Dog Treat Frosting Ideas - Egg Washes

I have seen some beautiful gourmet dog treats out there and doubt I will ever be able to re-create them and they always leave me wondering if the real recipient (the dog) has any appreciation for the designs? Not that it matters, our pets rely on our decisions for their well being and that is that.

I am not an artist, I even have trouble drawing stick-men but I do have the desire to create pretty dog treats.

So where to start? I know that we should give our dogs sugar, so what do the "bakeries" do? Turns out most of the retail and home based dog treat bakeries use a pre-mix made from yogurt. It comes in white, you add some water and coloring to create the consistency you want to work with and pipe it on or use brushes to paint the dog treats. This frosting dries hard and stays on the biscuit. It is almost impossible to make this Fido Frosting at home as it uses yogurt powder and I have no idea where a regular shopper would buy that. Anyway, if it is good enough for the retail shops, it works for me.

I did find dozens of other frosting or icing for dog treat recipes that you can create at home and will go through these one at a time. I hope to get some useful comments on my search for the best dog treat frosting.

Homemade Dog Treats with Colored Egg Wash

Today we tried an Egg Yolk Wash for color. The recipe stated to separate one egg, whisk the yolk with 1 teaspoon of water and add a drop or two of coloring. Brush the mixture over the dog treats before baking.

This is how they turned out:

I am not overjoyed with this technique at all. They are very shiny, almost too shiny. The color is okay, it was supposed to be a light orange but there are tiny bubbles in the coating that is unattractive. The wash also seemed to plug the vent holes (I poke them with a fork to relieve the steam during baking) and some of the dog bones looked puffy. It also added about 5 minutes to the total bake time.

Overall - thumbs down. Maybe there is a trick to this - if you have one, please let me know.

Tomorrow's post - Dog Treat Packaging Tips