Hi everyone! I decided to write about baking dog treats this week! I love baking treats for my dog, Rosie, but I haven’t baked any in a while, so I thought writing about baking them would be the perfect opportunity. I love to bake and love to know that my dog is eating healthy ingredients and know they are safe for her! Make sure to check with your vet if you don’t know if your dog should have any of the ingredients below.
In the past, I used to make homemade peanut butter treats but I decided to look up a new simpler recipe this time. I found a peanut butter pumpkin treat recipe by Damn Delicious to use as my starter recipe, which I then tweaked a little. Below are the measurements that I ended up using, but all of the ingredients stayed the same as the original recipe.
Ingredients and Directions:
4 Simple Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree/100% pumpkin
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside until later.
To make the dough I used my eclectic stand mixer, but a hand mixer or mixing with a fork I suppose would work just as well. I am going to write the directions as if you are using a stand mixer, so ignore some of the directions if you do not have a stand mixer. On medium-high use the paddle attachment to beat the pumpkin, peanut butter, and eggs until smooth. See the picture to the right for reference.
Once everything is combined add the flour a little at a time until all incorporated. The consistency of the dough should be a little sticky and not crumbly. If you find the dough to be very sticky add a little bit of flour, but if you find it to be too crumbly add some more pumpkin.
When the dough is ready, flour your countertop and knead the dough a couple of times until it comes together. Make sure to clean your countertop beforehand! Flour your rolling pin and roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Using cookie cutters or small glasses cut out your treats and place them on the baking sheets. I only had winter-themed cookie cutters, but they were a perfect size, so why not? There were a lot of treats, so I used two baking sheets and placed them close together.
I ended up re-rolling and cutting the dough 5 times until I only had a few scraps left, but this will depend on the size of the cookie cutter you use. When you have finished cutting all of the treats, place your baking sheets in the oven. If your baking sheets fit side by side on one rack then perfect, cook them for 17-20 minutes or until the edges look golden brown. However, if they don’t fit side by side, cook them on the two racks for 10 minutes and then flip the baking sheets around and cook for another 7-10 minutes. You may have to cook them longer or shorter depending on the size and thickness of your treats.
Once the treats are finished baking, let them cool completely on a wire rack. At this point, Rosie knew I was baking something for her because she could smell the peanut butter. She was sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to say she could have a treat! 🙂
This recipe ended up making about 60 treats, so instead of keeping them all out, I froze a few batches, so they wouldn’t go bad. Or you can share them with your friends who also have doggies! Once you want to use some of the frozen treats I would let them defrost for a day, so they aren’t hard for your dog to chew.
That’s all I have for you this week! If you have a dog, I hope you try to make these treats and that they enjoy them as much as Rosie does! Also, I am working on setting up a privacy policy so that you’ll be able to leave comments on my posts or subscribe to a mailing list, so you will know when a new post is up! Look out for it in the coming weeks! In the meantime give me a follow on Instagram @aneclecticplace, where I let you know when I’ve added a new post!
Take care and stay safe,
Renée