My Favorite Homemade Dog Treat Recipe

If you want to learn how to make a homemade dog treat recipe, I can show you!

Do you know what I love? Dog treats.

I might not be the most regular eater, but I almost never turn down a treat! Treats are the best. I’ve been waiting patiently to try to make a homemade dog treat recipe myself, but I’m not allowed to use the oven on my own. Let’s just say the last time I cooked without human supervision things got a little burnt and smoky. So, now I have to wait for a human to help me in the kitchen. I can’t lie: Cooking with a human is a lot easier than cooking on your own. There is only so much my two paws can do on their own.

I didn’t know what flavor of cookie to start with for my first homemade dog treat recipe, so I decided to go simple and I picked my two favorite ingredients: pumpkin and peanut butter. This recipe is easy to follow. Preparation is straightforward, and cooking time is quick. The treats can be cooked in about 15-30 minutes for softer, chewy treats – or you could cook them for 30-40 minutes if your dog prefers to chomp a lot.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin purée, canned or fresh
3-4 tablespoons of natural peanut butter

Directions:
Are you ready to start cooking? Great! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. You’ll want the oven temperature to be all warmed up when it’s time to put these lovely treats in. Next, combine all of your ingredients in a mixing bowl. I was lucky to work on a KitchenAid blender, and used the paddle attachment. That proved to be very handy, as the dough is tough to mix by hand, but also shouldn’t be over-mixed either. The paddle attachment gave it just the right texture.

After everything was done mixing, I gathered it in a ball and then rolled it out flat on a lightly-floured table. The dough mixture is very flexible, so I didn’t have to work very hard at this. Once I thought it was flat enough – I’d say about 1/4 of an inch, though you can really have any thickness you prefer – I used cookie cutters to cut out little teddy-bear-shaped treats. This part was really fun, and I wanted to eat the treats raw because they smelled so yummy. My kitchen worker wouldn’t let me though, because she told me that raw eggs could make humans and dogs sick. Sigh.

After you’ve made your shapes, just place them on a cookie sheet, but be prepared, because depending on the shape of your cookie cutters, you’re likely to need more than one baking sheet! Here’s a hint: Never throw out any dough. After you’ve cut out all of the shapes possible, take the scraps of dough, mold them into a ball, and then use your rolling pin to roll it out again. You might want to lightly flour the table again so that the treats don’t stick. You can do this until the very last scrap of dough is used! There’s no need to waste.

Cutting shapes out of the dough usually takes the most time out of all the steps. Once you’re done with that, all you have left to do is to cook the treats in the oven! If you followed Step #1, your oven should be nice and warm, and ready to heat up your treats. Simply stick your uncooked treats in the oven and wait for them to cook! They’ll be finished by the time you’ve finished cleaning your kitchen.

I recommend letting your homemade treats cool off before giving them to your pets. I tried one right out of the oven and it was a little too hot for my taste. If you made a large batch like me, store them in a sealable storage bag to keep them fresh!

Isn’t this an easy homemade dog treat recipe? For my very first attempt at making my own treats, I found this to be simple, cheap, and fun to do! I’ll definitely be trying out other flavors in the future.

Have you ever tried making a homemade dog treat recipe for your pups? Did they like the treats? Let me know in the comments!

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