Yummo! Check out these homemade strawberry banana truffle dog treats. Fabulously fruity and doggone delicious! If you have strawberries growing in your garden (we currently do) or have splurged on berries for Valentine’s Day, why not share a few with your dogs? Here’s our easy no-bake bliss ball recipe for strawberry banana truffles with optional coconut coating.
Strawberries for Dogs
Strawberries are one of the many dog-friendly fruits and vegetables that our boys love snacking on. In fact, they love snacking on them a little too much and are known to raid my strawberry plants in our home garden, searching for sweet sun-ripened berries. Oli has a special sniffer-dog talent for catching the scent of a perfect berry before I can harvest. They’re full of healthy nutrients for people or pups, but they’re also a sweet treat so best shared in small portions or as special treats. Sorry, berry hunting spotty dogs!
Strawberries are a favourite for us fresh, in frozen treats like our strawberry and carob pupsicles, and occasionally in special recipes. For these fruity bliss ball treats, we’re pairing tasty strawberries with another dog-friendly fruit favourite, banana. It’s a scent and flavour combination that our dogs love, like our strawberry banana mint muffins, and smells pretty great to the humans too!
Making Homemade Truffle and Bliss Ball Dog Treats
Truffle dog treats or dog-friendly bliss balls can be made using any combination of dog-friendly ingredients, as long as they set firm. This usually requires using either ingredients that set when chilled (coconut oil is one of my favourites) and/or absorb moisture to firm up with time (coconut flour is one of my favourites). These strawberry banana truffle dog treats use both of those firmers, along with ground flax for extra healthiness and firming support.
No-Bake Strawberry Banana Truffle Dog Treat Recipe
Homemade Strawberry Banana Truffle Dog Treats
The strawberries for these treats were fresh from our garden. Berries for truffles and other dog treats can be fresh or thawed from frozen, noting that the moisture levels can vary quite a bit in juicy berries, especially if thawed from frozen. You may need to adjust your flour quantity or other add-in ingredients for texture to form your balls. The optional coatings can be adjusted, substituted, or omitted to suit your preferences and pup’s palette.
Treat Ingredients:
- 1 ripe banana
- 3 or 4 strawberries (approximately 1/4 cup when mashed or pureed)
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, warmed to liquid
- 2 tbsp ground flax or LSA
- Optional: Sprinkle of Ceylon cinnamon
- Approximately 1/3 to 1/2 cup coconut flour
- Optional: Fine desiccated coconut or ground flax for rolling (or other coating of your choice)
The amount of flour needed will depend on the moisture of your fruit and your chosen dry ingredients/options. Mix incrementally and if in doubt, I prefer to err on the side of wet. A slightly soft set truffle is better than a crumbly truffle. If you’re using a rolling coating for your treats, you might want to keep the mixture a little on the wet side so that the coating sticks well. Uncoated truffles can be made to suit your personal preferences. Wetter dough may make a softer finished truffle, but is often easier to shape when forming the balls. They’ll also firm up a little more was they set and chill, too. Don’t stress too much, as they’ll be tasty no matter what. If your pup takes a liking to truffle treats, you’ll soon get a feeling for texture and it gets easier for future batches.
Making the Treats:
- Thoroughly mash the berries and banana (or puree for a more uniform truffle texture).
- Combine the fruit puree, coconut oil, and flax/LSA in a mixing bowl.
- Add the coconut flour incrementally, mixing thoroughly, until you’ve reached the desired consistency for shaping. The truffle dough may feel slightly loose and wet/oily when warm, but should hold shape when pressed. Not quite right? You can use a small amount of additional flour, additional oil, or warm water to adjust consistency to a sticky dough for shaping/pressing into balls. They’ll firm up more with set time as moisture absorbs into the dry ingredients and when the coconut oil is chilled.
- Roll into small bite-sized balls.
- Coat (optional) or leave plain.
- Refrigerate until firm.
As with any treat, be mindful of treat size and consumption relative to your pet’s size and any other individual factors. Just like human bliss balls, you can break truffles into smaller pieces for serving and/or safety if your pet tends to gulp treats instead of chew.
Truffle Treat Making Tips and Tricks
- Truffle treats can be stored in the fridge short term or frozen for longer storage. See our comprehensive post on making and storing chilled dog treats for additional information on frozen and chilled homemade treats.
- No strawberries? Leave them out (adjust flour as needed), substitute another dog-friendly fruit, or explore our other recipes.
- Looking for flavour twist ideas? You can add a little carob powder to the mixture and make “chocolate” truffles (pawfect for Valentine’s Day) or freshen up with some finely chopped mint (pucker up, Valenpups!).
- Coconut flour is a good option for making gluten-free / grain-free pet treats, and is fairly healthy for a flour. It’s high in fibre, high in protein, and low-GI relative to alternatives. Coconut flour is very absorbent, which is key to getting a nice consistency and balance in these treats. It sponges up the liquid from our fruits and helps our treats set firm.
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.
