Dogs deserve the same treatment as humans do, especially after what they had to endure lately with us sitting home during quarantine and bothering them all the time. That’s why my Marlo is getting spoiled with red home baked Valentine’s Day cookies this year.

I decided to bake cookies with kids and then make Marlo’s delicacies in one evening and I have to admit that I am beat. Beat, but happy – kitchen is full of cookies of all kinds and wiped clean from top to bottom.

We started our baking a bit early and I highly doubt that any cookies will remain until February 14^th, but we can always make more. Marlo the Portuguese water dog is definitely set with 2 baking sheets of cookies and without competition, so he is pretty happy. His healthy and naturally red cookies look so good that my husband is ready to steal some from him, so maybe he does have some completion after all…

I enjoy knowing what went into these cookies and that there are no preservative or artificial ingredients. Sure, Chewy sells very nice treats with choices in the hundred, and I often order a few bags. But still there is no denial that homemade treats are better for everybody. With that in mind I have bought some silicone bone shapes from Chewy.com for frequent treat baking. I ended up not using them this time though, because upcoming Valentine’s Day was definitely calling for heart shapes.

A day before baking I realized that I don’t have enough flour for all the planned cookie projects and no pureed pumpkin for Marlo’s cookies. I really didn’t feel like making late night grocery run, so I simply got Instacart to help – ordered the missing ingredients online in the evening and had them delivered from Whole Foods by Instacart personal shopper this morning before 10am. How nice is that?

Finally, a shout out to Personalization Mall - this store always has my back with gifts and special treats for myself. I never cook or bake without my personalized utensils, cutting board, and apron any more. A girl should use whatever makes her enjoy cooking more, right? And a board with my name sure does that for me.

The cookies I am about to tell about are super simple and are made of just 4 ingredients and water. They are naturally red because of beets and can be made with whatever flour works best for your pet. My dog has nothing against grains, so I baked his treats with whole wheat flour, but you can use oat, rice, or gluten free flour.

Be ready to spend about 30 minutes on preparation and dedicate another 30 minutes for baking. This recipe makes 3 baking sheets or about 50 cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 cooked or canned beet, pureed
• 3 cups of flour
• 1 organic egg
• ½ cup of pureed pumpkin or sweet potato
• ½ cup of water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and mix all the ingredients together. That’s pretty much the entire recipe. How easy is that?  Make sure you puree beets with some liquid from the can or water where it was cooked.

Another beauty of this recipe is that you literally won’t be able to destroy it. This means that if you see that the dough is too tough, add some water and continue mixing or kneading it. If you decide that it looks too soft and shapeless, add some more flour.

When the dough is ready to be rolled out, get the surface lightly floured and do the same with the rolling pin and shape. In my case the dough was very soft even after adding more flour, but I was still able to roll it out. I think I put too much beet puree, but again, the recipe is very flexible and the cookies still tasted good.

I made sure I cut the dough in many smaller sections and worked on each such dough piece separately. My surface was heavily floured and everything worked out great. Transferring cut cookies to the parchment paper lined sheet was not easy because they were so soft, but I used a wide knife and it was great.

The cookies came out beautifully red thanks to beets and loaded with vitamins, whether you choose to use pumpkin or sweet potatoes. If you go with pumpkin, you might consider adding a spoon of honey for some sweetness, but Marlo didn’t mind no honey, so it’s all good either way.

The cookies bake for about 30 minutes, but check on them after 25. They should be crunchy, but not burned. Some of mine came out filled with air and plump. All looked super cute and smelled good for Marlo from far away.

They are good for about 5 days if stored in an air-tight container. Consider getting a personalized jar from Personalization Mall – this way your husband will stay away from those cookies for sure. Enjoy and happy Valentine’s Day to you and to your furry loves!