doggy treats

Yummy note: Well, this is a different variety of a "yummy" treat, but I've been hearing rave reviews that the dogs have loved these treats, so it seems to be yummy to their tummies! I got this recipe out of a doggy cookbook from a coworker. I wish I wrote down the name of the book now, but I can't recall... so April, if you see this, can you note what book this was from :) thanks! Back to the treats, this was a simple dog treat recipe that doesn't involve weird ingredients to make it disgusting or expensive to make. The recipe made a lot of treats for us to share. It worked perfect for a bake sale I was helping with at work too, as people love to pamper their pooch! Plus, people said it was a nice alternative that was at the bake sale, as it helped some that didn't want to buy the sweets, but still donate to the cause. I think this recipe made about 60-80 small to mid-sized treats, which was great for some dog presents too! Hope you enjoy making treats for your 4-legged friends!

Doggy Treats

aka "Apple Kissed Peanut Butter Treats"

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 large egg

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cups water

4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

3/4 cup whole rolled oats (I didn't have rolled oats on hand, so I used old-fashioned oatmeal which worked just as fine)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine applesauce, egg, peanut butter, and water in a large bowl. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Mix well, and then knead dough on a lightly floured surface until thoroughly mixed.

Roll dough to about 1/8 inch thick and cut out using small cookie cutters. We used a dog bone, a heart, and some little flower shapes for size variety.

Place dough on a lightly greased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Original recipe said to bake treats for about 50 minutes and then to turn the oven off and leave biscuits in oven for about 20 minutes to harden. If you don't have enough cookie sheets to bake all your treats at once, you'll have to do it in batches. Basically keep an eye on your treats, and depending on the size, take them out to cool when they appear to be done to your liking.

* note: the original recipe said to use these treats as sandwich treats and suggested to add cream cheese to the middle of two biscuits for an even more special doggy treat. They suggested about 8 ounces of cream cheese to cover all the sandwich treats.

Alicia was very excited to help with the treats for her doggy friends. :)