Homemade Dog Biscuits

 Dog biscuits and treats are ridiculously expensive.  And full of weird additives.  Now, I am not an advocate of cooking my dog his food or anything, but I have pondered the idea of making him his own treats for over a year.  Luckily, we taught him to like carrots right off the bat and that is always a cheap, healthy treat to give him.  (OK, maybe he doesn't even absorb anything because his poo is orange the next day but we figure it gives him fiber.)

As I was browsing through my Herbal Kitchen cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld, I rediscovered that he had a recipe for dog treats.  And since we have been trying to eat healthier around here ourselves, I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand.  

Peanut butter, whole wheat flour, nutritional yeast, and parsley: it sounded like a human snack!  It was really easy to make the dough and roll it into the bone shapes.  They do have to cook in the oven for 2 hours so just plan accordingly. 

 

 The taste testing results are in and this is Oskar's new favorite treat!  (Until I introduce some other yummy treat!)

 

Good Dog, Bad Dog Biscuits 

From The Herbal Kitchen by Jerry Traunfeld

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup dry nutritional yeast

1 1/2 Tablespoons garlic powder

1 cup parsley sprigs, gently packed

1/2 cup natural, unsalted peanut butter

1 egg

1 cup water

Preheat over to 275F.

Whirl the oats, flour, yeast, garlic powder, and parsley in the food processor until finely ground.  Add the peanut butter and process until combined.  Add the egg and the water and process until a dough forms a firm ball that spins around the blade.

Turn the dough out onto a board and knead briefly.  Pinch off a piece of dough (a size corresponding to the size of your dog) and roll it into a cylinder.  Use your fingers to make a bone shape by pressing your fingertip into both ends to create the sockets.   

(Note: I just divided the dough into 4 logs and then each log into 12 pieces.  This makes 48 nice milkbone sized snacks.)

Place on cookie sheet and bake 2 hours.  They will brown a little so you can turn them over half way through cooking if you care about that but I didn't bother since Oskar doesn't care if one side is a little browner than the other!  They smell delicious when they come out of the oven.

Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.