Peanut butter and banana dog biscuits recipe
Article by Matthew Revell
Matthew Revell is the editor of Dogby and lives with his family, including Teddy the Black Lab and Bo the German Shepherd, in Shropshire.Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Easy
Portions: 20
Peanut butter and banana provide plenty of flavour and nutrition in these easy to bake dog biscuits.
All of the ingredients should be easy to find in your kitchen cupboard, meaning you can make them on a whim and have them ready to munch in just under an hour.
Look out for peanut butter that’s low on salt and sugar and, especially if you’re in the US, make sure it doesn’t contain xylitol.
Ingredients
- 2 bananas
- 200g of 100% peanut butter
- Optional: between 50ml and 100ml of water
- 2 large eggs
- 125g of rolled oats
- 350g of plain wholewheat flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
Method
- Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees C (140 degrees fan, gas mark 3).
- Measure 125g of rolled oats into a bowl and blend them until you have a fine, powdery flour.
- Add 350g of plain wholewheat flour to the oat flour and combine.
- Add 2 teaspoon of baking powder to the flour mix.
- Beat two eggs in a separate bowl.
- Add two peeled bananas to the eggs and break them up into pieces roughly 2cm long.
- Add 200g of 100% peanut butter (see below for advice on peanut butter) to the eggs and bananas, then use a blender to mix the bananas, eggs, and peanut butter together.
- Depending on the thickness of your peanut butter, you might need to add between 50ml and 100ml of water to loosen the mixture.
- Make a dough by gradually whisking the flour mix into the wet ingredients.
- Kneed the dough on a clean surface until it becomes smooth and then use a rolling pin until it is around 1cm thick.
- Use a knife or cookie cutter to cut out individual biscuits, then place on a baking sheet that is lined with baking parchment.
- Cook for between 25 and 30 minutes.
These tasty dog biscuits are a two for one. Not only will your dog love them but they’re pretty nutritious, too.
The wholemeal flour and the oats provide fibre, while the bananas offer magnesium, potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin B6. The peanut butter not only gives the treats an irresistible flavour but also provides magnesium, vitamin E, manganese, and niacin.
Why 100% peanut butter
There’s more variety to peanut butter than just crunchy or smooth. Sugar, sweeteners, palm oil, and other ingredients could make up roughly 10% of a typical peanut butter.
As part of a balanced diet, and as an occasional treat, using a peanut butter that has some sugar or additional salt probably won’t cause any harm. Just make sure you clean your dog’s teeth.
What can be dangerous, though, is the sweetener xylitol. Even a small amount of xylitol can kill your dog. At the time of writing, xylitol doesn’t feature in common UK peanut butter brands but is increasingly popular in the US.
The easiest way to be sure you’re giving your dog the good stuff is to use 100% peanut butter. You can find it in pretty much any UK supermarket. Pictured here is Aldi’s The Foodie Market brand of 100% peanut butter. Elsewhere, look out for Meridian brand.
Why not use milk in this recipe?
If this were a human treat, we’d probably use cow’s milk to loosen the mixture.
However, there’s a strong chance your dog is lactose intolerant. Rather than risk a stomach upset, using water does the job.
Did it pass the doggy taste test?
Both of our dogs love these treats, with our Black Lab Teddy having a particular fondness for them.
To a human nose, they smell lightly of peanut butter but otherwise a little bland. Nonetheless, it’s clear that the mutts pick up on something as their attention pricks up as soon as the box opens.
