Homemade Pumpkin Dog Treats (Without Peanut Butter)

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Simple homemade pumpkin dog treats made with pumpkin puree, whole wheat flour, and bacon. These treats are also made without peanut butter, so they’re great for homes with a peanut allergy!

Bet you didn’t expect to see a pup on my website, did you? And I bet you’d be surprised these pumpkin dog biscuits are in the top 20 recipes on my entire website consistently.

That’s right– this website, which houses recipes for mostly sweets gets lots of visitors to this recipe all year long, all from people who are looking to make homemade dog treats without peanut butter for a whole host of reasons.

Is there a peanut allergy in your house? Does your dog have a peanut allergy? Do you just not like peanut butter?

It can be hard to find a recipe for dog treats without peanut butter around the internet, so many years ago during my annual pumpkin week, I used those issues to fill a gap I saw in the homemade pumpkin treats for dogs category of recipes.

Major shoutout to my assistant Lauren whose idea it was. She’s a dog owner herself, and when she suggested I create a recipe for pumpkin dog treats, I couldn’t get into the kitchen fast enough.

Here’s the interesting part… We do not have a dog. I’m not sure we will ever have a dog, but if our boys have any say in the matter… We might.

BUT, the truth is, I’m allergic to them and I don’t love pets in general.

The dogs on our street and in our neighborhood? LOVE THEM. Our boys ADORE this dog in particular that we borrowed for photos (hi, Reggie!), but I’m currently in the mindset of never wanting animal hair or fur in my house.

Please don’t hate me. But definitely invite me and my kids over to give lots of pets and belly rubs!

That said, I don’t particularly need or use this recipe, like, ever, but I know about 99% of the population of my readers probably do.

INGREDIENTS

Before I developed this recipe, I did some research on dog treats all over the internet. I’d say the majority of them included peanut butter.

I decided I didn’t want to do that, not only because there were one million peanut butter pumpkin dog treat recipes out there, but also because we are actually a peanut butter free home.

No, no allergies and no opposition to peanut butter (HELLO, I STILL LOVE YOU PB + CHOCOLATE), but there is a legume sensitivity in our house, so we’re straight up almond butter people…

Except in my baking cabinet where you can find a jar of natural peanut butter as well as traditional peanut butter at any given moment because, well, peanut butter recipes are still quite abundant on my website despite the foods we keep in our house (see my ultimate peanut butter cookies or no bake peanut butter pie for starters).

All in all, I wanted to keep this peanut-free upon principal and also internet saturation!

The ingredient list for these dog biscuit recipe is short. You’ll need bacon, whole wheat flour, baking powder, pumpkin purée, water or milk, and an egg.

Of course, you can make any basic adjustment to this ingredient list, like if your dog doesn’t consume milk or you would prefer to use all-purpose flour to whole wheat.

Know that you don’t need a specific amount of the bacon grease, it is just part of the whole pumpkin dog treat package. The additional water or milk is for helping the dough come together, so don’t worry if you don’t have all that much grease leftover from cooking.

Once your bacon is cooked, you’ll pour the grease off into a medium size bowl. Chop the cooked bacon and put it into the bacon grease.

Next, whisk in the pumpkin and the egg until the mixture is smooth (with bacon lumps, duh).

Lastly, whisk together the dry ingredients (the flour and baking powder).

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and then start mixing them together.

ADD MILK OR WATER TO ACHIEVE DESIRED DOUGH CONSISTENCY

The dough will come together just like you expect it to, similar to cut-out cookie dough, but depending on how much bacon grease you have, your dough could be on the drier side.

Any time I make these dog treats, I wind up adding a different amount of liquid based on the dough in front of me.

My best tip? Stir the dough, add about ½ to 1 Tablespoon of liquid, stir more, and add more liquid as needed.

You want to be able to roll the dough out without it being too sticky, but you don’t want it to fall apart. I usually wind up adding about 2 to 4 Tablespoons total of liquid.

Use the desired shape cookie cutter to cut shapes (I opted for the dog bone shaped cookie cutters, of course), reroll the dough, and cut again until there is no more dough left.

You’ll bake your dog treats for 30 minutes, flipping them over halfway through baking. They will harden as they cool.

But here’s the thing: I made one batch of pumpkin dog treats, tasted one, decided I needed to try again, tasted that one, and then decided I am not a dog, so my opinion isn’t so great on that topic.

These homemade dog treats without peanut butter have gone, over the years, to dozens of different dog taste testers, and the consensus always is… There are never any dog treats left.

And I have realized I can never again taste-test dog treats. The dogs are much better judges.

So there you are, friends. A little addition to pumpkin week that’s one for the pups. While we may never actually own a dog, I’m happy to know that I can supply a relatively healthy dog treat recipe to one if we ever decide to.