Homemade Dog Treats are my favorite way to show my pets that we love them like family! This homemade peanut butter dog treat recipe is an easy dog biscuit that I believe our pups would request every week if they could. I made this recipe in 2013 for my dog Scout, my first baby. I make them now for our two labs, Mabel and Daisy. Every pet deserves the love of a homemade treat and this is just the recipe to give them.
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What’s in this Dog Treats recipe?
I made these freshly-baked homemade dog treats to show our pets how special they are! They’re easy to make with just 5 main ingredients, and it’s easy to make extras to keep for later. Trust me, your dogs are going to absolutely love these peanut butter dog treats.
- Flour: I prefer to use whole wheat flour for dog biscuits for the extra nutritional value. Other types of flour are fine to use, as long as you know your pup isn’t allergic.
- Peanut Butter: This thickens the mixture into a dough, and adds tasty peanut butter flavor! Use a natural peanut butter and check the ingredients list–do not use anything with Xylitol (an artificial sweetener), which is not safe for dogs.
- Egg: Binds the ingredients together to form a pet-friendly cookie dough.
- Water: Adds a bit of moisture to help make the dough pliable.
- Honey: This sweetens the flavor just a little bit.
- Frosting: If you want to add a frosting for a bit of decoration, you’ll need more peanut butter and honey, plus hot water and cornstarch.
Note: Dogs can have allergies just like people, so while these ingredients are all safe for dogs in general, make sure you know what your furry friend can and cannot eat. I recommend giving them a small bite to test these treats out before you start using them regularly.
Flavor Variations
While peanut butter dog treats seem to be a universally-loved flavor, you can absolutely change up these biscuits for your pup.
Use other nut butters if you know your dog likes them and can digest them. We have also made them using equal amount of plain pumpkin puree or plain mashed sweet potato instead.
If you do choose to use different ingredients, keep an eye on the consistency of the dough–you want it to be quite firm and sticky. Add a smaller amount of these ingredients incrementally until it becomes firm enough to roll out and cut.
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How to Store
Once fully cooled, I store homemade peanut butter dog biscuits in an airtight container (very important) in the refrigerator, for up to 1 month. This recipe makes 24 medium dog cookies, so you’ll have plenty to share whenever your dog needs a healthy treat.
How to Freeze
This easy recipe for dog treats can be stored in the freezer for up to 8 months. I recommend placing a pan of them in the freezer for about an hour, then transferring them to a freezer-safe bag or container. This will prevent them from sticking together, so you can grab as many as you need, and keep the rest in storage. Move them to the fridge to thaw.
5-Star Review
“My husband and I wanted to bond over something, so we decided to make these for our two dogs. They go crazy over these. Cannot control themselves. I took a nibble too, and they’re not bad for humans either. They stayed nice and chewy sitting in a tupperware on the counter. Our smallest dog (8lbs) doesn’t like crunchy things, so the fact these are chewy was perfect. We even gifted some to the German Shepherd next door. We will be making these again!” – Sarah
These time tested dog treats have been made by thousands of dog lovers over the years and consistently rated as a 5 star (over 2000 5 star reviews!) – if only my 2 dogs could speak every time they eat these! I first made these in 2013 for my first puppy Scout (that’s her sweet face above). She was obsessed and my dogs now, Mabel and Daisy, couldn’t agree more.
Homemade Peanut Butter Dog Treats Recipe
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Ingredients
For the Dog Treats
- 2½ cups whole wheat flour 300 grams (see note)
- 1 large egg 50 grams
- 1 cup peanut butter 270 grams (see note)
- 1 cup water 227 grams
- 2 tablespoons honey 43 grams (see note)
For the Frosting
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter 34 grams
- 1 tablespoon honey 21 grams
- ⅓ cup cornstarch 37 grams (can also use potato starch or arrowroot powder)
- 3-4 tablespoons hot water 43-57 grams
Recommended Equipment
- Kitchen Scale (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flour and the egg. Add the peanut butter, water, and honey, and stir until you have a stiff dough. The dough becomes very firm and sticky. You may need to use your hands, or the paddle attachment on your mixer.2½ cups whole wheat flour, 1 large egg, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons honey
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough about ½-inch thick and use a cookie cutter to make fun shapes. The treats barely spread and rise, so get creative with your shapes.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, until golden. Once done, set aside to cool. (If you have smaller cookies, use less time, otherwise the bottom might burn.)
- To make the frosting, combine the peanut butter and honey in a microwavable bowl, and heat in the microwave in 15 second increments, stirring in between, until melted.2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 tablespoon honey
- Add the melted peanut butter mixture to the cornstarch and stir until just combined.⅓ cup cornstarch
- Slowly add in the water 1 tablespoon at a time until you have reached the consistency that you would like. For a thinner frosting, add more water.3-4 tablespoons hot water
- Add the frosting to a piping bag and pipe designs on top of each dog treat.
- Frost the treats with the peanut butter/honey mixture for an even more tempting cookie.
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Becky’s tips
- Flour: Some dogs are allergic to flour/wheat. If you want to make these wheat free, you can use rice flour of coconut flour as a replacement. These alternate flours will work, but might change the consistency a bit. Thanks so much to the readers who wrote it about this!
- Peanut Butter: Some peanut butter brands are including xylitol to cut the sugar in their peanut butter. Do not use any peanut butter containing xylitol as it is toxic to dogs. Just check for natural peanut butter and check the ingredients. Muah
- Honey: Avoid giving honey to immunocompromised dogs and dogs under 1 year old!
- Typically when you are using a royal frosting for cookies, you will make two different types of frosting consistency- a thicker frosting for the outline, and a thinner frosting to flood the inside with. You don’t have to do this but this is what you can do if you would like to go the extra mile for your furry friend.
- With the thicker frosting, create the outline of your design and wait for it to dry for about 10 minutes. When you make the thicker frosting, you probably only need 2-3 Tablespoons of water. The important thing is that it is thick enough to hold its shape, but thin enough that you can squeeze it through a piping tip.
- Fill in the outline with the thinner frosting and smooth it out with the tip of your finger. When you make the thin frosting, you will need 3-4 Tablespoons of water, and maybe more depending on how smooth of a finish you would like to have.
Nutrition Information
Yes, peanut butter is generally considered safe for dogs to eat. As I mentioned above, I recommend using a natural peanut butter. Unsalted varieties are great, and you can even find peanut butters brands that are made for dogs. Be sure to check the ingredients list, and avoid anything that contains Xylitol, or other artificial sweeteners.
Yes, all of the ingredients in this dog treats recipe are considered safe, healthy, and nutritional. Peanut butter contains essential vitamins and healthy fats, and the whole wheat flour has extra nutritional value as well. Honey contains a lot of sugar (of course), but we only use a small amount.
You can use any type or shape of cookie cutter you like, including the classic dog bone shape, Christmas and holidays shapes, hearts, and more. If you don’t have a cookie cutter, use the rim of a glass to cut out circles. Find a Customized Cookie Cutter for your dog’s breed on Etsy for more fun options.
Yes! We’re using ingredients that are safe for both dogs and people. While I wouldn’t recommend snacking on these, if a little one gets their hands on them, they’ll be okay!
This recipe makes treats that are nice and chewy. If your dog would prefer a crunchier biscuit, roll out the dough really thin. You could also keep them in the oven at a lower temperature (200°F) for a while to help them dry out and crisp up.
Can I use Peanut Butter flour?
Yeah you can I used it and it work out perfect
I put mine in a airtight container and they molded. This second batch I left get air are find. Freezing is also good.
Can we not use all purpose flour? Must we use rice flour? Anxious to make these dog treats.
My puppy loved these cookies! I made them today and I used coconut flour!
Hi! Did your cookies turn out crunchy? Because when I try using coconut flour for my treats, they become more on bread like.
Sounds good!! Can’t wait to try this for my pup!
Why can’t you just use white flour?
You can although it is not as healthy for the dogs.
I’m questioning the honey. I’ve never added sweetner to my biscuits. Most, if not all commercialy sold honey isn’t honey at all, it’s corn syrup or something else. I make Christmas biscuits, I will defenitly try these minus the wheat and honey.
Not if it states honey
I use a little natural, local, molasses and my pups love them!
What a good pup ….my dogs woulda eaten them before I took the pics LOL
I was just reading the above comments. If a dog needs to be wheat free oats are generally not a good idea to use unless they are gluten free oats or oatmeal. Of course every dog is different. But with people who either have wheat sensitivities (gluten) or Celiac’s you can’t eat any type of flour and it includes the oats too. My dog has wheat issues and she can’t touch oatmeal anything :( Try in moderation for your dogs.
Always as your vet too. All the recipes look amazing on here and I can’t wait to try them all out.
I just made this using coconut Flour and my dog loves it!
I use tapioca flour, as my golden cannot have any wheat or oats. :D
my dog can’t eat anything with corn,wheat or soy so what can I replace the whole wheat flour?
You can use Rice Flour, Barley Flour or Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats or a combinations of these to make the required amount of flour needed.
You can also use any gluten free flour blend that doesn’t contain a fun base. I just made these with my own blend of sorghum flour, tapoica and potato starches. That are still banking but look awesome !
Hope your pup loves them!!!
What about chick pea flour? Then it could be grain free.
I have to make gluten free desserts and I usually use almond flour instead of regular flour. You could try that.
coconut flour
I don’t have any peanut butter and am trying to avoid a trip to the store. Can I use coconut oil instead? How much should I use? Thank you SO much!!!!
I’m super late to the dog baking party, but reading through the comments, I see no one else offered a coconut flour tip… I made these last night, and the dough was way too crumby with the same amount of coconut flour as wheat flour. I read up on it, you should only use 20% of the amount of regular flour, and then add the same amount of liquid. When I made these cookies I ended up adding an extra egg and about 1/4 cup extra water. Mind you I actually halved the recipe. It was kind of dry and hard to work with, and my cookies were not hard or crunchy. 3 dogs in the house, and they all looked like Cookie Monster eating these, so they obviously didn’t care. I just wouldn’t give them away as gifts this batch, because the crumby dough baked into cookies with cracks that fall apart easily. :)
I wonder if you could use coconut flour or just flour, Food Lion and Wal-Mart carry them
if you don’t like the recipe, then ignore it and move on.
If you give your pet store bought treats, this is a safe healthy alternative. My dogs have had peanut butter in their treats for years. My yellow lab is 14 and hasn’t had any issues. Everything in moderation works best for pets, as well as humans.
What? peanuts and peanut butter cause cancer?? I have NEVER heard that before! Cancer runs on both sides of my family so I’m careful with my diet. I eat natural peanut butter almost every day! I usually give some to my 9 year old dog as well and we are both healthy! As far as I know its a natural anti-inflammatory which helps prevent cancer.
Facts are important, Debi, but this article on “naturalsociety.com” does not provide any. It cites minimal references, none of which actually describe a definitive link between peanut consumption and cancer. I would instead refer to peer-reviewed literature, like this article http://jn.nutrition.org/content/138/9/1757S.full.pdf+html, which indicates that the relationship is unclear, but possibly beneficial.
Thanks for this article An. I know we are all constantly learning. I have heard and read that peanut butter is fine for dogs, although some dogs can definitely have an allergy, just like people. I appreciate all of the comments!
Ha, you lost me at vaccines. Please read some properly researched material.
Sorry Debi, but your reference from natural society is completely off the mark with regard to peanut butter containing harmful carcinogens. As the owner of Jazz & Eddie’s Spice Trading Co., I have been making peanut butter treats for my rescues for nearly 20 years and have NEVER had a cancer incident traced back to peanut butter. I have researched the various natural alternatives to store bought including the BEST medicinal/healthy herbs and spices and peanut butter has never been tagged as a cancer-causing supplement EXCEPT (and as is with humans) those animals who may have a disposition for allergies or cancer traits. I absolutely appreciate the fact you are concerned about your pet’s health, but making such a broad-stroke comment like this about peanut butter is way off the mark. Here’s a simple recipe I use for my dog’s “KONG”‘s that are not only healthy but delicious! (And YES, I lick the whisk and spoon when I’m finished making it!):
* 2 cups Creamy Peanut Butter
* 1/2 cup Coconut Oil
* 2 Tbsp Shredded Coconut
* 1/2 Tsp (ea) Ground Turmeric & Rosemary
Combine all ingredients until well mixed. Spoon into KONGs and let the pups at’em! (Remember to lick the spoon clean! LOL!)
That’s crazy….I would give my dog peanut butter for treats for years….she lived to be 16.5. Part of the problem might also be with pure bred dogs….they seem to have a lot more problems than mixed breeds.
Thanks for the dog treat recipe; I just made them and I used molasses instead of honey.
My dog has had seizures and I worry about EVERYTHING! I use whole wheat and coconut flour for my dog cookies. The coconut flour is just SOOO dry with a cornmeal texture though, but because my husband on a new diet, I use ground pecans for pie crust for his sugar free cheese cake, and she has no problem with the pecans. This sounds like we should try a new experiment! (keeping in mind of course that the pecans have a high oil content)
I hear almonds could be a problem for some dogs, so I haven’t even tried almond flour.
Can you use just normal baking flour ?
Oat flour can be made by just grinding oats in a food processsor. This is less expensive than purchasing the oat flour already processed. If your flour of choice has no gluten, like rice flour, you can add some xanthan gum to it for a binding agent.
Almond Flour which can be found in most baking areas. I got some in my local Wal Mart
Brown rice flour and oat flour will work.
My dog has to be gluten free too so I use coconut flour as a substitute.
Perfect!
You can replace it with almond flour
If you don’t like the recipe then don’t make it. I don’t understand why you feel the need to comment and just complain. didn’t your parents tell you if you have nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all
Thanks Cathy xo
excellent comment and so true
That is cool