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| My sweet boys... totally worn out and ready for a nap after a warm first-day-of-Spring walk! |
What my boys love more than anything else in the world........are TREATS!!! Fortunately, for their now retired physiques, my PlayDay Duo count fresh fruits and vegetables as 'treats' and are totally stoked with either as their daily afternoon snack buuuuuuut they also LOVE baked treats. So, I thought I would share a super-simple baked treat recipe that I make for them which they thoroughly enjoy.
Like all my recipes... the ingredients are mostly approximate measurements so don't be afraid to play around with substitutions. If your dog absolutely hates bananas, try some blueberries, or even peanut butter. And if your dog truly despises carrots, try zucchini or squash or broccoli. the good thing about these treats though, is they may actually like the fruits and vegetables baked in better than in natural state since sometimes, just like with humans, it's a texture thing. Try different combinations and even the fussiest pups might just open up a delighted mouth to the deliciousness instead of giving the usual turned-up snout reaction to healthy options.
Banana-Carrot Treat-Bites
Ingredients:
3 overripe Bananas
2 cups Carrots (grated)
3 1/2 cups(ish) Flour
Step one:
Gather all three ingredients.
A note about the flour... I use all whole wheat in these treats just because I find it seems to add just a little more flavour and a little richer colour than the plain white flour. The boys don't care about the colour, they only care about the tastiness! Anyhow, you can use all white flour, or half'n'half, whatever you perfer or have on hand; it doesn't matter, the treats will still be good!
Step two:
Combine the bananas and grated carrots in a large mixing bowl.
CARROT TIP (pun always intended)... there is usually a LOT of juice in the freshly grated carrots so I always squeeze a little out, that way the dough doesn't require quite as much flour which ultimately would cut down on the finished treat flavour.
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| Grate the carrots onto a piece of cheesecloth or paper towel and just squeeze some of the excess liquid out, you could even just push the liquid out through a strainer... whateve's! |
I use a stand mixer but you can absolutely mix it by hand... I always just choose the laziest way possible because I really hate cooking. But I love keeping my boys healthily happy!
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| Carrots and banaaaaanas sittin' in a bowl......... mixin'and'a'mushin'up'heart'n'soul! |
Step three:
Add in 2 (or so) cups of the flour and mix it well..... You may need less or more flour than I used, don't worry about the measurements, use what feels right! If you do happen to add a little too much flour you can always knead in a little water, maybe a Tablespoon at a time to moisten the dough up, so worry not, it's a very forgiving recipe!
Keep sprinkling in little bits of the remaining flour until the dough wants to stick to but just can't help falling off it's beloved mixing paddle; that's when it 'kneeeaaaaads' to hit the counter!
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| Mix it well.....m-mix it REAL well!!! (sung to 'Push It' by Salt'N''Pepa) |
Step Four:
Turn the dough out and onto a lightly floured surface and knead in enough of the remaining flour to form a non-sticky ball of dough.
Step five:
Pat the ball into a flattened rectangle (of sorts) and cover in plastic wrap.
Step six:
Chill... both the dough and you, 'cause you've already worked so hard you deserve a break!
**If you want to skip steps five and six to get the whole shebang over and done with, you so totally can!!! I usually make the dough in the afternoon and let it chill in the refrigerator to meld flavours overnight before finishing up with the forming and baking the following morning. Just kind of gives the bananas'n'carrots'n'flour time to get to know each other and lose any first-meet-up shyness before gettin' down together in the oven...
Step seven:
Let's ROLL!
I like to work with 1/4 of the dough at a time but hey, if you're brave enough to take it all on at once... all the power to ya!
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| Who wants to be fi-iiiiiiirst??? |
I like to roll the dough out to about 1/4" thickness... I know it seems really thin but these ones with the banana and carrot do puff up a little in the oven ('cause they can't help but burst out with their goodness) so thinly rolled seems to work best for us.
Now, feel free to use cookie cutters if you want to, I always do when I make them around any Holidays as a special treat but for these ones I just cut them into what I like to call treat-bites. And the treat-bites don't have to be exact, either... I just use my rolling dowel as a 'ruler' and cut with a pizza cutter, it's easiest that way, for me anyhow. I try to keep the bites as uniform as I can at about 3/4" to 1" square but you can judge the perfect size for your own pups!
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| Just rollin' and slicin'... yes indeed..... |
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First, cut the dough to bites and separate.... Next, lightly press with fingers to soften corners and edges.
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| Place each bite on a parchment-lined sheet... 'cause parchment is this dish-washing-hating-girls-bestest-friend-in-the-whole-wide-baking-world! |
Step eight:
Bake tiiiiiiiiiiiiime!!!
Bake at 300° for 30-40 minutes (convection oven)
**You may need to adjust your time and temperature on your oven. Without convection, I would maybe try baking at 325° while checking often to be sure they don't brown too much but still dry up enough.
I test the doneness by feel, when the bites feel dry and firm on the outside but still want to spring back when quickly and gently squished in the middle... they're done!
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| "I'm done!"... "I'm done, tooooo!" ... "Done like dinner!" ... "Done, over here!" ... "Yep... I'm done, too!" ....... |
Step ten:
Coooooooooool!
I let them cool COMPLETELY right on the baking sheet... like I said, I opt for the laziest route and the last thing I want to do is wash cooling racks; they'd probably just fall through the cooling racks anyway.....
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| This batch made 250 treat-bites... and boy were my boys stoked! |
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| Day takes his treat-bites in a pretty gentlemanly-like fashion... |
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| ...while Play is all 'I need that deeeeeeliciousnesssss!!!' |
As for storing these baked treat-bites...
I freeze the bites in a ziplock bag and pull a few out each day so we always have fresh bites at the ready. The boys also like them with a chilly-crunch straight from the freezer so don't worry if they aren't readily thawed when you need them.
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| All ready for storage and consumption... the boys would, of course, to just get all the consumtion over with at once and not have to worry about the freezer storage part..... but mama overrules on that one! ;) |
I sure hope your pups enjoy these treat-bites as much as my boys do! If you have any pup-treat recipes to share, leave a link in the comments section... I'd love to try making them and my boys are always willing tatse-testers!!!
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