The good news about this recipe is that it does not require Dominique Ansel’s baking skills and there is a lot of flexibility for the ingredients you choose.  If you don't have bacon fat, feel free to replace with pork belly fat. Wheat flour can easily be substituted for oat or rice flour. Have a little chicken or beef stock left over from cooking last night’s dinner? Feel free to use it instead of water. Go with what you have on hand, because no dog has turned up their noses to these treats.

We like to bake them until they are very dry so that they do not have to be stored in the refrigerator.

Finally, if you do not like making cut out cookies, you can roll the dough into a couple of logs and wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate for an hour or so, then slice and bake. They might not be as cute, but our furry fans don't seem to mind.

Homemade Dog Biscuits with Peanut Butter & Bacon Fat

1/8 Cup bacon grease or pork belly fat
2 Cups whole wheat flour, oat or rice flour or a combination
1/4 Cup ground flax
1/4 Cup wheat bran
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/2 Cup natural peanut butter
1/4 Cup canned or fresh pureed pumpkin
3/4 Cup warm water, divided  *important makes cookie crunchy*

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 300° F
  • Pour the bacon grease/pork belly fat into a glass measuring cup
  • In a bowl, whisk together the flour, ground flax, wheat bran, and 1 tsp baking powder
  • In a microwave safe bowl or glass measuring cup, warm the peanut butter. Approximately 30 seconds. Add bacon or pork belly fat and microwave another 30 seconds. Stir in pumpkin until the mixture is smooth. Add 1/2 cup water and stir again
  • Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the warm peanut butter mixture. Stir until combined. It will probably be dry, so add more water until the mixture is not sticky, but rollable
  • Knead lightly in the bowl with your hands
  • Flour your work surface and top of dough so that your rolling pin doesn’t stick, roll out to 1/4 inch thickness.(or thinner)
  • Cut shapes* out of the dough and place on your prepared baking sheet. Gather the extra dough, knead into a ball, and repeat the the process until you use all of the dough.  
  • Bake for 45-60 minutes
  • Turn off the oven and cookies there to cool for 2 hours or overnight

Yield - Using a 3 inch bone shaped cookie cutter, you will get 40 homemade dog biscuits.

Choosing Cookie Cutters - Because this recipe uses baking powder, these peanut butter dog biscuits will puff up some during the baking process. Because of that, you will want to choose a dog cookie cutter that has simple shapes. The puffed cookie will not show the same amount of detail as another dog treat recipe.