Whether teaching your dogs new tricks, or when you simply want to spoil them, dog treats are vital in every dog owner’s home. But these treats usually costs a lot for such a tiny amount. Despite being overly expensive, the ingredients for these treats are easily found in your kitchen.
After researching how to make dog treats, as well as experimenting with different recipes, I have finally found the perfect pumpkin dog treat recipe which our dogs love the most. The pumpkin dog treats are now a staple in our house.
What you need:
1 cup pumpkin, preferrably the fresh one. (you can use canned, so long as they’re not spiced, salted nor sugared)
2 medium sized eggs
2 1/2 cup flour (whole wheat flour or rice flour)
1/4 cup water
1/4 salt(not mandatory)
Preparations:
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F or 177 degrees C. Puree the pumpkin, and sift the flour and the salt. Line your tray with cookie sheets, so there is no need to grease your cookie pan.
Directions:
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and pureed pumpkin until smooth. Add the sifted flour and salt gradually into the mixture, and mix with a spoon or spatula until there is no lump. You will end up with a stiff dry dough. If you dough is too stiff, knead it some more.
- Flour a flat surface/counter and roll out your dough for about half to a quarter of an inch, depending on your dog’s size. Use a cookie cutter to give your treats a shape, or cut them in a square inches.
- Bake the cookies in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until they are firm and light brown on top. Remove your tray from the oven and carefully turn the cookies over and bake them for another 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure they don’t get too brown.
- Finally remove them again from the oven and allow to cool completely before you give them to your dogs or storing them in jars with air tight lids.
- This recipe may yield 75 small (1 inch) to 50 medium pieces of dog treats. They last a week in regular dog treat jar, a month or two in the refrigerator or 3 months in the freezer.
Just a few notes:
Never dump the flour into the mixture all in one go. This would cause lumps in your dough, and would just give you a hard time.
Never substitute milk for water. Dogs do not have the right enzymes for digesting cow’s milk, and milk would only give most dogs a stomach ache.
Avoid adding spice. That includes vanilla, cinnamon, garlic etc. Most spices are bad for your dog.
Never add chocolate or nuts to the cookie dough. They are poisonous for your dog!