Another doggone delicious golden treat for Oli’s golden oldie birthday! These special birthday treats get their gorgeous golden glow (and a boost of fibre and vitamins) from yummy carrot. Carrots one of our boys favourite veggies, and a perfect fit for our golden oldie birthday theme. Here’s the recipe and DIY decorating details for our carrot and peanut butter dog treats.
Crazy for Carrot
Our dogs love carrot (especially Humphrey, who is a rather messy raw carrot fiend) so when I was preparing the plan for Oli’s Golden Oldie birthday, carrot was on list of ingredients I could work with for creating delicious naturally coloured goodies. Combining it with peanut butter makes a nice workable dough and adds a boost of delicious scent and flavour.
Vegan-Friendly Dog Treats
Unlike many of our baked biscuit dog treat doughs, these carrot and peanut butter dog treats are also vegan-friendly without needing any swaps or substitutions. We definitely don’t advocate a vegan diet for dogs, as you can tell by the wide array of dog treat recipes shared here, but we do understand that some folks like to keep their kitchen a meatless or fully vegan zone and would still like to make special treats from time to time. If you’d prefer to swap the coconut milk for a low-sodium stock or alternative dog-friendly liquid (including plain old water) or add in some finely chopped bacon, that’s a-ok too!
Some recipes are easier to swap or substitute to make vegetarian or vegan than others. Some of our recipes can be easily adapted with minor changes, such as switching from stock to another dog-friendly liquid. Frozen and chilled dog treats are usually easier to adapt than biscuits and cakes. Of all the treats, frozen pupsicles are probably the easiest to substitute or customise. Dehydrated fruits and veggies are also easy options, and many of our chilled dog treats, including some of our truffle treats and coconut oil treats are already vegan-friendly.
Carrot and Peanut Butter Dog Treat Recipe
Homemade Custom Stamped Carrot and Peanut Butter Dog Treats
The pictured treats were rolled, cut, and stamped (more details on that below), but rolling dough can also be used for simple flattened ball treats or other quickie treat-making methods instead, if you prefer. See our simple shortcuts for making baked dog treats for ideas.
Treat Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cooked carrot, cooled and finely pureed
- 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/4 cup room temperature reduced fat coconut milk or other dog-friendly liquid
- 2 tbsp ground flax or LSA
- Optional: Sprinkle of turmeric if you feel your dough could use a little extra colour boost (not used here) with an optional sprinkle of partner ground black pepper.
- Optional: Sprinkle of dog friendly herbs for added scent or flavour (not used here).
- Approximately 1 cup of brown rice flour, plus extra for rolling
Depending on how you’ve prepared the carrot, you may need more or less flour to compensate for the moisture levels. You can also substitute the carrot for similarly textured pureed vegetables and/or fruits. The carrot is a key binding ingredient in these treats, so swap with consideration to get a good consistency. See our post on choosing ingredients for homemade dog treats for info, tips, and ideas.
Making the Treats:
- Cook carrot until soft and puree. Cool before use. I made extra puree for my party meatballs, so there’s more carrot pictured here than 1/2 cup for these treats.
- Preheat your oven to 180C (or local equivalent) and gather together your baking ingredients and materials.
- Combine carrot, peanut butter, coconut milk, flax/LSA, and any optional add-ins in a mixing bowl.
- 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. 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, and place on a prepared baking pan.
- Stamp (optional) with custom designs or words.
- 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.
Decorated Dog Birthday Cookie Treats and Cake Toppers
I really wanted to make numbers for decorating the birthday cake. Unfortunately, the little tiny fondant number cutters I have are so fiddly for working with dough that I didn’t want to make many and I was worried that they might overbake or break. They actually came out great – unexpectedly. Good Oli karma must have been working some treat magic.
I opted to make a couple of numbers as well as use the cutters to stamp numbers onto larger treats. Worked like a charm and I really like how the final birthday cake came together. See the full birthday cake making and decorating process for more photos and DIY details. The rest of the dough was baked as normal bone shaped treats using my favourite cutter. That thing get’s a work out!
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 though (variety is the spice of life!) and you can multiply our recipes if you’d like to big batch bake for frozen storage or to share with furfriends.
- 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
- Check labels when choosing ingredients like peanut butter for dogs. Take care 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/sugar smooth peanut butter.
- Peanut butter can be tricky to measure perfectly. You can spritz your measuring cup or spoon with cooking spray to help measure and release with less mess. Wetting the cup or spoon with water first works surprisingly well, too. 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. Variations in measurements, individual ingredient types, options and substitutions, temperatures, etc. are all part of why we work incrementally when mixing.
Hungry for more tasty treats? There are all sorts of homemade dog treat ideas in our blog archives. You can use the category and tag labels 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.
