Gingerbread People Recipe by Rocky Kanaka
The holidays are here, which means everyone is pulling out their secret family recipes… although if you’re anything like me, you know we’re baking cookies pretty much all year long around here.
And because I’m convinced dogs should get in on the holiday magic too, I love sharing one of my favorites — my Gingerbread People cookies made just for pups.
You can absolutely make these at home. They’re simple, they smell amazing, and your dog will act like you just earned a Michelin star. And hey, if the kitchen isn’t usually your happy place, don’t worry. I filmed a step-by-step video so you can follow along without burning anything except maybe a candle.
Alright, let’s jump in. Here’s what you’ll need:
Ingredients
- Oat Flour – 1 ¾ cup
- Rice Flour – 1 cup packed tightly
- Potato Starch – ½ cup packed tightly
- Egg – 1
- Cinnamon – 1/4 cup packed
- Ginger – 4 tbsp
- Applesauce – 3 tbsp
- Water (room temp) – ¾ cup
- Honey – ¼ cup
- Molasses – 2.5 tbsp
- Canola Oil – ¼ cup
- At least one very good pupper to taste test
Instructions
- Set your oven at 325 degrees.
- Combine all dry ingredients and set aside (Oat Flour, Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Ginger, and Cinnamon).
- Whisk together the wet ingredients until well incorporated (Applesauce, Water, Honey, Egg and Oil).
- Fold the wet into the dry with a spatula until the ingredients begin the come together. Then we encourage you to finish finish folding with your hands until the desired consistency is achieved! It should be soft to the touch but not sticky or wet.
Assembly
1. Using a rolling pin (or if you don’t have one, think something similar in shape like a wine bottle), roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick. If the dough is sticking to the rolling pin, placing a sheet of seran wrap over the dough to roll it out will help.
2. Now cut using the desired cookie cutter shape. We use a gingerbread person in two sizes, one for larger pups and one for smaller dogs.
3. Using a bench scraper, lift the gingerbread off the table and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. No need to spray the sheet. You don’t need to leave much space in between the cookies, because they won’t expand very much. So feel free to fill your pan with gingerbread closely placed together.
4. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through to make sure they are baked evenly.
5. Let the gingerbread cookies cool.
Decoration
Now here’s where you can make these dog gingerbread cookies your own. You can decorate them however you and your pup would like!
Some options: peanut butter spread, carob icing, melted yogurt chips or even just plain.
Of course we love to decorate all our cookies, so we usually combine carob and vanilla or a yogurt based drizzle for that finishing touch.
Taste Test
And then comes the part your dog has been waiting for, the taste test! We hope your pup will enjoy the cookies as much as our bakery pups. And from our family to yours, happy holidays!
