The kitchen, to me, is where I store my mugs for coffee and where the microwave lives. It is a rare occasion when the stove or oven gets used, but today was one of those special days. I wanted to give my students a fun little treat to jazz up their treat bags. Dishing out the same old treats when training may work for a while, but then you need, as I call it, “crack”. “Crack” gets your dog’s attention immediately! Today I’m your dealer. Grab yourself all three ingredients for this recipe, Salmon Fudge. These are SOFT training treats. Many recipes online are great, but they are crunchy cookies. These are soft and perfect for training!
4 cans of salmon with water (5oz cans)
4 happy eggs (if you can get local happy chicken eggs please do)
3 cups of flour (nope, not grain free for those who need it. Sorry. Tried coconut flour and that was a disaster. I wasn’t patient enough to keep trying to make it work)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a bowl, empty all four cans of salmon WITH THE JUICE into a bowl. I used a fork to fluff the salmon. Did I just write “fluff”. Watch out for “The Great American Bake Off”. I am coming for ya!
Sooooo, after much, FLUFFING, add in the happy eggs and stir.
Next, add in flour. I found it worked better stirring in one cup at a time. It seemed to mix evenly, but what do I know?
I used at 17”x12”ish sized pan/cookie sheet thing. It had edges, that’s all I can tell you. I knew I wanted the fudge to be fairly thin as I was going to cut it up and use for training treats, not just treat-treats (Who else repeats a word to change the meaning of the word. It wasn’t cold, it was cold-cold. Get it? Anyone else? No? Just me?). Moving on. . . . .
Spray the crap out of the pan with cooking spray. These buggers will stick if you don’t. Then you won’t have nice neat little treats. You will have crumbs. Lots and lots of crumbs. SPRAY! SPRAY! SPRAY!
I then sprayed my fork and plopped the dough onto the cookie sheet/pan thing. Then, I spread the dough out to the edges, reapplying spray to my fork if it got sticky. Into the oven it went for 40 minutes. It is just enough time to drink a cup of coffee, surf Facebook and still feel accomplished!
When the time is up, let the treats cool completely on a rack. I used a pizza cutter to slice the fudge into training sized portions. Just a word of caution, if the treat is too big, your dog will fill up too fast and won’t want to eat or train anymore. Cut them up small or big enough to tear into smaller pieces. I used jars (for Mother Earth) to store these delightful bites. Plenty will be made so freeze what you don’t need right now. Also, because there are no preservatives, you will need to place the fudge squares in the fridge in between training sessions. Just trust me on this one.
Wait, there’s more! Once you are done cutting up the treats, your cutting board will be left with all sorts of crumbs. DO NOT THROW AWAY! At dinner or breakfast, sprinkle a few crumbs on your pup’s meal. Will they be happy, or will they be happy?
This recipe can be changed to anything else you find in a can such as chicken or tuna. Get crazy! What about sardine? I should try that! I will report back. You can also add parsley or sprinkle shredded Parmesan cheese on the very top after it’s been spread out before baking or mix in. The sky is the limit!
I am careful not to overdue these treats or any other. Remember, too much of anything becomes boring or not as interesting. Save these treats for the hard skills or when you need get their attention.
As a side note, my bulldog, Winston, likes these. THAT is saying something! He is a picky-picky boy!
Sipsey, my pig, also likes these. She likes almost anything, so she is not a ringing endorsement. Winston however, most definitely IS!
Turn the music up loud, start dancing, mixing and baking! Enjoy you wonderful, individual, unique, powerful, brave, beautiful soul, YOU!