Mmmm…bacon bunnies! These homemade Easter dog treats combine the doggone irresistible scent and taste of bacon with yummy peanut butter and blackstrap molasses to make naturally brown bunnies. The Easter dog treat tags and labels will be shared next week as our final pre-Easter post this year. Woofs! Hope you have a pawesome Easter, furfreinds!
Peanut Butter Bacon Easter Bunny and Bone Dog Treat Recipe
Doggone Delicious Roll-and-Cut Dog Treat Dough Options
The dough used in these treats are based upon our peanut butter and molasses Christmas dog treat recipe. It’s easy and the boys seem to love it, plus colour is great for a non-carob alternative for making “chocolate” brown bunnies. Of course, any roll and cut dough your pup likes would work pawfectly instead. You can check out our archives for other roll and cut dog treat recipe ideas, including carob dog treat ideas if you’d prefer “chocolate” bunnies. Remember, in terms of dog-friendly cooking, carob is hands-down the way to go! Chocolate contains a compound called theobromine which is toxic to dogs. It can also contain other doggy no-nos like caffeine, sugars, or sweeteners. Always keep human treats out of reach and be very careful with any Easter eggs hunting and children’s baskets.
Homemade Peanut Butter and Bacon Dog Baked Biscuit (Cookie) Dog Treats
As noted above, this recipe was adapted from our peanut butter and molasses Christmas dog treat dough recipe. Making bunnies and bones is part of the Easter fun, but the dogs won’t mind if you take a shortcut instead. Roll and cut doughs can be used to make hand formed treats, pressed into a pan and cut to size, formed as treat bars, and more. See our simple shortcuts for making baked dog treats for ideas.
Treat Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
- 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/4 cup room temperature water, stock, or other dog-friendly liquid
- Up to 1/4 cup very fine chopped cooked cooled bacon
- Optional: 2 tbsp ground flax or LSA
- Approximately 1 cup of brown rice flour, plus extra for rolling
The Christmas treat recipe includes the option of a sprinkle of Ceylon cinnamon and/or ground ginger. I opted to leave them out here as there are lots of other yummy scents and flavours in the mix, but you can add them in if you’d like. They’ll add an extra dose of subtlety spicy hot-cross bun smell to the mixture, too. Mmmm…. Similarly, you can swap the bacon for another very finely chopped cooked cooled dry meat or leave it out. Easy peasy! Keep the chunks as fine as possible though. Chunky dough can be hard to roll and cut cleanly. Chunky treats may also be more prone to cracking and breaking.
Making the Treats:
- Preheat your oven to 180C (or local equivalent) and gather together your baking ingredients and materials.
- Combine egg, molasses, peanut butter, liquid and any optional ingredients in a mixing bowl. You can add the bacon now or knead it in after mixing the flour depending on your preferences and if you’re resting the dough.
- Incrementally add flour, mixing into a cohesive workable dough. The amount of flour required will vary depending on your individual ingredients and any optional add-ins or substitutions. Note that if you are not including the optional ingredients in these treats, you may need to use a little extra flour. Missed the mark? No worries! You can add a little bit of extra liquid, a small amount of olive oil, or additional flour to adjust consistency if/as needed.
- Rest dough (optional but recommended).
- Roll, cut into desired shapes (see below), and place on a prepared baking pan.
- Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes. Cooking time will vary with shape/size, so keep an eye on the oven.
- Cool before serving and storage.
Bunny Butt? Bunny Ears? Where to Bite First?
Ahhh. The age old Easter bunny dilemma. The bunnies were pretty big, so I only made a few as special treats and the rest of the dough I used for tasty bones. I thought my bunnies could use a little extra style, so I used the side of a chopstick to indent the ears, outline the seated legs and cut a mouth, skewered an eye, and pressed a little indent to define the tail.
If I was making these again, I would try to process the bacon into a finer meal with the food processor, as I have with other treats recently. It works much better for roll-and-cut dough. As you can see in the pictures, the bacon chunks in my dough made it tricky to cut these shapes cleanly. I think it also contributes to surface crackling due to the consistency variations between dough and chunks during cutting, baking, and dehydrating. Still just as tasty though! Zero complaints from the taste testers for sure.
Additional Treat Making Tips and Tricks
Baked Biscuit Dog Treat Making Tips and Tricks
- See our introduction to making homemade baked biscuit (cookie) dog treats for additional information on baked dog treats.
- We don’t include yield in our treat recipe posts because it is very dependent on what the maker decides for treat shape, size, and thickness when they’re baking. We like to bake small batch treats (variety is the spice of life!). You can multiply our recipes if you’d like to bake a bigger batch for frozen storage or to share with furfriends.
- Baked treats can be broken for smaller dogs, or made bigger/smaller. Keep an eye on your time and temperature. The smaller the treat, the shorter the baking time.
- For a crunchier treat, you can let baked treats sit a while in the cooling oven before removing to get a little crispier or pop the baked treats into a dehydrator.
- Homemade baked dog treats are best consumed within a couple of days from baking or frozen for longer storage. See our post on baked dog treat shelf life and storage for information and tips.
Recipe and Ingredient Tips and Tricks
- Peanut butter can be tricky to measure perfectly. You can wet with water or spritz your measuring cup or spoon with cooking spray to help measure with less mess. Or simply don’t stress about it. Close enough is good enough. There can be big differences in consistency of different peanut butters as well. Little variations like that as well as variations in egg size, temperatures, and other factors are why we like to work incrementally when mixing our dog treat doughs.
- When using ingredients like peanut butter for dogs, take care when shopping to avoid artificial sweeteners, especially xylitol, which is extremely dangerous for dogs. Xylitol may also be labelled as sweetener code 967. I use a no added salt or sugar smooth peanut butter when making treats.
Hungry for more tasty treats? There are all sorts of homemade dog treat ideas in our blog archives. You can also use the category and tag labels above/ below this post to find other recipes that might be of interest or use our internal search tools to find something specific. Remember, treats (bought or homemade) are for spoiling your pup in moderation. We share ideas from treats that we’ve made ourselves for our pets, but different animals have different preferences (likes/dislikes), just like people. Some pets may have special dietary requirements and/or food allergies/intolerances. If you are ever in doubt or have questions about what’s suitable for your pet, have a chat with your trusted vet.
