Homemade Dog Treat: Pawcakes

What's better than a nice, warm stack of pancakes for breakfast?  Not a whole lot. Well, maybe a massive pile of bacon. Today's homemade dog treat recipe shows you how to make a meaty short-stack for your pup.

Pawcakes

Things you'll need:

1 cup pancake mix

1/4 pound ground beef

3/4 cup of water

1 medium pan

1 food processor or blender (optional)

 Step 1: Brown your ground beef in a pan over medium heat.

Step 2: Set the ground beef aside to cool once it's been thoroughly cooked.  You can drain the meat, or you can save the grease and use it to flavor the pawcakes.

Step 3 (optional): Place the beef in a food processor once it's cooled.  Chop it as fine as you want.  Don't worry if you don't have a food processor or blender to complete this step.  I like to do this since smaller chunks of meat makes for an easier batter to work with.  Really if you skip it you'll just have bigger chunks of meat.

Step 4: Combine the ground beef and pancake mix into a mixing bowl.

Step 5: Add 3/4 cup of water and mix the ground beef and pancake mix.  You'll want to use a spoon for this step-it's ten times easier than a whisk.  You should end up with something that's a bit thicker than regular pancake batter.  You can add more water for a thinner batter if you want.

Step 6: Cook your pawcakes!  Spoon out however much batter you want per pawcake-I went with two spoonfuls each.  If you're using a pan or griddle you'll want to cook on medium heat for about 1-2 minutes on each side, or until the pawcake is brown.  If you've got one of these fancy machines (it's called a Pancake Factory, you can find something similar over here at Amazon) it's 1 minute, then flip.

Step 7: Wait to cool, and then serve to your pooches!  Troy and Enrique are waiting patiently to dive right into their pawcakes.  Of course you can tell Enrique's a little less patient than Troy is.  The pawcakes will store for a few days in the fridge, or you can freeze them.

The amount this recipe makes is very subjective.  You can make the pawcakes as small or as large as you want (adjust cooking time for smaller ones, of course).  I got about 9 good-sized pawcakes out of this recipe.  You can give them to your pup whole, or tear them up and use them for dog training treats.  

Now you may be wondering what type of pancake mix to use.  Really that all depends on your personal preference.  I used Market Pantry Buttermilk Pancake Mix that I got from Target for a little over $2.  You can use any brand, though, and still get pretty much the same result.  I've even used gluten-free pancake mix without changing the overall recipe.  If you're worried about the amount of sugar in the mix, though, you could always make your own.  Allrecipes.com has a quick and easy pancake mix recipe you can use.  Just take out the sugar.

That's all, folks.  Try it out and let us know how your pups liked it!