As a lover of all things baked goods, I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of making my own dog treats until now! It is Riply’s 1st birthday tomorrow and while I was researching dog friendly cakes, I realized how easy it is to make dog treats with everyday, simple ingredients. What’s even better is that because they are homemade, you know exactly what your dog is consuming. After finding many homemade dog treat recipes online, I decided to test out a few for myself. This particular recipe is for Homemade Peanut Butter Oat Doggie Treats made with just four ingredients!
And yes. I’m going to be one of those people who makes birthday cakes for her dog. 😉
This is a recipe that I found off of Damn Delicious, a great food blog I discovered earlier this year. The owner, Chungah, shares quick and easy meal recipes using simple, fresh ingredients. She focuses on creating sophisticated meals for the family in 30 minutes or less. Pretty nifty. She also has dogs of her own so this recipe has certainly been tested by multiple furry friends!
Riply was a little unsure about the doggie treat at first, as she is with most new foods. But she soon gobbled them up! In all honestly, it’s probably not going to be her “OMG-I-have-to-have-this” kind of treat but she does enjoy it. Plus, I feel pretty good about giving her something yummy with good ingredients.
THE GOOD STUFF
These doggie treats are made up of just four ingredients added together and baked! As with anything else you give your pet, make sure you check with your vet or really know what your dog can handle. Old fashioned oats are a great source of fiber and iron. If you are concerned about wheat, there are gluten-free versions too! Most dogs love peanut butter but you should be careful when selecting what kind to feed your pet. Some peanut butter brands include the sweetner, Xylitol, which can be extremely harmful to dogs. I like to choose all natural peanut butter with peanuts as the only ingredient on the label.
For the bananas, the riper the better because it adds some nice sweetness to these doggie treats. You can always go organic if you’d like! Then finally, coconut oil. Coconut oil was all the craze a year ago as the hot new healthy-eating, diet trend. Then, earlier this year, it came out that it’s actually not that great for you. Personally, I think it has some great benefits and it’s all about moderation. Whatever you believe, coconut oil does do great things for dogs (but again, in moderation). It helps build their immune system, improve their coats, help with digestion, and much more.
Add more oats to the mix if the “dough” is too sticky. You want it all to stick together so it isn’t crumbly once baked but not so much that it’s a gooey mess. I ended up adding about 8 tablespoons more of oats to get the right consistency.
Roll the mixture out to 1/4-inch thick and use whatever cookie cutters you’d like to cut out pieces! I decided to use both large and small heart cookie cutters 🙂 To help them retain their shape and to make sure the oat mixture held together, I pressed down on the mix inside the cookie cutters. I think it makes for sturdier doggie treats.
BAKED WITH LOVE
Place the cut out shapes onto a lined cooke sheet. Then, bake them at 350°F for about 10-12 minutes. The timing will depend on how big your treats are and how thick. For my treats, I left them in for a little bit longer (about 13-14 minutes) to harden them little more. They will still be a little soft when you take them out of the oven but will firm up as they cool.
That’s the Homemade Peanut Butter Oat Doggie Treats! They are not only great for your own dog but they make for fun gifts as well. I’m super excited at how well these came out. Normally I’ll add my spin to a recipe I find but I was pretty happy with this one and didn’t want to mess with it’s simplicity. I’m looking forward to trying my hand at some other homemade puppy baked goods and maybe make my very own soon!
If you have any favorite doggie recipes, please do share!
Homemade Peanut Butter Oat Doggie Treats
Ingredients
- 3 cups old fashioned oats (plus additional as needed)
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 coconut oil, melted
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, knead together all ingredients until well combined. Add more oats, if mixture is too sticky.
- Between two pieces of parchment paper and using a rolling pin, roll the “dough” out to 1/4-inch thick.
- Use cookie cutters to out the desired shapes and place them onto a lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for about 10-12 minutes until the edges get slightly golden brown. Time will depend on thickness and size of the treats
- Let them cool completely.
Note that depending on the cookie cutters you use, you’ll be able to get more treats out of this recipe. But I found that you can definitely get a lot out of this one batch!
