Recently I made a large batch of dog treats for Clara and she’s completely obsessed! And I, unlike many bloggers, do not use that word lightly! She would do absolutely anything for these, and what’s more they cost roughly a third of what we’ve being paying for dog treats up until now… so I thought I’d record my recipe for posterity…
this is her “super attentive and totally focused on me” face…
We’ve gone through a metric tonne, give or take, of dog treats in our quest to train this adorable, but quite feisty little wench… I must say I don’t remember Sienna ever being such a handful but maybe like having babies, you forget. Anyway,… she had a definite favourite treat, that’s proven quite difficult to lay our hands on because it seems to be perpetually sold out. This elusive treat is like a rusk; it’s made with real beef, and sometimes has cranberries and rosemary in it too. It’s also pretty expensive. Anyway I decided, how hard could it be??
I made up my own recipe and it was staggeringly successful! I’d googled “dog treat recipes” and the options that came up, well WOOF; and I don’t mean that in a good way. Most of them didn’t even have meat in them, while still claiming to be a tasty “treat” for your dog. I mean, Clara likes not-meat things too, but meat is definitely her very favouritest thing in the whole wide world to eat! In the end, I got inspiration from a baby-rusk recipe, of all things. This one to be specific; although if you look at it you’ll see it bears zero relation to mine here.
Without further ado!
Dog treats:
500g minced beef
2 cups plain flour
1 large egg
Cook mince in a frying pan, stirring constantly so as to keep it all broken up and no lumps. If mince is very lean I sometimes start with a little water to keep things moving and avoid the mince sticking to the pan; but usually the meat’s own juices are sufficient… When cooked let it cool to lukewarm. Tip mince into a food processor with the flour and blend thoroughly… it should end up with a mealy/breadcrumb-y texture. When thoroughly “crumb-y” add the egg and pulse again, the mixture should form a good dough-like texture that is not sticky and can be rolled out easily. If it is a bit sticky, knead in a touch more flour. Roll out, cut into shapes, and bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and quite hard. The length of cooking time depends on how thick you’ve rolled it… I rolled to about 4mm, and this yielded a HUGE quantity of bikkies.
Obviously you don’t need to cut fancy shapes, because this is the time-consuming bit really; you could just cut into a grid of squares and separate them for baking. Also, this is quite a basic recipe; I just wanted to sound her out to see how it all worked out before getting into gourmet territory. For the next batch I plan to try some variations:
To be added at the same time as the flour and blended in::
1/4 cup of dried fruit, such as apples or cranberries,
and/or 1tsp dried herbs, such as rosemary, sage or parsley
My only regret? That I do not have a dog-bone shaped cutter. I do though, plan to address this awful travesty…
obedience!!!!
My friend makes her dog homemade dog biscuits. I will be sure to pass your recipe on to her.
They sound brilliant! How do you store them? Do they still need refrigeration or are they dried sufficiently to store in the cupboard? Thanks, Sharron
Hi Sharron; they’re dried out sufficiently that they’re fine just stored in an airtight container and/or ziplock bag in the cupboard 🙂
Wish i had the energy to do this, for my 2 westies they get duck/chicken jerky treats or cheese with their afternoon supplements (fish oil and glucosumine) . I home cook their food so I don’t have much energy/time left to make dog treats. What I might do is get a dehydrator and make liver and chicken treats for them that way.
I will make them for my niece’s dog. She will love them. I made some treats that Kirsty from the BBC/ITV had on one of her self-made Christmas programs. Chili loved those, but the cocker spaniels love allmost any food any way. All the best from Basel Anita
thank you Anita! I hope she enjoys them as much as Clara does! 🙂 xx
Thank you for so generously sharing your recipe! I will have to try these for our dog; he has treats he likes but they are expensive. O_o I bet he would love these!
They look spectacular. You are a great “Dog Mom”! I understand dogs love garlic so I’d add that too.
thanks Barbara; but garlic is poisonous to dogs! Don’t add that!
Oh wow. I didn’t know that. Thanks for telling me.
And no raisins (or grapes).
Well that’s got Friday busy fro me . My Doggie Peppa is a whirling dervish of red fur who is also very feisty and badly in need to incentivization to obey !! I will give these ago.Thanks for sharing .