Peanut Butter & Banana Dog Treats

My dogs love cookies, but Razzle has recently developed allergies and is on a restricted, limited-ingredient diet.  Since I think cookies made out of the same food you eat for every meal is boring as all get out, I made these for him.  They have the same grain (oats) as his food does, and the only protein source is egg (as opposed to chicken), so hopefully they won’t trigger his allergies.  They’re made with all-natural peanut butter, because that has no added sugar and a  lot less salt than homogenized butters like Jif or Skippy have.  Both the dogs love them.

Ingredients:
3 bananas
3 large eggs
1/2 c. all-natural peanut butter
1/2 c. yogurt
1/4 c. olive oil
3 c. rolled oats (not instant)
1-1/4 c. oat flour

To make:
Preheat oven to 325.

Mash the bananas with a potato masher in a large mixing bowl.

Add everything else but the flour and mix well.

Gradually add in the flour in small batches, mixing it in as you go.

Line a cookie sheet, square cake pan or rectangular casserole dish with parchment paper and spoon some of the mixture into the dish.  Sprinkle it with a little extra oat flour and then press out the dough until the bottom of the pan is covered with a layer of dough 1/4″ thick.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour, until the dough pulls away from the sides and is dark golden brown (or brown) and does not easily give when you press on it*.  Slide out of the pan and cut immediately into 1×1″ squares**.  Let cool.

If you find when the squares cool that they aren’t crunchy enough (no one wants oatmeal stuck to their dog’s teeth and gums – it fosters decay), just put them back in the pan and bake for another 30 minutes or so.

Let cool and place in a loosely covered canister.  If you don’t feed cookies often in your house, you should probably freeze some and store the rest in the refrigerator.  The lifespan of a container of dog cookies in this house is about 3 days, so I just use an old dog treat jar to store mine and leave them with the dog food on the shelf.  Feed in place of your dog’s regular cookies.

* I don’t go for a softer cookie with these because they’d really glom onto the dogs’ gums and teeth, which is bad.

** You can cut them whatever size you like.  I go for a smaller, bite-size cookie, but if you have big dogs, 2×2″ is also a good choice.

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