeal and an older banana.

Let’s see what Sampson and Delilah think.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Ooops, she was too fast and my finger got in the way of the camera. I’ll say that means the cookie is good.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Dammit!  He was too fast too!

Sampson and Delilah give these cookies a four paws up.  I’m not kidding, these suckers are tasty.  Anywhere I moved with that container of cookies, there were two dogs right on my tail!

So when I named the cookies naturally I got the tune of Copacabana stuck in my head.  I tried to work with that.

Her name was ‘Lilah, she is a labby
A purple collar on her neck and she doesn’t give a heck
She’ll work for kibbles, or any nibbles
But while she tries not to be a pest, she puts her Mama to the test
When Mama bakes there is a fest
These treats are sure the best
We call them coco, coco bananas!
 

You’re welcome for the recipe and the ear worm too.

This post is a tad bit long but tell me, have you tried baking for your pets yet?  How do you feel about it?

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Comments

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Comments

  3. Jodi, this was too much fun! I love baking experiments, and the new lyrics–of course, we’ll all have them in our heads for the rest of the day. I’d say the cookies just needed a little more liquid to flatten out a bit on their own, but if they tasted good who cares?! It was so nice to meet you at Blog Paws, BTW, I’ve been following you since then but don’t get much of a chance to comment.

  4. The cocobanana sounds great for the pups, and love your jingle at the end, but tell me more about those orange chocolate chip muffins… Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

  5. Ou ds like a good one…my dog bones are different every time…depending on what i have in the house..lastweek used cocnut flour and i didnt like the way they came out…on the soft side…did no t crisp up like a bone and i dont know why..have to work on it..this time they had banana, penutbutter and applesauce…kayla and luke did not mind the consistency…have to say!! I always freeze them because of no preservatives

  6. My mom loves that song!!! They sound good, and I don’t think we would care how the oatmeal or banana behaved while cooking!

  7. I’m an avid reader of cookbooks, but somehow in my life I have never been bitten by the baking bug. I do like reading recipes though.

  9. Great dawg! Can I come live with you, Miss Jodi? Ma never bakes a dang thing…she cooks, but doesn’t bake so I miss out on all these delicious treats!
    *Cairn cuddles*
    Oz

  12. I love baking for my pets, but don’t do it as often as I’d like to. And your recipes are great! I definitely want to try this one. Oh yeah, thanks for the earworm…not…
    🙂

  13. LOVE LOVE LOVE the name. And they look good! I’d definitely add chocolate chips. Your prior job sounds a little like the main character in Jackie’s latest novel, Rescue Me. What fun!

  15. Hey, what a great recipe! I’m with you on the orange-chocolate combination. They had this orange-chocolate bread at a bakery in Antigua when I was in Guatemala; I’ll not son forget how delicious that was.

    And I love to cook with coconut oil too, I bought it in liquid form in a bottle and you can imagine the time I had getting it out once solidified. A solid version in a conveniently accessed tub is what I’ll go for next time.

  18. Wow! You are one clever lady! And Samson and Delilah are some lucky pups! Those cocobananas sound awesome. I’m gonna get my Mom Person right on them. Thanks!
    And I like the name of that store you worked at!