Mmm… These mini muffin dog treats smell doggone great! Hungry? These strawberry banana and mint mini muffins are both human and dog-friendly if you’re keen to share. Dog treats never smelled so tempting! We recently shared a special post all about healthy fruits, veggies, and herbs that you can share with your dogs, so it seemed only fitting that we follow up with a shareable fruity treat.
Sharing a Treat or Two
This small-batch strawberry banana muffin dog treat recipe is quick and simple, and smells amazing. Go ahead and taste one yourself, if you wish – they aren’t sweet like many human muffins, but they are packed with nutritional goodness and flavour. I often make my muffins for people without added sugar or sweeteners so they’re extra healthy, but they’re not to everyone’s taste. I’m sure hubby misses the sugar!
As an added bonus, these strawberry banana muffins made our dogs’ breath smell pretty doggone nice, too. Perhaps a recipe to bake before sharing some Valentine’s Day puppy dog kisses? Strawberries and mint are readily available here at the moment, including straight out of our garden, but you can also substitute for other dog-friendly ingredients. See the end of the post for tips.
Strawberry Banana and Mint Mini Muffin Dog Treat Recipe
Homemade Dog-Friendly Strawberry Banana Muffins with (Optional) Mint
The strawberry banana muffin dog treat recipe below was baked as a small batch of mini-muffins, but can be adapted to other pans, if you prefer, including a mini celebration cake.
Treat Ingredients:
- 1/2 ripe banana, mashed
- 1/2 cup plain dog-safe yogurt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup baking bran or unsweetened bran cereal (e.g. All Bran or similar)
- 1/2 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
- Approximately 4 large strawberries, chopped into small chunks
- Optional: Approximately 6 mint leaves, finely chopped
Making the Treats:
- Preheat your oven to 180C (or local equivalent) and gather together your baking ingredients and materials.
- Mash the banana in a mixing bowl and mix in your yogurt and egg.
- Stir in the bran and let the ingredients sit briefly so that the bran absorbs some of the moisture from the wet ingredients while you chop the strawberries and mint.
- Optional: Toss the berries into your flour before mixing your ingredients together. This can help chunky add-ins stay well distributed when baking and help with colour-bleeding too, especially if using frozen berries.
- Add the berries, flour, and mint to the mixing bowl and gently stir through to combine. At this stage, the mix should look like a cakey muffin batter. If your mixture is looking a bit dry, add a little bit of water. If it is looking too wet and runny, add a touch more flour.
- Spoon into a lightly greased mini muffin pan and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes.
- Cool before serving and storage. Break into smaller portions for serving if/as needed.
Dog-Friendly Cake Making Tips and Tricks
- Muffins are one of the many ways to bake dog-friendly cake batters. Mini muffin pans (affiliate link) or an oven-safe dog treat pan (affiliate link) are easy ways to bake small treats, but in most cases you’ll still want to break or cut your treats into even smaller pieces for serving and to extend the enjoyment. My boys tend to wolf down treats, so small bites make treat time better.
- Batters for muffins and cakes can be baked in other shapes and sizes. Adjust your baking times and/or temperatures accordingly.
- See our comprehensive post on homemade birthday and special occasion dog cakes for additional information on types of cakes, decorating ideas, storage, and more.
Recipe and Ingredient Tips and Tricks
- When using ingredients like yogurt for dogs, take care when shopping to avoid doggy no-nos and artificial sweeteners, especially xylitol, which is extremely dangerous for dogs. Xylitol may also be labelled under as sweetener code 967.
- Any dog-friendly fruit or berry that your dog likes can be substituted for strawberries. If you’re using frozen berries instead of fresh, remember that frozen fruit lowers the temperature of the batter and can require a slightly longer baking time. Drop the temperature a little, if needed.
- Most varieties of edible culinary mints are safe for dogs in small quantities; however, don’t use mint oils or flavourings as they can contain unsuitable additives. Keep the quantities small to avoid an overpowering scent and flavour (and for tummy safety, as with any herbs for dogs). Mint is a herb that some dogs love, some dogs hate. If your dog is the latter, you can leave it out. Easy peasy!
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.
