I make these doggie treats for Phoebe. I make so many that I wind up shipping them out to friends, who say their dogs love them!

Left to Right - Buckwheat Pumpkin Treats, Banana Peanut Butter Treats, Phoebe Treats (My Own Concoction)
Left to Right – Buckwheat Pumpkin Treats, Banana Peanut Butter Treats, Phoebe Treats (My Own Concoction)

I got two of the recipes from other sites, and then took a stab at creating my own. My first attempt at making my own version was a glob of dense inedible goo. I had much better success with my second attempt, and pups seem to like them.

Buckwheat & Pumpkin Doggie Treats

This was the first treat I tried, and they are now a staple in the doggie treat jar. I found the recipe on About.com. Phoebe loves them! My son tried them once with peanut butter and liked them (I think he was probably just to trying to tweak my mind – yuk!)

When I make these, instead of rolling them into balls, I use little cookie cutters. The dough is quite sticky, so I sprinkle some buckwheat flour on a piece of wax paper, then I put another sheet of wax paper on top to roll them out.  By the time I am all done I have probably added the equivalent of an extra ¼ cup of buckwheat flour.

I dip a mini cookie cutter into the buckwheat flour and cut out a zillion treats (about 75-100 per batch).

They definitely stay crunchier if frozen and thawed in small batches, just as the recipe creator recommends.

Peanut Butter and Banana Doggie Treats

This recipe is from another site and is the second recipe I tried. For Phoebe, I just make smaller sized treats so I end up with about 75-100 instead of 24. It kind of skews the per serving nutritional value listed in the recipe, but that’s OK. When it comes to treats I am more concerned with calories than nutritional breakdown. At least I know they are no more than 45 calories each (I would guesstimate that the size I make are more along the lines of 15 calories or so – close enough). As with the recipe above, they stay crunchier frozen and thawed in small batches.

Phoebe Treats (My Own Concoction)

I decided to get brave. I found a few recipes that seemed OK, except they were made with all-purpose flour. I wanted to get around that so I substituted it with some quinoa and rice flour. That meant I had to adjust the amount to get the same dry dog-treat consistency.

If the dough is too gooey, thicken it up with oats.

  • 1 cup rice flour
  • 1 cup quinoa flour
  • 1 cup oats
  • ½ cup flax meal
  • 1 banana
  • ½ cup pumpkin
  • ¼ cup chicken broth (sodium free and no onion powder)

First, I grind the oats up in the food processes and then add the rest. I use my cookie press to make little “kisses” or I just put on a good TV show and roll a bunch of ¼ – ½ inch balls. Then I flatten them out.

Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes and then flip. Bake for another 20 minutes.