Wheat-Free Dog Treats with Oats, Pumpkin, and Peanut Butter

Wheat-Free Dog Treats

I just adore the photo of Brutus above.  These dog treats did not look so attractive under the fluorescent light in the kitchen, so I stepped over to the window with my little shadow by my side. 

Turns out the dogs adore the treats I made for them this morning.

"Who's a good boy!???"

I found this recipe on a blog called Created by Diane.  The recipe call for just a few ingredients; I had all of them on hand.  I had even opened up a big can of pumpkin puree earlier in the week to make some experimental vegan muffins.  That recipe was a flop unfortunately; thankfully the dog treats turned out well.

I only made a half batch of this recipe but it still made quite a few treats.

The original recipe link for Pumpkin Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Biscuits can be found by clicking HERE.  I did not make any modifications to the recipe, but did change up how I shaped and baked the cookies.  The original recipe calls for rolling the dough out on a floured surface and cutting the treats out with a cookie cutter.  The dough did not seem to have the right consistency for this and it also seemed a tad moist (I would have probably had to use a lot of flour to be able to roll out the dough and not have a sticky mess). I opted to use my small cookie scoop (which resembles an ice cream scoop) and evenly portioned out the treats. I used the tines of a fork to flatten the cookies, just like you would if your were making Peanut Butter Criss-Cross Cookies for humans.  I did have to spray my fork with non-stick cooking spray to keep it from sticking to the dough.  It would probably also work to dip the fork tines in a little flour to keep the fork's tines from sticking to the dough.  Sometimes we wonder if our boy dog, Brutus, might be sensitive to wheat, so I avoided using any flour when preparing these treats.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Biscuits

Ingredients for a Small (Half) Batch 

Makes 24 to 26 treats

1 1/2 cups rolled oats (old fashioned)

1/4 cup peanut butter (room temperature)

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

Instructions:

Place the oatmeal into a food processor and pulse it until it's not so coarse, but it doesn't need to be a fine as flour.  Alternatively, use a blender (I used my Ninja Blender)

Add oatmeal, pumpkin, peanut butter, cinnamon, baking powder, and eggs, to a bowl and mix with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until all ingredients are well combined.

Line two sheet pans with parchment paper; portion out treats with a small cookie scoop.  Spray a dinner fork with non-stick cooking spray and use the tines of the fork to flatten each treat.

Bake treats in a pre-heated oven (375 degrees Fahrenheit) for 18 to 22 minutes. I baked the treats for 18 minutes and they were lightly browned on the bottom and still tender (but cooked through) on the inside.

Place in airtight container to keep them fresh or in the freezer.

So I had a little "Kodak Fever" with my doggies this morning. Can you blame me? They are mighty cute.

For this recipe, I used natural peanut butter which contains only ground roasted peanuts and salt.  This is the kind of peanut butter that separates and requires refrigeration.  I let the peanut butter come to room temperature so that I could be easily combined with the other ingredients.

I had the peanut butter out for the treat you see above.  I'll post about recipe treat very soon (Hint: it's a treat for two legged creatures).