Blueberry Banana Dog Biscuits

I’ve been getting deeper into this dog treat baking and I decided to check out some dog treat baking books from the library. I checked out about four so far and I’ve learned a lot from them. They have really helped me expand my recipes and use new ingredients. Most recently, I was inspired to try a new type of flour and some real pureed fruit. It was a hit! I think Chubb still likes the peanut butter applesauce treats the best, but I heard no complaints over these. They were fun and new I have a lot of ideas for ways to adapt these too. I’m thinking of a strawberry banana version for Valentine’s Day!

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For this recipe, I used a combination of oat flour and brown rice flour. I have made and used my own oat flour before, but brown rice flour was new to me. It was also hard to find. I recently made a trip with my mom to a bulk store that sells flour made out of just about everything you can imagine, so I got a couple bags of brown rice flour, although I think you could use whole wheat flour and be fine too.

I made my own oat flour for this by blending up old fashioned oats until they were powdery. You can buy oat flour if you want, but I find it more cost effective to do it this way, although you will get a few chunks in it, which won’t hurt at all.

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Once you have your flours combined, it’s time to get the liquid ingredients blended. I’ve used egg in treats before but not very often. The pureeing fruit was also new to me so this was quite fun. The fact that the dough was blue was super cool!

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Once your fruit is pureed, add in the egg and peanut butter and blend it again. The blender makes this pretty easy on the arms until the last steps.

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Pour your liquid into your flour and mix it all up! This next step is the hardest part because you have to go by feel. You don’t want the dough too stiff, but you also want to be bale to roll it out. If you have to add more flour like I did, use the brown rice flour and not the oat flour- I learned this the hard way. Oat flour is awesome, but brown rice flour stiffened the dough with less flour added. I made sure to note everything in the final recipe. Like everything, it takes a little practice, but I will definitely do my best to make sure your first batch of dog treats turns out fun and delicious!

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This dough was so fun and cool to work with! The color was awesome. I can’t wait to try other puppy safe fruits for different colors. I think strawberry treats with my carob ones would be an adorable combo. I am also currently in the market for more tiny cookie cutters to make more shapes. I know that is strictly for my own personal enjoyment because the girls could not care less what their treats look like, but I have so much fun with these that I want to make them in a bunch of different themes.

Once they were baked, they looked kind of grayish and they smelled amazing! This is a smaller recipe but it made 129 treats for us. We are still working on my last batch so thank goodness for the freezer! Plus I have a lovely canine friend that I share with who hasn’t been disappointed yet.

In these times, many of us are faced with a lot of extra time on our hands due to jobs shutting down, hours being cut, and working from home. I find that baking in general helps me to feel calm, and baking for the dogs has been a huge help. They are always super grateful no mater what, and seeing their joy always makes me smile. There has never been a better time to experiment with baking and I hope you and your pups have fun going through these recipes together!

Blueberry Banana Dog Biscuit Recipe

• 1 1/2 c. brown rice flour PLUS 2-4T. (explained in recipe)
• 1 c. oat flour
• 1/2 c. whole, fresh blueberries
• 1/2 of a large, overripe banana
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 c. natural peanut butter (make sure it doesn’t contain Xylitol or other added sweeteners or preservatives.)

NOTE: If you don’t want to purchase oat flour, you can grind old fashioned oats in a blender until they are powdery. Measure after grinding.

Combine 1 1/2c. of brown rice flour PLUS 2 T. along with your cup of oat flour. Stir them well and set them aside.

Measure out your whole blueberries and place them in a blender along with the banana. Blend until the fruit is pureed, about 45 seconds on high. Add in the egg and peanut butter and blend for another 45 seconds.

Add the liquid mixture to the flour and mix until thoroughly combined. Here’s the slightly tricky part- you want the dough to be kind of stiff. You don’t want it to be sticky, but you don’t want it to be so stiff that you can’t roll it out or it cracks when you do. Try kneading it on the counter a few times. If it sticks, it might need more flour. The brown rice flour will work better for this than the oat flour, so that is why I recommend using the brown rice flour specifically for this. If it needs more flour, knead in 1 T. and see where you are. If it is still on the sticky side, you can knead in another tablespoon. If you accidentally add in too much flour and the dough is hard to roll out or it’s cracking, you can knead in a small amount of water, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Once the dough is ready, roll it out to 1/4 of an inch thick and cut it into shapes with small cookie cutters. Bake them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet at 350 for 20 minutes. Keep rolling out the scraps and cutting out shapes until all the dough is used up.

This recipe made 129 treats, but this will vary based on your cookie cutters.

To store, use and airtight container or ziploc bag. Freeze the extra and keep about 1-2 weeks worth of treats in your refrigerator at a time.