Homemade Dog Treats

I remember the first time I came back to visit New York from Alaska. I was going to be a bridesmaid in my brothers wedding, so I had to wait for nine months to go on leave to see Joe again. I stayed with him in his tiny apartment with him and his dog, Knuckles, for 10 days. In a mission to bake a pumpkin cheesecake we went shopping at a local specialty foods store and found dog bone shaped cookies cutters. I thought it was so cute! I insisted that we make Knuckles some dog treats. That was probably the very first thing we ever baked together. 

Knuckles was such a good boy and I know Joe still misses him terribly. Having our Murray around really makes him happy. Murray is similar to knuckles in a lot of ways. He's well behaved and is very patient. He is also a pro at snuggling! This guy will wait until I get out of bed and then look anxiously at Joe until he invites him up. Then he hops on the bed and puts his big head right up next to Joe's face or on his chest. So cute! This silly boy deserves some treats of his own!

Unfortunately the adorable dog bone cookie cutter is packed away with Joes stuff in New York, so I had to use a boring old jar ring to cut them. It was either that or have christmas stocking shaped treats since the only other cookie cutters I have are from when we made christmas cookies. I want to pick up some letter stamps too, so I can stamp his name on each one, but instead I had to make sad little "M" shapes with a butter knife. It seems like my creations always look better in my head... Murray couldn't care less of course, he just wants to eat them. I'm a little weird when it comes to baking and cooking, I get so worried about things getting stale or having a weird texture... then I remember that Murray licks his own butt. So yeah. There is that.

What I'm trying to say is don't worry too much about how they turn out! Get creative with it and add pumpkin instead of peanut butter or add chopped up bacon bits or beef jerky. I plan on trying out a bacon variation soon!

I adapted this recipe from Food 52.

Murray's Dog Treats

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Water or Beef/Chicken Broth

2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil or Bacon Grease

1 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/2 Cup Rolled Oats

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine peanut butter, oil, and water in a bowl. Add whole wheat flour and oats and mix until smooth. Turn out onto a surface with the remaining all purpose flour and knead until the rest of the flour is absorbed and you have a firm dough. 

Roll out with a rolling pin and cut into shapes. Place treats on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes. You may have to bake for less time if you make smaller treats, but Murray is a big boy so we make big ones for him.

My very sad little "M" shapes... *sigh*