Sunday was Luna’s First Gotcha Day and to celebrate I made her two flavors of delicious Pup Pies! I was inspired by two wonderful blogs. Kol’s Notes made Blueberry Chicken Bites and taught me that blueberries go well with chicken. Adventures of a Dog Mom made Mini Pumpkin Pies and inspired me to make dog friendly pies too.
With these two inspirations, Luna was treated to Mini Blueberry Chicken and Pumpkin Pies.
For the pie crust, I used a recipe very similar to the one Adventures of a Dog Mom used. The main difference is that I do not have a food processor, so I used my mincer on the oatmeal and then mixed everything by hand. I did end up using a bit too much water, so the dough was pretty sticky. I was able to make it manageable with a bit of extra flour. The next time we make this crust, I would definitely use my stand mixer and a dough hook to combine the ingredients.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup flour (preferably whole wheat or a mixture of all purpose and whole wheat)
- 1/2 cup oatmeal (minced if you do not have a food processor)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (I just used one snack sized container)
- 3 - 4 Tbsp water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Spray muffin pan with a dog friendly cooking spray.
- Mince oatmeal with Slap Chop or similar.
- Combine oatmeal and flour in a bowl.
- Slowly add applesauce, while mixing.
- Slowly add water until a ball is formed (adding too much will cause the dough to become sticky).
- Roll out the dough.
- Cut out circles ideally about 4" in diameter. I did not have a circle cookie cutter, so I used the end of my mincer. I also used all the dough (rolling it out several times), so I was able to get 16 slightly smaller circles.
- Press the circles into the muffin pan.
- Bake for about 8 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let crusts cool in the pan.
- Remove crusts from pan when cool.
The recipe calls for whole wheat flour or a mixture of whole wheat and all purpose. I did not have any whole wheat flour, so I did end up using just all purpose flour.
Because I used extra flour to combat my sticky dough, my crusts were a little extra floury. Getting the ideal consistency would definitely make the final product better. Next time, I will have to be a little more patient when mixing the dough.
Creating the filling is super easy. I decided to try out two different fillings: Blueberry Chicken and Pumpkin.
For the Blueberry Chicken, I combined about blueberries, cooked chicken, and yogurt in a bowl. Since we are still weening Luna off of her “bland diet”, I poached the chicken. I also pureed the blueberries using my immersion blender. If you do not have one of these yet, I suggest you get one! They have so many uses, are super easy to use, and are very quick to clean up!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1/2 chicken breast (about a cup of shredded chicken)
- 1/4 cup plain low fat yogurt
Instructions
- Cook and shred chicken breast (poaching, etc)
- Puree blueberries in blender or with immersion blender
- Mix together yogurt and blueberries
- Add shredded chicken to mixture
- Fill Pup Pie crusts (or eat as is!)
For the pumpkin filling, I simply mixed canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) with a bit of nonfat plain yogurt.
Ingredients
- 8 oz (half a can) plain pumpkin - NOT pumpkin pie mix
- 4 oz plain low fat yogurt
Instructions
- Mix pumpkin and yogurt
- Fill Pup Pies (or enjoy without a crust)
These pies are great alternatives to traditional mini pies and are super dog friendly. Dogs gain many health benefits from blueberries and pumpkin, but cannot have the sugar in a typical pie. These pies are delicious and human grade. That is right, you can eat them too!
Luna and her cousin Keto absolutely loved the pies. The crust puzzled them at first. Luna thought it was a tiny bowl and lapped up the filing. As soon as she realized she could eat the whole thing, it was gone!
My only last piece of advice is do not leave your pies uncovered on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator. Beagles are pretty smart and sneaky. You will find that one or two pies somehow went missing every time you left the fridge door open too long.
What is your favorite pie flavor?
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