These two easy Christmas dog treats combine turmeric and coconut oil in a fun a festive combo of homemade holiday treats. We’ve got golden gelatin gummy star dog treats and easy carob topped coconut oil snowmen. Pawesome! Here are the recipes and DIY details.
A Twist on Turmeric and Coconut Oil
Turmeric can be a great health booster, but it’s also very messy. Using as an ingredient in a baked or set dog treat, like these golden gummy stars, can help make small quantity handling and eating easier and cleaner. Turmeric’s healthy curcumin is fat soluble, which is why you often see it paired with a fat, such a coconut oil. The piperine in black pepper can also help with absorption of curcumin. This treat combo is a twist on both, just not in the same bite!
These golden gummy star treats are ridiculous easy to make, healthy, and our dogs are wild for them. What’s not to love? We’ll definitely be making this recipe again! This treat is a very simple twist on simple stock gummy dog treats, using turmeric to infuse the gummies with a lovely natural golden colour (and extra healthy goodness). Flecks in the mixture naturally settle during setting to create golden topped stars on a jiggly translucent gold base.
If you usually supplement with a turmeric and coconut oil combo, why not whip up an easy coconut oil treat to go with your gummies? All those lovely snowmen, snowflakes, and other festive wintry shapes are perfect for a bright white frozen coconut oil treat. We gave our snowmen little carob top hats, just for fun and added flavour.
Golden Gummy Star Gelatin Gummy Dog Treats with Turmeric
Homemade Gelatin Gummy Dog Treats with Turmeric
This recipe is an easy adaptation of our simple stock gummy recipe using turmeric as a natural food colouring to create a golden yellow. Turmeric is one of my favourite natural colourings as dietary supplements. Win win! In the years since, we added more variations using turmeric in gummies, like our turmeric latte gummies, and many other types of dog treats.
Treat Ingredients:
- 1 cup plain homemade or ready-made unsalted unseasoned chicken stock
- 3 tbsp quality powdered gelatin
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- Sprinkle of ground black pepper (optional)
If you’d prefer a lighter less-rich gummy treat, you can dilute the stock instead of using it straight. I often make my simple stock gummies with a combination of broth and water.
Making the Treats:
- Measure cold broth into a small pan.
- Sprinkle the surface with gelatin powder.
- Wait and let sit for approximately five minutes or longer for the gelatin powder to bloom / gel.
- Gently stir the mixture over low heat until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Take care not to shortcut with high temperatures or overheat. Heat can reduce the setting strength of gelatin.
- Remove from heat.
- Measure turmeric and pepper (optional) into a suitable container. I’ve tried a variety of methods over the years, but nowadays, I like using a coffee milk jug when I make gummies. They’re stain resistant, heat safe, easy pour, and dishwasher-friendly. Awesome!
- Mix a small spoonful of the prepared liquefied gelatin with the powders to dissolve/mix with minimal lumps and clumps. Once mixed, add in the rest of your gelatin and stir to thoroughly combine.
- Pour into a glass pan (cut and slice) or silicone moulds (shapes) like our stars.
- Chill to set.
Gummy Dog Treat Making Tips and Tricks
- See our comprehensive post on making and storing homemade gelatin gummy dog treats for additional information.
Recipe and Ingredient Tips and Tricks
- My preferred dog treat stock is simple unseasoned broth saved from preparing homemade food.
- In my experience, 3 tbsp of gelatin powder per cup of liquid makes firm gummies. If you prefer, you can use more gelatin for added supplementation or less for a jigglier jelly treat with lower gelatin content. Individual gelatin powders may be a little stronger / weaker. Find a ratio that works for your preferences and, of course, your dog.
- Remember, turmeric stains! Pick your cookware with care, clean spills quickly, and keep stain-awareness in mind when giving treats.
Carob Topped Coconut Oil Snowman Dog Treats
I couldn’t resist having a little fun with these snowmen and making their hats a carob flavoured (and coloured) accent. Totally optional, of course! There are all sorts of different moulds that you could use for making treats, with or without accents. It is, however, important to ensure that their shape and size is suitable for safe single servings. This is especially important for hard setting chilled or frozen treats, like these. Set coconut oil treats are too firm to break into smaller pieces for serving.
When this post was first shared, coconut oil was recommended as a dietary supplement for dogs by many holistic vets and dog nutritionists; however, it has recently come under debate. See our post on super simple DIY coconut oil dog treats for links and additional information. We still use moderated amounts of coconut oil, but if you feel it isn’t right for you, there are tons of other treat recipes you can explore instead.
Easy Homemade Carob and Coconut Oil Snowman Dog Treats
Since these are simple chill and set dog treats, you can adjust the measurements to suit your pet and personal preferences. Scale volumes to suit your specific moulds. Flexible silicone moulds (affiliate link) or ice-cube trays work great for making shaped treats. If you want to measure of a specific mould’s capacity for scaling, you can do a test pour from a measuring cup of water to check the volume required.
Treat Ingredients:
- Coconut oil
- Carob drops or melts
- Smooth peanut butter (and/or additional coconut oil)
Making the Treats:
- Optional: If you are using carob to create accents for looks and/or flavour, you can pre-chill your moulds for faster setting.
- Melt the carob together with a little smooth peanut butter and/or coconut oil to help the carob melt smoothly.
- Using a small squeeze bottle or clean paintbrush, apply the carob mixture to the moulds (layering to build up if needed).
- Chill to set firmly before adding coconut oil.
- Once the carob is firm, melt the coconut oil until it’s just barely liquid. Not too hot, as we don’t want to remelt the hats!
- Fill the remainder of your moulds with the melted coconut oil.
- Chill (or freeze) to set firmly before removing from the moulds.
Chilled Dog Treat Making Tips and Tricks
- See our comprehensive post on making chilled and frozen dog treats for addition information and helpful treat making tips.
- These treats should be kept refrigerated or frozen as coconut oil will soften and may melt at warmer room temperatures.
Recipe and Ingredient Tips and Tricks
- Carob drops are often sweetened, whether you are buying them from the human baking good section or specially marketed dog treats. Many are a combination of sugars and oils with carob powder, some are unsweetened carob and oil mixtures. Either way, there’s nothing wrong with an occasional special treat, but always read your ingredients to know what you’re buying and eating/sharing.
- Go natural or take care when shopping to avoid artificial sweeteners in ingredients like peanut butter when used for your dogs – xylitol (also identified as sweetener E967) is particularly dangerous for dogs. I typically use a no added salt/sugar smooth peanut butter.
- Be mindful of size/consumption relative to your pet’s size and any other individual factors. I give my dogs small quantities of coconut oil (often with turmeric as noted above) on a regular basis, but always in moderated portions.
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.
