Creative Cooks

Peanut Butter Dog Treats
Yield depends on size of cookie cutters

Ingredients

3 cups whole wheat flour (or rice or coconut flour)
3/4 cup natural, organic peanut butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
Cookie cutter (varying sizes, optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350º F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl or mixer, beat together peanut butter and pumpkin puree until smooth and creamy.
Beat in the egg until it is fully incorporated.
Alternately add flour and water to peanut butter mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until dough begins to come together and is no longer too sticky.
Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes, or until fully formed into a ball.
Roll dough out to 1/4-1/2-inch thickness and use your cookie cutter(s) to cut out desired shapes and amounts of treats.
Transfer to baking dish and place in oven.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (baking time depends on size), or until cookies are golden brown.
Remove from oven and let cool completely—then treat your pup to a snack!

Liver Lickers Dog Treats
PREP 10 mins COOK 20 mins READY IN 30 mins

Ingredients

3/4 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 egg
1 tablespoon brewers' yeast
1 (3.5 ounce) jar pureed liver baby food
1/4 cup water, or as needed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, stir together the wheat germ, milk powder, egg, yeast and liver baby food. Add water if necessary to make a workable dough. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from cookie sheet to cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Footnotes

Beef baby food can be substituted if liver flavor is not available.

Doggie Treats
PREP 20 mins COOK 15 mins READY IN 1 hr 35 mins Directions

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup corn flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Whisk together the flour, corn flour, and cornmeal in a mixing bowl. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
Place the peanut butter in a microwave safe dish, and cook in the microwave a few seconds at a time until the peanut butter has liquefied. Stir the peanut butter, water, vegetable oil, and egg into the flour mixture until a stiff dough forms. Roll out on a floured surface and cut into treat shapes with a cookie cutter. Place the treats onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Allow the treats to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Homemade Dog Treats
Yield: 12-24 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes

Materials

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 large egg
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
Dash of cinnamon

Tools

rolling pin
cookie cutter
baking sheet
parchment paper
cooling rack

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, add all ingredients and mix until well combined.
Roll the dough out on a level surface until it’s about 1/4” thick.
Use your cookie cutter to cut out heart shaped treats from the dough and place on lined baking sheet. You can take the scraps that are leftover and roll the dough again to get a few more treats, if desired.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they are just beginning to turn brown around the edges.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet. Then, transfer treats to a wire rack to allow to cool completely.

Notes

Store in an airtight container or sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Breath-Freshening Dog Treats
Makes 2 cookie sheets worth of biscuits (number will depend on the size of your cookie cutter)

1 ½ cups (7 ounces) high-protein whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups (8 ounces) brown rice flour
½ cup (2 ounces) ground flax seeds
3 large eggs
½ cup sunflower or canola oil
¼ cup water
4 drops food-grade eucalyptus oil, optional (See Recipe Note)
7 sprigs parsley leaves, chopped fine (½ ounce)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, brown rice flour, and ground flax seeds. In another large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the eggs, canola oil, water, eucalyptus oil, and parsley.

If you are mixing by hand, switch to a dough whisk or wooden spoon; if you are using a stand mixer, switch from a whisk to a dough hook. Stir the flour into the wet ingredients, one third at a time, until fully incorporated. When finished, the dough will come together into a ball and pull away from the sides of the bowl.

On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to ¼-inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into desired shapes, then gently transfer to the lined baking sheets with a thin spatula. The biscuits will not spread out much during baking — you can lay them down about 1/3-inch apart.

Gather together the leftover dough, knead it back into a ball, then roll it out again to cut out more cookies — it will continue to remain malleable with repeated rollings due to its fairly low gluten content. Continue to do this until you’ve used up the dough and filled two cookie sheets with biscuits.

Bake the treats for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and while still warm, transfer the treats to wire cooling racks.

Return the racks of cookies to the oven and turn the heat down to its lowest setting (if your oven has a “keep warm” function, use this; otherwise, 180-200ºF is ideal). After one hour, turn the oven off and leave the cookies in the oven for another hour or so, or overnight.

Let the treats cool to room temperature, then store in a cookie jar or other lidded container for up to two months, or freeze for up to three months.

Recipe Notes
If you are unable to locate food-grade eucalyptus oil, you may leave it out or substitute ¼ cup of chopped basil. Also just a few drops of eucalyptus oil since large quantities of essential oils can be harmful.
If your dog prefers or requires a softer biscuit, skip the second baking step and store the biscuits in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or in the freezer for up to three months.

Grain-Free Dog Treats
YIELD: 22 COOKIES

Ingredients

1 medium banana, mashed
3 tablespoons creamy (natural) peanut butter
1 large egg
1 ¾ cup garbanzo bean flour
*¼ cup rolled oats (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
In a small bowl, mix together the banana, peanut butter and egg; mix until completely combined. To a medium bowl, add the flour and rolled oats; mix. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine until the dough comes together.
Transfer the dough to a piece of heavily floured wax paper. Note: The dough will be sticky so flouring everything (wax paper, rolling pin and cookie cutter) is important. Roll the dough to a ¼-inch thickness and cut out the cookies using a cookie cutter of choice. Re-roll the scraps and cut out more cookies
Transfer the cookies to a parchment-lined baking sheet. These cookies won’t spread so placing them close together is okay. If you don’t want to roll the dough out, alternatively, you can scoop teaspoons of dough onto a baking sheet, flattening the cookies with the ball of your palm.
Bake the cookies for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Allow the cookies to come to room temperature on a cooling rack. Cookies will be good for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.
Notes

*Oats are technically a grain. They are added for texture. You can of course eliminate this and you’ll be good to go.