The Best Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits EVER – According to Sierra
These peanut butter dog biscuits are Sierra’s favorite and she claims that they’re the best dog biscuits recipe ever. She’d refuse most any other biscuit that anyone tries to give her. She’d sample the other treats then spit it out. Update: 3/21/2020: Our dear Sierra left this world at the age of 14 1/2. Her final months of pain and suffering finally came to an end and she’s now at peace. She had a wonderful life and brought us so much joy and love. xo
- We lost our dear Dante in May, 2011. We love you both so much. Thank you for bringing us so much love and joy into our lives. We still have Lexi in our lives to continue the love.
Best Dog Biscuits Recipe
“Incentives.” That’s what we have to call dog biscuits now around the house. The pups have long figured out “treats” and spelling out the letters to each other in this LOL world was starting to get old. We’ve gotten in the habit of using letters instead of words so much I’ve started glancing over my shoulder expecting to hear a pre-K teacher about to scold “Use your words!”
I’ve been wanting to come up with a new dog biscuit recipe for a while. They are super handy to have around while Lexi is in her puppy-teenager phase. Nothing like a little “incentive” to help bring a distracted puppy running when you call them to “come”. My philosophy is that when you call them over to you, it should be the best thing in the world. Full of love, scratches, and often times a delicious treat. Even when you want to twist their floppy ears for getting into something they aren’t supposed to.
Watch video for Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits featuring Sierra & Lexi:
Her Favorite Dog Treats
Unfortunately my last few attempts at a new biscuit recipe weren’t as good as I had hoped. Sure Lexi and Sierra slobbered, drooled and ate them all up, but I just wasn’t feeling the same excitement they’ve show for the other dog biscuits I’ve made. And I didn’t like how the new recipes would roll out, or keep, or not crumble. It just wasn’t “it”. I think I was messing with the recipes too much.
After the the last few weeks of being crazy busy with shoots for clients getting ready with their Summer and Grilling Season recipes, the puppy parent guilt was starting to set it. So a few nights ago I gave up a couple hours sleep and was determined to make a slobber worthy treat for the pups.
Starting with a basic dog biscuit dough, I threw in a couple things that were good for them; turmeric and ground flax seeds. Sierra gets a weird head shaking thing which at best medical analysis is harmless but is probably caused by low blood sugar so I added a bit of brown sugar. Some peanut butter ’cause they really love peanut butter. And for the flavor kicker, added beef bouillon powder to the water used in the recipe. The dough rolled, cut, and baked beautifully. The only thing left was the white boxer test.
She’s a picky eater
Sierra has always been a cautious eater ever since testing out a devil pepper in the garden as a puppy. To this day, rarely does she take food without carefully testing it. Even then, food is about 5th or 6th down on her list of great things. Head rubs and attention, next is chasing balls, cozy fleece, walks… Oh and don’t forget chasing and arguing with the squirrels. It takes quite a bit to get her amped over any food item.
Verdict: In her 8 years of doggyhood, she has never camped out in the kitchen waiting for a treat. Nearly every night since making these “incentives” she can be found lying and waiting in the kitchen right below the treat container. Hand out a treat and our normally reserved, super gentle treat taker instantly flops her big fleshy lips over your fingers in a mad dash to get the “incentive” in her mouth. These are the best treats EVER.
Pups are happy and the “incentives” are mom and dad approved. Guilt appeased. Now back to work for a couple more client shoots then we’ll see about some dog beach time.
-Todd
Is Turmeric good for dogs? We did some research here and here.
Sierra, our dear white boxer and Lexi, our Rhodesian ridgeback. Sisters!
Here’s our favorite cutter sets. Obviously they have many uses beyond puppy treats, but ours tend to see a lot of action in that department. We love how all of these sets store, ’cause nothing drives us nuts more than messy kitchen drawers:
Cuisipro Heart Cutter Set – Set of 5. Snap together for easy storage Nice heart shape and easy to handle and press.
Fox Run Bone Cutter Set – These are the bone shaped cutters used in the video (and at home all the time) Fun shape! Set of 3, comes in a handy storage tin.
Kayaso Round Cutter Set – This is our favorite round cutter set. Great selection of sizes. We’ll use the smallest for slightly larger than kibble sized training treats. This dog biscuits recipe was originally published in 2013 and re-published in 2018 with a new video, updated photos and recipe box format!
Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits w/ Flax & Turmeric - Best Dog Biscuit EVER!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) hot Water
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Beef or Chicken Bouillon Powder
- 2 1/2 cups (325 g) all-purpose Flour
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Brown Sugar , optional
- 1/2 cup (55 g) ground Flax Seed
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) Turmeric
- 1/2 cup (130 g) Peanut Butter
- 1 (1) Egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Dissolve the bouillon in the hot water. Set aside.
- Combine the flour, brown sugar, ground flax, and turmeric in a mixer bowl. Using a dough hook, mix in hot water mixture, peanut butter and egg. Continue mixing until the dough ball is smooth, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl to help everything mix together.
- Roll out the dough to a little less than 1/2" thick. Cut into desired dog biscuit shapes (we use hearts for "good dogs" and small circles or small bone shapes for training incentives). Place the cut out dog biscuits on the prepared sheet pans.
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the biscuits feel dried and fairly hard (they will harden a bit more after cooling). Baking time will vary depending on how thick the biscuits were rolled out. As long as the biscuits are cooked fully dry, they will keep for several weeks or more.
Well, my dog loves them, so I’m now making my second batch. Not a like for like recipe, as my dog is slightly intolerant to wheat. So I went, 100g oat flour, 175g rice flour (purple, brown, white, red) and 50g whole wheat flour.
Do you have this recipe halved?
We’ve never halved it. It does keep for months when baked fully dry.
You could probably try and halve most all the ingredients and just use the 1 whole egg. It is a very forgiving recipe. If things are too sticky when rolling out, just add a little more flour.
My dogs hates dog biscuits but goes crazy for these! I’m so happy you’ve shared this recipe. Sierra had some great taste!
My dog LOVES these biscuits! I didn’t have ground flax seed so I used ground oatmeal. These are easy to make and so much cheaper than a healthy box from the store. Lucy is spoiled and only want homemade! This is the go-to recipe! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much Bonnie! xoxo
I love these! They have such a pretty look to them when they are cooked. Need to serve these with some dog friendly hot cocoa!
Our dogs love these. Thank you so much for the recipe
My Goldendoodle LOVES these. Thank you! The dough is perfect every time. I heat the water in the microwave for about 2 minutes and then add the bouillon cube and let it sit while I get the rest of the ingredients measured out. I use parchment paper to roll out the dough and line the pans. I feel so good giving these to him!
Please make sure you choose a peanut butter that does not contain xylitol – this is toxic to dogs
My son’s dog, a 14 year old golden retriever, has arthritis and these biscuits really help him get around but unfortunately his teeth are not as good as they used to be and he has trouble chewing these biscuits, what are your suggestions to make them less hard, add oil or butter or would making them thinner work and he could chew them quicker!
Hi Sheila,
We just recently went through that exact same scenario. Sierra was 14 1/2 and for her last couple months it was one of few things she would eat, but they were too hard in their normal baked state. So she could eat them, I would roll the dough thinner (about 1/2 what I normally do) and then also under bake them (usually only about 15-20 minutes depending on how thin). They don’t keep as long if they are underbaked, but were soft enough for her to chew. Hope that helps. If you try other tweaks that work, we’d love to hear about them. Love to your son’s golden.
Can you use something in place of the flax seed
Hi Gayle,
If we don’t have any flax seed on hand, then we’ll usually just leave it out. No need to substitute anything. The recipe will work just fine without. Hope your pups love them!
T & D
Making these for my fur babies today….I’m excited for them to taste these treats!