Saturday, March 23, 2013

Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Treats

Happy Saturday!

Since it's Saturday and I usually make these Saturday mornings while the hubby sleeps, our first DIY post is going to be PB and P (Peanut Butter and Pumpkin) Dog Treats. Our boy loves them and with all the recalls lately (If you're wondering, the most recent was the Iams Shakeables) it's comforting to know exactly what your dog is eating and how it was made. No mystery ingredients here!



These take a little bit of time to get the perfect "milk-bone" crunch, but luckily the dogs love them fresh (and mostly cooled) from the oven as well. 

Though I love reading recipes on blogs, it's a little frustrating to me that the ingredients are listed at the end of all of the instructions and photos. So, here is a list of what you'll need:

1 1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1 C. Oats (I use Old Fashioned)
2 tsp. Baking Powder 
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Ginger
1 tsp. Allspice (I usually use Ground Cloves instead - Quest loves Cloves!)
2 Tbs. Coconut Oil (Canola works as well)
1/2 Can Pumpkin (Pure Pumpkin - NOT Pie Filling)
1/4 C. Peanut Butter
1/4 C. Water

Cookie cutters
Mixing Bowl (or two)
Rolling Pin
Cookie Sheet (2 or more)
Parchment Paper (Optional - I use it while rolling the dough, because I'm lazy and don't want to have to clean the counter)
Foil (Again, optional. I hate cleaning cookie sheets too)

Okay! That is the basic list of what you'll need. Do you feel prepared? It's really easy! Maybe your dog can even help you gather your supplies!

I taught Quest how to help out in the kitchen by closing drawers and cabinets for me. He can get pretty exuberant over it and will try to close them before you are done getting things out. 



For the sake of efficiency, pre-heat your oven to 325 before doing anything else.  Combine all of your dry ingredients (Flour, Oats, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Ginger, Allspice/Cloves). Get them nice and blended. 

Then, I like to combine the wet ingredients separately and later combine them with the dry. It seems easier to me, even if I have to wash an extra small bowl. 



When everything is all put together, the wet with the dry, grab a decent size handful and start rolling it out. Cut out some fun shapes and put them on the cookie sheet. This recipe will make approximately 3-4 cookie sheets full, depending on the size of your sheets and cookies. 

Bake for 15 minutes (at 325...remember the efficient pre-heat?). You'll pull them out and they'll feel like they're full of air. That's fine! As they cool they harden into a delicious crunchy canine cookie. Once all of the cookies are baked, I like to flip them all over (tops-down) and combine them on to as few cookie sheets as possible, turn the oven off, and throw them back in while the oven cools down.  Leave them in there overnight or for a few hours at least before storing. This limits the moisture that will remain in the cookie and allow you to keep them fresh longer without having to worry about mold in your cookie jar. 

Once they've spent their few hours in the cool oven, you can put them away and over the next day or so they'll turn into the crunchy cookie. 



Remember the 1/2 can of pumpkin we have left over? Well, I'll show you what to do with it in another post!


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