Peanut Butter Pumpkin Doggie Treats

So, as many of you may know, I recently became a dog owner. After years of wanting a puppy and not being able to have one (apartments, law school, ect...) we finally got the cutest (and craziest) puppy in the universe. Archer is now 19 weeks old and already 27 lbs! He is growing like a weed and eating constantly. He is completely and totally obsessed with food. I realized that I cook special meals and treats for all the people in my life, it's about time I made something special for my little meatball. So, in honor of his graduation from puppy kindergarten this weekend, I decided to whip him up some tasty treats.

There are many different ways you can go about creating doggie treats. I decided to just throw some things together and experiment. Archer goes bananas over peanut butter, so I knew that had to be a big part of the treat. He also loves these natural dog treats that are made of pumpkin, so I did some research. Turns out, pumpkin is great for dogs because it is high in fiber and beta carotene. The dog food we feed him is grain free and wheat is generally not great for their tummies. I decided to use garbanzo bean flour instead. I bought a big bag months ago to try baking with. I was unhappy with the results, so I figured I'd give it another try. Most commercial wheat free and allergy sensitive dog treats are made with it. Plus, it has a lot of protein and fiber.

So I threw these various ingredients together and hoped for the best. After a few experimental batches, I got the best result with these quantities. The dough is quite sticky. This will make for a cookie that is still slightly soft, even when totally cooled. This allowed me to break them into small pieces to feed him. I need to get some tiny cookie cutters so make smaller ones in the future.

So what's the verdict? Archer went CRAZY over these. I had to hide them because he kept trying to jump on top of the counter to grab the plate. So I'm happy because he likes them, they are good motivation for when we're training, and they don't have lots of scary additives in them. Plus, they took about 20 minutes to make.

Read more for the full recipe!

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2/3 cup natural peanut butter
1 egg
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup garbanzo bean flour (plus at least 1/2 cup for rolling - use a lot!)

Craig and Archer at the beach

Step by Step Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Mix together peanut butter, pumpkin egg and oil

3. Add cinnamon, salt and flour

4. Mix thoroughly, mixture should be crumbly and a bit sticky

5. Liberally flour a rolling surface and roll dough out to 1/2" thickness

6. Using cookie cutters, cut cookie out of dough

7. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet

8. Bake 15-18 minutes, until crisp

9. Cool and serve