I'm going to give you the recipe first, then the fun story.
Nellie is a dog who loves to be in the kitchen, especially when there is food to clean up! Most days I'm telling her to get out of the kitchen, but some days she gets to help. These are #ChefNellie days.
A bit about me... I love to cook and bake. I am Italian (plus some other stuff) and show my love with food (although ever watchful that I don't love my pets into obesity). I am also a scientist at heart, so I like to experiment in the kitchen a little until I can get a recipe just right.
Today Chef Nellie and I wanted to come up with a fall pumpkin cookie that would be low fat and limited ingredient. Many of my patients have food sensitivities and findings treats can be difficult. We found a few recipes online, experimented to find the right mixture, and present to you our Pumpkin Banana Dog Cookies.
These cookies have only 4 ingredients. They are free of meat, dairy, eggs, and wheat.
Each cookie has approximately 20 calories, 1 gram of fiber, and 0.8 grams of fat. If needed, the coconut oil can be removed to create a lower fat treat. The oil does help the mush stick together better.
We tried a few versions to get it right and wanted to give you the play-by-play walk through to make these tasty #limitedingredient treats. We saw a pattern though in the blogs we found online though - they bury the recipe at the bottom! We don't want to play that game. The printable picture can be found right at the top of the page. Enjoy.
If you have any questions about other versions, or ideas on how you would change the recipe, please comment or send a message.
To Start: Gather the ingredients.
For this dog treat you will need:
2 Ripe Bananas
1/4 cup of Pumpkin Puree
1 Tablespoon of Coconut Oil (omit if needing low fat treat)
3/4 cup Coconut Flour
Cookie cutter(s) as you choose
Grab a dog for taste testing when you're finished. Nellie is not sure why she has to be next to ingredients instead of eating them, but she is practicing her patience.
We choose coconut flour in this recipe to eliminate wheat (some of Nellie's friends are sensitive), and it is a great source of iron and fiber. Healthy fiber feeds the good gut bacteria which promote a healthy immune system. We didn't want to use any animal proteins because, again - allergies. The pumpkin is not only seasonally fantastic (I am compelled to use pumpkin in everything this time of year), but is again a good source of fiber. Bananas add sweetness, flavor, vitamins, and more fiber.
Step 1: Mix it up.
I used the KitchenAid mixer, but this could easily be done with a fork and bowl
Mash the 2 bananas
mix in the 1/4 cup pumpkin
mix in the 1 Tbsp coconut oil
mix in the 3/4 cup coconut flour
Step 2:
At this point the batter is a bit crumbly. Coconut flour is weird - I love it, but its weird. In my opinion it is somewhere between flour and sawdust, and it needs time to be coaxed into behaving like flour. This is a perfect time to walk away from your batter. Let it sit for 10 minutes (or more if you find a good show to watch or the dog wants a walk). Giving it time to sit lets the coconut fibers soak up the moisture from the banana and pumpkin.
When you are ready, turn on your oven to 350 degrees F
Step 3: Time to make cookies!
Kneed the batter together until it is no longer crumbly and sticks together. It should only take a minute or two.
The batter is too sticky for a roller. It has the consistency of dry cornbread batter. We tried a few different maneuvers, but I think it worked best to flatten with the palm of my hand. Nellie was not allowed to help during this part.
Mash it down until it is about 1/4 inch thick and start cutting.
These cookies don't rise or spread, so they can be placed very close together on the cookie sheet.
Step 4: Bake!
Cook in the center rack for 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees F. I tend to pull my own (human) chocolate chip cookies from the oven as soon as they start to smell good, because I like my cookies soft and chewy. These started to smell at 12-15 minutes, but for dog cookies you should go longer and get the crunch. They started to get a little crispy at the edges at 20 minutes and so I pulled them out then. The cookies are still a little soft.
Since they do not have any preservatives, they won't last forever. I recommend keeping in a sealed container either on the counter for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for a week. If you are not sharing the batch with your doggy friends, then consider freezing them in batches.
We hope you enjoy making these cookies! Nellie sure did!
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