Not sure if we had our last snow of the year or not, but it snowed and we played and it's almost all gone now. Which is fine with me. I'm done with the cold. Lunnie on the other hand really likes snow.
Lunnie celebrated 4 months with us this weekend. Random celebration. I'm all about random celebrations...mostly because they lead to random baking.
Incidentally Luna has officially become Lunnie. Names eventually morph and melt into personalities. When we were picking puppy names I thought maybe we would end up somewhere closer to Lu or Lulu even. There might have even been a bit of hesitation with Luna -- because Looney Tunes and, well the "Loonie". But here we are. We are ended up at Loonie despite my best efforts. I'm spelling it Lunnie just because.. and it is kinda perfect.
I decided to celebrate Lunnie's 4 month adoptiversary with cookies. or rather these Maple Oat Puppy Treats. Spiked with cinnamon and banana. Fortified with flaxseed. Incidentally - again - these happen to be vegan and gluten-free. I'm not sure if you are looking for such things in your puppy treats - but if you are, here you go. You're welcome.
You can use honey instead of the maple syrup. Or just leave it out altogether. I've sweetened these with a banana and used the maple simply as a flavour. Because my girl deserves the best. <3
You will want to line 2-3 large baking sheets to get all the cookies into the oven at once. This is a long baking time so you definitely want to do one batch. Cookies don't expand significantly in the oven so it's okay to crowd the pan.
I used a piping bag -without a tip - to make little round circle shapes (at least I tried). You can make whatever shape you want. If you don't have a piping bag, a large ziploc freezer bag would work nicely. Just snip a bit off one of the ends.
Here is how you make them...
📖 Recipe
Maple Oat Puppy Treats
Ingredients
- 2 cups large flaked rolled oats
- ¼ cup ground flax
- 2 cups boiling water
- 2 large ripe bananas mashed
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup or honey or this can be optional
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2-½ cups brown rice flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, add oats, flax and boiling water. Let stand for about 10 minutes. Add bananas, maple syrup (if using), salt, cinnamon and baking powder and mix until well combined. Add brown rice flour - adding a little at a time until a stiff dough forms. Mix well, a good 3-4 minutes on low. Dough will be sticky but thick.
- Using a piping bag (no tip needed) or a large plastic bag with a small opening at one end, squeeze tablespoons size drops of dough on the cookie sheet. I made mine in little circles, but other shapes are fine.
- Bake at 325 until cookies are mostly dried out and very crisp, about 1 hour and 30 minutes. (This will vary depending on the final shape you choose for your cookies). Cookies should be almost dry when you break them in half and lightly browned. You want to try them out, not burn them, so if they brown too quickly, turn the heat of the oven down. If dried out properly these will last a couple of weeks in an airtight container.
Stephen Monteith Albers says
A nice substitution is peanut butter for the maple syrup. All dogs like peanut butter.
Stephen Monteith Albers says
These treats are best sized to suit the dog. The first batch intimidated my little Jack Russell (Flossy) by their large size. The second batch I merely mixed with a large spoon, parceled out the dough with a rounded teaspoon and rolled into marbles. (No need fora mixer.) Flossy wolfed down a couple of warm treats with gusto. Better to make them small than too large.