by SamanthaWhen you’re busy in the kitchen this holiday season, make sure you don’t forget about your four-legged family members! This Pumpkin Dog Treat recipe is easy to make with only 6 ingredients, and they are also a great way to use up any leftover pumpkin. Your dog will definitely thank you!
My kitchen is in a very busy state right now with a flurry of pumpkin recipes flying through. I have bought so many cans of pumpkin in the past few months that I alone may be largely responsible for keeping the pumpkin puree industry in business.
The only problem with this is that, for a lot of my recipes, I don’t seem to end up using a whole entire can of pumpkin puree. Which means I have a lot of half-full cans that I don’t want to throw away, but am not entirely sure what to do with them.
Well I’ve found the perfect solution to all of this leftover pumpkin puree — bake it into puppy cookies and feed them to your furry family members!
Pumpkin is a dog friendly ingredient that even can be good for their digestive tracts. I mixed this up with some other dog-safe ingredients including peanut butter (possibly my own dogs’ favorite flavor in the whole world), eggs, flour (I used a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose, though you can certainly use just one or the other), and just a little bit of baking powder.
The dough is then rolled and cut out using cookie cutters — I used two different sizes of cookie cutters from Amazon, but you can use any shape!
Because their texture is harder and crunchier than your average cookie, they take a little extra time in the oven, but mixing them up and cutting them out takes only minutes.
My dogs absolutely adored these pumpkin dog treats, and since they’re so easy to make, you can bet I’ll be making them over and over again!
Pumpkin Dog Treats Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Servings 24 large or 48 small cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter*
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer, stir together pumpkin, peanut butter, and egg yolk until completely combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flours and baking powder.
- Gradually add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture until completely combined (dough will be quite dry).
- Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and roll out to approximately ¼″ thickness.
- Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of dough and transfer cut out cookies to prepared cookie sheet, placing at least 1″ apart.
- Re-combine any dough scraps and re-roll and then cut out to use all of your dough.
- Bake cookies on 375°F for 20 minutes for small cookies and 25 minutes for large cookies.
- Allow to cool completely before sharing with your pet.
- Keep uneaten cookies in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.)
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Love your recipes! So does Riki, our Bichon Freise mix!
Smells so delicious I just had to take a bite. Guess I’m used to sugar. My dog just goes wild for them. Gave some to my daughter and she said they molded. I’ve never had that problem. I keep them in a zip plastic bag in my cupboard. Should I refrigerate them?
Hi Debbie! So happy your dog is loving them! We recommend keeping them in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks. Storing them in the refrigerator is a good idea though to help keep them fresh longer.
I am going to try these. I’m just curious if you can freeze them.
Yes Marnie, these will freeze well.
Super easy, super tasty…dog loves the dough so far. Now he is patiently waiting for them to cool. Well, maybe not do patient ⬛
I tripled the recipe and shared with dog friends. They all loved it, especially my pup. Recipe was easy with a few ingredients that you probably have on hand.I was disappointed they molded. I accidentally left them in A container in the sun and forgot to refrigerate them. I definitely won’t forget that again!
The cutest little treats ever!! I made it with my best friend and her puppy, our dogs ate it up! We also used extra small cookie cutters and ours ended up cooking in 12 minutes. Made a ton!
Any dog I’ve ever given these to ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM! I started making home made treats since the run of the mill dog treats are actually SO BAD for our puppers. These are SUPER easy to make, and Betsy loves them!! Thank you!
Abner LOVES these cookies. He was so excited when I was putting them together. Guess he liked the smell of the dough. While they were cooking he took a nap but when the oven timer went off he RAN to the kitchen. My husband and I got a good laugh out of that. That was a first. I did sprinkle just a little peanut butter powder on them when they were done. Ab says all paws up. (He has trouble with numbers.)
That’s so cute, sounds like he was patiently waiting for them to bake! Thank you for the review Abner!
Can I just use all regular flour instead of whole wheat?
We’ve only tried this recipe as written but it should work just fine.
Love this recipe! It is so easy and my dogs absolutely love them! They prefer them over any other treat they get!
My picky treat eater, a 13 year old Cavachon loved the pumpkin biscuits and so did my Alstralian shepherd. I doubled the recipe and added oats instead of flour. I ended up adding a 1/4 c. flour to thicken the dough. This is a good recipe I will keep it!
Our dogs absolutely LOVE these treats! I saved this recipe a couple of years ago, but never made them until a few months ago.
Our dogs love their “cookies” as we call them! I store them in a baggie in the refrigerator and they keep for 1 1/2 weeks, if they last that long!
This recipe is fantastic. My dogs actually watch me while I am making it. They can’t wait to get some. We made a double batch and put it in an airtight container. Unfortunately, they turned moldy in a week and one half. We will put them in the refrig next time
I was so excited to try these! I’ve never baked for my dog before, but I’ve been doing new things. I was looking for a way to get my dog to eat pumpkin because I’ve heard its good for them and he doesn’t like it mixed in with his food. Unfortunately, my pup is not a fan of these cookies either. I guess he just really doesn’t like pumpkin.
– Picky pup in NY
Darn, this would have been the perfect way to sneak it into his diet Audrey. But I guess he know what he likes!