Dog Treats - Peanut Butter Banana Dog Treats

Peanut Butter Banana Dog Treats

Recipe yields about 30 mixed big and small treats

6 Tablespoons very ripe banana, pureed or smashed up

3 Tablespoons peanut butter (the natural no-stir (ex. Skippy Natural is best)

¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons Gerber Oatmeal Cereal (baby cereal)

3 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 ½ teaspoons ground flax meal

Preheat oven to 350°F

Combine the dry ingredients together and set aside. Smash or puree your banana, then add the peanut butter and mix thoroughly until creamy. Add the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. Load your press barrel and use a very slow, even, steady pressure to extrude the dough through your disks, as outlined below in special instructions. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until edges begin to brown, checking early and often as all ovens are different. Once baked, turn the oven off, loosen the shapes on the cookie sheet after 2 minutes but leave them on it and put them back in a slightly cooled, off oven for another hour or so. This will slowly allow them to dry out and become nice and crunchy!

*Special directions for pressing all treat recipes*This will NOT feel like pressing cookies! If you maintain a nice even, stiff pressure the treats will form nicely. It will feel especially different pressing the small bones, as you will not need even close to a full “click” to press them (referring to “one click-per-cookie type presses). You will hardly feel them stick to the pan. If any of the shapes do not release from the press well, you can easily pull them off with your fingers and set them on the pan! Count on pressing/applying pressure slowly and steadily for about a full second per shape. Remember that these are not people cookies made with only fine ground flour, so they will have a more rustic appearance. These make a nice light treat that isn't too hard to crunch. The small bone and small paw make excellent little training treats.

Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Dog Treats and Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats follow the same recipe as Peanut Butter Banana Dog Treats. Simply replace the banana with either 6 tablespoons of sweet potato baby food or 6 tablespoons of pureed pumpkin (not “pie filling”, the “pure pumpkin puree” in a can). Follow the same special pressing instructions but bake them for about 23 minutes, checking early and often as all ovens are different, baking until the edges are just brown. Once baked, turn the oven off, loosen the shapes on the cookie sheet after 2 minutes but leave them on it and put them back in a slightly cooled, off oven for another hour or so. This will slowly allow them to dry out and become nice and crunchy! *These 3 recipes do not press as well with the Big Dog Paw Disk. The Big Dog Bone, Small Dog Bone, and Small Dog Paw work best.