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Usually Saturday or Sunday mornings mean recipe development for the blog. This also usually means baking chocolatey-goodness or some sort of paleo-friendly treat that I just have to taste test over and over.
The past few weekends however were extra special, because little Jax got to be the real taste-tester. Let’s be real, Mike and I tried them too, of course, but the real test was our puppy- and it passed the test with flying colors! So, instead of your traditional Foodie Friday with myself and American Express, this one is for all the dogs out there!
The best part about these, aside from them being packed with nutrients, is that the dough yields up to/if not more 60 dog cookies (depending on your cookie cutter size)! Seriously so much better than spending $10-15 on 20 grain-free cookies! PLUS, you need only 5 ingredients. Total win all around.
That is one happy puppy. He was ready to sit, roll over, throw his paws up, and pull out every trick in his book for these. His eyes lit up way more than with his usual treats!
5 Ingredient Grain-Free Dog Treats
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup peanut butter or nut butter of choice no added ingredients
- 4 organic eggs
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp sweet potato puree or pumpkin puree**
Optional add-ins:
- 1/3 cup shredded carrots
- 2 tsp dried parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients and form dough into a ball
- Roll out dough in between two sheets of parchment paper*
- Gently use your desired cookie cutters to cut and lift cookies into ideal shape**
- Transfer to a lined baking sheet
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are hard
- Let cool completely before serving
Notes
This has me thinking of a doggy birthday cookie cake for this newly 6-month old pup (his birthday was yesterday). I made him two massive cookies and sandwiched them between peanut butter. Happy, happy birthday puppy!
I was selected by American Express to contribute to their Tumblr community. As such I was paid for my services, but all opinions in general and about American express are my own.
Do you make homemade dog treats? What are your favorite ingredients to use?
I made these treats last night for my dogs birthday today. He has a grain and beef allergy, so I was very happy to find this recipe to try. He absolutely loved them! Thank you for the recipe. I will definitely be making them again in the future. I also highly recommend them to anyone else who has a dog with a grain allergy.
I also wish I could share a photo of his happy face.
What will happen if I don’t use coconut oil or any oil? Or, can I substitute coconut oil with another oil?
You can use another oil.
My pups LOVE these! I’m concerned about calories though. I have 2 itty bitties at 4.5pounds. I know to not give these as potty treats- that would be WAY to many a day, but do you have any idea what the calorie count is? I cut them about the size of a quarter and then break them into 4 pieces.
Despite baking for longer than the time listed to try to get these cookies to be crunchy, they are still soft. By looking at the comments, I saw that many other bakers experienced this same issue. Besides baking for longer, which doesn’t work, what changes do you recommend to get these cookies to be crunchy?
Is there a good substitute for peanut butter? My dog is allergic to nuts.
My dog can’t have coconut. Can I use a gluten free flour? What can I use in place of coconut oil?
We haven’t tested it with another, let us know if you try it!
just mixed up followed exactly, it does not look like dough, not even close very wet not able to roll?? what did i do wrong??
My dog is allergic to grain and hates peanut butter, do have any suggestions?
A different nut butter!
always make sure the peanut butter you use (or anything really) doesn’t contain “xylitol” which is toxic to pets!
Most peanut butter should just read “peanuts” on the ingredient list.
Great post thanks. This looks good and healthy too. I’ve been reading posts and looking for varieties of treats for my dogs. Glad I found this. I’ll try making one, I hope my dog likes it.
I know! Lol that’s why I was hoping someone had already tried it, plus I have way more almond flour than coconut. Well my batches of the recipe posted are coming out now. Wow super different to work with then flour….. I’m not familiar enough working with coconuflour to adjust weirdness….. so the dough is moist, but crumbly…. could press between patch paper but in the end had to just ball up and thumb down and press edges to not crack. I even threw the entire batch back in the mixer and added another egg and some EV 00 and water! And it’s just not letting me roll it out and easily cut out the shapes. Hmmmm, it’s an adventure and a work in progress evening! Lmao
I looked thru all the commetns before asking… thoughts on almond flour vs coconut flour? I’m guessing use more almond flour, just wondering if anyone has tried that?
Coconut flour is super absorbant and it is never a 1-1 sub! Let us know if you do try how it went!
Been making these treats for about a year now. My 1st batch came out a bit soft so I’ve been going thinner on the dough and cooking longer at about 30-50 degrees lower. Just to let everyone know this not like cookie dough. I flatten out smaller amounts between a gallon freezer bag with the top and sides cut off , less counter destruction. After I cut out the shapes I use a paring knife to unstick & lift each treat onto the cookie sheet. Yes you want to fully melt the coconut flour. When putting the ingredients together mix the wet first. You can use a hand or electric whisk for the wet but when you go to add the dry I find it works best to use your hands (I put on gloves for this part. I hope these few suggestions help.
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
I can’t wait to try this recipe…what i have learnt from baking dog treats so far is..the drier you bake biscuits the longer they will last because moisture is what causes the mould…Baking for longer at a lower temp or dehydrating after baking will give you a longer shelf life……..so will adding salt or using margarine…but that defeats the healthy option…. hope this helps….
Great recipe Lexi! Can’t wait to try them. SInce the recipe makes so many , and I only have one dog, I was wondering how long they will be good for and how you should store them?
For those dogs that are allergic to eggs I recommend psyllium husk.
Approximately one table spoon (or 9 g) of psyllium plus 2 table spoons of hot water (the heat “activates” the husks to form a gel) substitutes 1 egg.
In case you use the finer powder, half of the amount might be enough (I used whole husks).
In my opinion, psyllium works better than chia or flax, because it also works a bit like gluten and “glues” the dough together.
They didn’t want to stay together, what did i do wrong?
Did you follow it exactly?
I did not melt the coconut oil cuz the recipe doesn’t say to and they came out crumbly. Followed the recipe exactly. I ended up just making little dough balls and using a fork to push them down to make little coin biscuits. I’m making them for a fundraiser. After baking, there are holes in the biscuits where the oil was. I mixed the oil in as best as I could, but some chunks still made it through. Maybe the next batch I will try melting the oil first….
Hi , Thank you !! for the recipe i will be trying this asap.. getting ready to write down the recipe
were did you go to school ? to lerarn. ? let me know and Thank you.