Fun, festive and doggone delicious! These miniature Christmas tree dog treats are naturally green bite-sized bits of Christmas goodness. The simple naturally green dog treat dough is perfect for trees and other holiday treats. The recipe is easily adapted to other colours, too.
Glorious Greens
Tinting Ingredients for Naturally Green Dog Treat Dough
These Christmas tree dog treats were made using an adaptation of our leafy green dog treat dough. To create a slightly richer and darker green colour, I used a combination of both kale and wheatgrass in this recipe adaptation. The resulting green was perfect for using with my miniature Christmas tree cookie cutter to make bite-sized treats for my big boys.
Recipe Experiments
Since I was rebaking an existing recipe, I decided to test the treats with coconut milk powder instead of low-fat dairy milk powder. Mmm… Coconut! Powdered goat’s milk is also available here in New Zealand. It’s quite a bit more expensive though, and it’s hard to find without unwanted add-ins. You never know though. It might make it into some of my future recipe experiments.
With the coconut milk powder, slightly less flour was needed for a cohesive dough than my usual low-fat dairy milk powder, but nothing too significant. It also added a really nice coconut scent to the mixture. I think it would be particularly great paired with the scent and flavour of turmeric in a yellow treat dough. Maybe I’ll try that combo in a future baking project.
Dairy is still my go-to for baking if I’m using milk powder. But, if your dog is lactose sensitive or you’re looking for variety, coconut milk power is a potential substitution option. Be aware that the nutritional profiles are quite different, though. Including the types and amounts of fat in reduced or lite coconut milk products. You can also skip the milk and look for a different tasty dog treat recipe. We have lots of ideas.
Other Tinting Options
If you’re not keen on green or your pup has a sensitivity to one of the natural tints used here, there are lots of other options. Check out our post on using natural ingredients to create colourful dog treats for more ideas. As a side note, green is one of the colours that dogs don’t see the same was as we do, so no worries either way. Plus, pretty colours and shapes are just for our crazy human enjoyment. All your dog really cares about is whether their treats smell and taste delicious.
Naturally Green Christmas Tree Dog Treat Recipe
Homemade Christmas Tree Dog Treats Tinted with Wheatgrass and Kale
The recipe below is a variation of our easy homemade naturally green dog treat dough recipe. The Christmas tree dog treats were made using a combination of wheatgrass and kale powders to tint a simple milk powder and stock dog treat dough. You can also add other doggone delicious ingredients to the base dough for extra scent and flavour, like finely chopped cooked meat, shredded cheese, or dog-friendly herbs. Note that these may affect the appearance and/or cutting characteristics, though. Choose with care. Little flecks can create a rather nifty visual effect on simple trees, almost like decorations. Larger bits or chunks can make it difficult to roll and/or cut tidy shapes.
Treat Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup low-fat (trim/skim) milk powder
- 1/4 cup of low-sodium dog-friendly stock or broth
- 1 egg
- Optional: 1 tbsp finely ground flax or LSA
- Optional: 1 tbsp wheatgrass powder and/or kale powder for colour (and scent/flavour)
- Approximately 1 to 1+ 1/4 cups of brown rice flour, plus extra for rolling
You can adjust the quantities of wheatgrass and kale to suit your dog’s palette and/or to adjust the colour of your dough. Different powders can have slightly different colours and tinting strengths.
Making the Treats:
- Preheat your oven to 180C (or local equivalent) and gather together your baking ingredients and materials.
- Combine milk powder, stock, egg, flax, and wheatgrass and/or kale powder 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). This milk powder enriched dough may feel slightly sticky when mixed, but hold off on adjusting the flour until after you’ve rested the dough. You can always add a little extra when you knead the dough lightly before rolling if you have to adjust the texture for rolling and cutting.
- Roll, cut into desired shapes, 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.
Baked Biscuit Dog Treat Making Tips and Tricks
- See our posts on making baked biscuit (cookie) dog treats and decorating homemade dog treats for more information and helpful tips.
- 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!).
- 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
- Variations in measurements, individual ingredient types, and options and substitutions as well as variations in egg size, ingredient and ambient temperatures, etc. are all part of why we work incrementally when mixing.
- In addition to richness and nutrition, milk powder helps to enhance dough consistency and I find it also creates a slightly firmer/crisper baked result. Interestingly, when milk powder is used in a dough, it also usually requires slightly more flour than if mixed without.
- Not into dairy? As noted above, the pictured treats were baked with coconut milk powder instead of dairy milk powder as a successful substitution test. Goat’s milk powder is also available in our grocery stores. You can also check out our full collection of roll and cut dog treat recipes and hopefully find something that’s better suited to your pet and preferences.
- Prefer a different colour? See our post on natural food colourings in homemade dog treats for different tinting ideas.
- As noted above, this dough is also a good base recipe for adding ingredients like finely chopped cooked meat, shredded cheese, or dog-friendly herbs if you’d like to boost the flavour and scent. These may affect appearance and/or ease of cutting, especially if chunky.
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.
