Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

over the holidays i got bought some organic peanut butter dog biscuits to give away as a gift to one of our neighbors who has a pup that our dog LOVES playing with! because of all the snow we kept getting we never got to see them on our usual morning walks, and both hubby and i were both too lazy to walk the present down to our neighbors! before we knew it, January had come and gone, and i decided to just let our dog eat the treats! to say he loved them more than the normal Milkbones would be an understatement!! when the box almost ran out i decided instead of buying more, i was going to try and make my own. i'd seen tons of recipes online for dog treats, and the peanut butter ones were all very easy so i figured why not! since our dog has a sensitive tummy, it was especially nice that many of the recipes had very few ingredients, and certainly no unnecessary fillers. (i avoided the recipes that included oil, shortening, and butter- do dog treats really need that?)

i used two different recipes, and both seemed to turn out great! the first recipe has oatmeal in it, and the second recipe was taking from Paula Deen's website.

Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Dog Biscuits

ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1 1/4 cup hot water

• preheat oven to 350 degrees
• mix peanut butter into hot water
• stir in flour and oats
• knead well, and roll into small balls onto a non-stick baking sheet. flatten slightly. bake for 40 minutes. allow to cool completely.

Bodeen's Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

ingredients:

• 3/4 cup nonfat milk
• 1 egg
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1tbsp baking powder
• 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cup wheat flour

• preheat oven to 325 degrees
• combine egg, milk, and peanut butter
• add baking powder and wheat flour (i used 2 1/4 cups flour, but next time i'm going to use 2 1/2 cups. still seemed a bit moist, and i think the dough needed to be slightly dryer to give it a better crunch when it cooled!)
• mix well and roll into small balls onto a non stick baking sheet, pressing slightly. bake for 20 min then flip and bake for another 15 min. (i'm sure you can probably just bake on one side like the first recipe for a total of 35 minutes if you don't feel like or forget to flip!) allow to cool completely!

both recipes said you can roll the dough and use cookie cutters to make cute shapes, but  i didn't really feel like going through that much trouble, so i just made patties! i also rolled some out and made them into swirly twists, and some pretzel shapes (which my husband said looked like turds, so i guess i need some practice- or just stick to patties!) i left them out to cool overnight, and i think that really helped them crisp up!

this was definitely a fun project away from the normal cooking/baking i do. it wasn't anything extraordinary, nor did it take up a lot of time, so i'll definitely be looking into some more healthier dog treats that i can make!