A Welsh Pasty Recipe For Dogs Using Caru Daily Dish

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Caru. I have been compensated to help spread the word about Caru Daily Dish Stews. I am not a dog vet or nutritionist, and all opinions are my own. This post also contains affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission if you purchase through one of them.

You may have read our first post about Caru Daily Dish Stews and are now completely won over by their human grade nutrition, ease of use, and awesome packaging. I know Henry is won over. Well, we have a fun recipe for you! Using Caru’s pre-made dog stews, we’re going to make some Welsh pasties for your pup.

A Dog Welsh Pasty Recipe

You might be wondering: why a Welsh-inspired recipe? Caru means “to love” in Welsh. That’s what this family-owned company is founded on: nourishing our pups out of love. While your dog doesn’t have to be Welsh to enjoy Caru, I happen to be part Welsh!

What is a Welsh Pasty?

I didn’t know what the heck a pasty was until I found one in my parents’ fridge during a visit. I’m generally a huge fan of anything wrapped in carbs, so I was intrigued by the torpedo-shaped pie.

Turns out that our Welsh mining ancestors in Scranton, Pennsylvania (yes, the Scranton from The Office) routinely brought them for their lunch breaks in the mine shafts. Some mining wives would even bake a sweet filling into one end for dessert.

I only recently discovered that pasties are popular all over the midwestern United States, and often claimed by the English as “Cornish Pasties.” For the sake of this article, I’m going to ignore this Cornish nonsense. Besides, according to this article, the Welsh can actually lay claim to these savory meat pies.

Since a pasty is little more than meat wrapped in deliciousness, it’s no surprise that pups enjoy them too! Apparently, Toby the spaniel is the Cornish Pasty Eating Champion of the World. You never know if the ingredients are entirely dog-friendly, however, so I decided that Henry’s Caru Daily Dish Stew — with our shared Welsh heritage — was the perfect excuse to craft a “pup pasty.”

The filling is taken care of and, inspired by a recipe by our friends over at Beagles & Bargains, I set to work making a pie crust recipe Henry would devour.

A Wales of a Time

As I mentioned, I’m part Welsh. Back in 2010, I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in the motherland. Here are a few photos to set the mood:

Now, on to the Welsh pasty recipe!

You Will Need

To make approximately 5 medium pasties (4-5″ long or so), you will need:

Ingredients

• 1-1/4″ cups flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough.
• 4oz. (one cup) unsweetened applesauce
• about half a carton of Caru Daily Dish Stew, any flavor
• a wee tiny bit of olive oil (I used about a teaspoon — just to help keep the dough supple)

Tools

• 1 oven, preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• 1 baking sheet
• parchment paper
• 1 medium bowl
• 1 rolling pin 

1.) Combine flour, applesauce, and oil in a bowl.

A medium bowl would be best. A perky yellow color is optional!

2.) Mush It Around

Erm…I mean…knead it? Just mix it up real good. If you need to add a little more flour to firm it up and eliminate some stickiness, go for it. Unlike most baking recipes, this one isn’t an exact science.

3.) Separate Into Balls

I made four balls but ended up dismantling one after I took this picture and reconstructing it into smaller lumps.

Did I think about Photoshopping the fifth ball into the above photo? Yes. Did I also write a ridiculous joke about how I didn’t want to alter the self-esteem of dough balls everywhere by using Photoshop, but ended up nixing it? Also yes. Is working from home starting to mess with my level sanity? I’ll let you decide.

4.) Roll ‘Em Out

Roll each ball out to probably to about 1/8-1/4″ thick or so. Feel free to add more flour if you find that the dough sticks to the rolling pin.

If you truly want to recreate my baking experience, this is the point where you wipe your floury hands on your freshly cleaned black pants.

5.) Plop.

Plop some Caru Daily Dish Stew into the center of the dough disc. The amount you want to plop will vary depending on the size pasty you are making. For my medium-sized pasties, I used somewhere in the ballpark of a heaping tablespoon each.

My nonexistent Home Ec teacher is rolling in her grave at the sheer imprecision of this recipe!

6.) Flop!

Flop the dough over itself. Although you may be tempted to write off the terrible edge alignment in the above photo as just another unprofessional quirk to this bizarre recipe, I promise it’s purposeful!

7.) Twist and Pinch

Using those horrifically aligned edges, twist and pinch the dough to itself until the “pocket” is relatively sealed.

If you used a little too much flour and need to spit on the dough to get it to stick to itself, no one has to know. I promise your dog won’t judge you.

8.) Fork It

I used a fork to seal the edges a little better. If your pastry skills rival mine, you might want to as well. Seal your pasties, then place them on parchment paper on your baking sheet.

Be sure that your parchment paper is, indeed, parchment paper.

HOT TIP: Brown waxed paper can look a lot like parchment paper.

9.) Oven Time!

It’s time to bake! Stick your tray into the heated oven and bake until the dough starts to turn toasty brown. I baked mine for about 15 minutes — however, the oven in our new apartment is a whiny brat that won’t consistently hold a steady temperature, so take this with a grain of salt.

The good news is that meat in the Caru Daily Dish Stew is already cooked, so my fellow germaphobes needn’t panic if the pasties don’t quite stay in long enough!

10.) Chow Time!

Allow the pasties to cool. Finally, it’s time for your pup to go to town! Remember, these should only be fed as an occasional treat — although the Caru Daily Dish Stew is perfectly formulated for your dog’s health, the dough is pretty much just flour. Even the folks that don’t avoid gluten can agree that pure flour is not an appropriate dog diet!

Plus: Caru Daily Dish Stews are 100% human grade, so feel free to take a nibble!

It’s Your Turn!

What flavor would you stuff in your doggie pasty? Let us know below, and check out Caru’s website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to learn more about this awesome company! You can also find Caru Daily Dish stews on Amazon!