National Homemade Cookie Day: Pumpkin Dog Treat Edition

In honor of National Homemade Cookie Day AND the fall season, here is an easy and delicious recipe for soft pumpkin dog treats! For homemade dog treat recipes, it's ideal to omit peanut butter to reduce the amount of sugar and any other ingredients or preservatives that may not sit well with your pup. Also, while this recipe is great in general for dogs of all ages, it's especially great for older dogs or dogs with dental issues since the final result makes soft treats vs. harder, crispier treats. We also love this recipe because it requires minimal ingredients! Get the full scoop below.

What you'll need:

  • Sturdy spoon
  • Mixing bowl
  • Baking sheet
  • Parchment paper (optional)
  • Rolling pin
  • Dog bone cookie cutters or fork to make crisscrossed shaped cookies (if you take the second route - just remember to label the storage container so everyone knows that these are for the doggo(s) of the household)

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup of apple sauce (no sugar added and made of apples)
  • 1 cup of pumpkin puree (no sugar added and made of pumpkins NOT pumpkin pie filling)
  • 1 egg
  • 3 1/2 cups of flour (can substitute wheat flour for oat flour or rice flour of equal parts. If using rice flour, you may need to add moisture with a TBS of water once it soaks up the egg)

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Mix egg, applesauce and pumpkin puree together
  3. Fold in flour until all is mixed well together
  4. Lightly dust countertop with a little flour and knead the dough a few times to make uniform
  5. Lightly flour rolling pin and then roll out dough to approximately 1/8 of an inch and cut out treats (OR after mixing all ingredients together, use a tablespoon to scoop out one by one onto the cookie sheet and then take a fork to apply pressure to thin them to about 1/8 of inch while making crisscrossed shape)
  6. Bake for 18 minutes and cool completely!

Notes:

  • Large cookie cutters for larger dogs will yield less than 85 cookies and will need longer time in the oven. After 18 minutes check about every 2 minutes until they are done
  • You can keep the treats stored on the counter for a few days but then they will need to be refrigerated and can be kept for a few weeks
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