Carrot & Banana Natural Dog Treat Recipe

This recipe yields roughly 40 large 4″ treats, so if you use a smaller size cookie cutter you’ll get more than enough:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 bunch fresh carrots, finely chopped or grated
2-3 fresh bananas, peeled and mashed
1 beaten egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar (*optional, we went without)
1/2 cup cold water

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheets.

Combine dry ingredients (flour, cornmeal & *brown sugar) in large mixing bowl, then incorporate carrots, bananas, egg, oil, and water until well blended into workable dough.

Note: Both the carrots and bananas were chopped into large pieces, then they were slowly pulsed in a food processor. This not only saves time, but creates semi-regular sized carrot chunks and smooth banana mash to blend right into the rest of the base ingredients. Leave the pulsed carrot pieces fairly chunky instead of pureeing them, because it is nice to actually see the carrot pieces throughout each treat.

Flour your workspace and roll out dough to desired thickness. We went with about 1/2 inch thickness to allow for some expansion once baked. Cut cookies to desired shape and size.

Place dog cookies on baking sheet and bake 35 minutes.

After baking, turn oven off and leave cookies inside for another 30-45 minutes until crisp. This step is important to make sure your treats harden up, otherwise they will remain like soft cookies.

Once crisp, remove dog cookies from oven and let cool. Transfer to zipper bags or airtight containers and freeze to preserve freshness for your little one!