Homemade Dog Treats...

I have been trying to make small strides towards providing our dogs with a healthier and more active lifestyle. The girls and I have been walking almost every day and we have even gone hiking on the trails at Mill Creek Park. Sofia and Lucy absolutely love it and I could definitely use the exercise too. For years we have been buying our dogs treats as rewards for good behavior (in addition to play and verbal praise, of course). We try to choose healthy options, but sometimes those are not economical and readily available.

After doing a little research (a google search) I found a recipe for making sweet potato dog treats. The recipe was very easy and resulted in a large amount of dog treats for little cost. Have a look:

I started off by peeling two organic sweet potatoes to make them easier to cut. The potatoes will shrink a considerable amount when dehydrated in the oven so I tried cutting them into a few different sizes. I first tried using a mandolin, but it was more difficult than I had anticipated and the slices were thinner than I wanted.


Here is my first pile of sweet potatoes.


I then neatly arranged the potatoes on a parchment lined baking sheet.


I was able to achieve thicker slices of potato by CAREFULLY using a sharp knife. The treats are then placed in a 200˚F oven for three hours. I flipped the treats after about 1 1/2 hours and then let them finish cooking.


Here they are after about one and a half hours. You can see that they shrank considerably.


Some of the thicker treats had to be left in the oven for a little longer and I turned the oven off and let them sit inside overnight. Here are the treats the next day. I broke some of the sweet potatoes into smaller reward treats for good behavior and left some larger for chew treats.


This picture of Sofia carefully taking a potato from me cracks me up!


I believe that almost everyone in North-East Ohio has sampled my baking some way or another, but our dogs have not had the pleasure. I found an easy recipe for homemade Apple-Cheddar Dog Biscuits on of course www.marthastewart.com

From The Martha Stewart Show, October 2009
Izzy's Apple-Cheddar Dog Biscuits

Ingredients

Makes about 16
2 cups barley flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1/3 cup shredded cheddar
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a nonstick baking mat or parchment paper; set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients and about 3 tablespoons water to form a dough. Roll out mixture between two sheets of plastic wrap to 1/4-inch thick; remove plastic wrap and cut out biscuits with a 3 1/2-inch bone-shaped cookie cutter. Reroll scraps and continue cutting out biscuits.
Space biscuits 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes until nicely browned and firm.
Transfer biscuits to a wire rack. Turn off oven and place biscuits on wire rack in oven overnight. Remove from oven and store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Here are all of the ingredients. All of these ingredients can probably be found in any pantry. I actually had to go to a health food store to find the barley flour, but it was inexpensive. I did not want to buy pre-made apple sauce so I made my own.


All of the ingredients are mixed in a large bowl until well combined.


I rolled portions of the dough between two pieces of plastic wrap. You can see all of the cheese and oats.


Instead of using a dog bone shaped biscuit cutter I used a 1/3 inch scalloped (Martha Stewart of course) biscuit cutter to make smaller treats.


Here are the beautiful treats lined up perfectly on a sheet pan.


I cut out all of the treats and then rerolled the scraps and cut out more treats. I got about 97 treats out of one recipe.


Here are the dog biscuits all baked and golden brown.


The treats are then placed on a wire rack and allowed to dry in the oven overnight.


Here are the dogs patiently awaiting a first taste of the biscuits. The black dog is our foster/rescue dog Marvin (pronounced MAAAAVIN) I tried a little taste of the biscuits and they were good. They tasted sort of like an unsalted cracker, which is good since salt is not good for dogs (or humans).


Here is the jar we use to store our dog treats. It makes me feel better knowing exactly what we are giving to our dogs instead of trusting some discount bag of treats. I must say the dogs absolutely love each and every one of the treats and when they hear the clang of the lid coming off of the treat jar they come running. Remember, the sweet potato treats are dehydrated sweet potatoes and will become rehydrated in their little bellies. We give our pups small pieces of sweet potato as a reward and larger ones about once a day. If you have time to try these I recommend it because your dogs will thank you!