During my recent  #heartswap parcel exchange I decided that waggly tailed dogs deserve as much love on Valentines Day as the rest of us. I knew that my  #heartswap partner Em had a little puppy flash and I didn’t want him to feel left out when she received her parcel of foodie treats, so I made some treats for him too. To make the treats I looked around at a few different recipes and then tweaked them according to the ingredients I had in the cupboard. These biscuits are entirely dairy free (as a lot of my recipes are) and are perfectly OK for us humans to munch too. In fact, they are vegan so perfect for Meatfree March, however, they aren’t very sweet – my dad tried one and said they were a little like a not-sugary peanut digestive! Although nuts aren’t good for doggies in large amounts, the advice seems to be that they are ok for them in moderation and oh, do they love these biscuits!

Doggy biscuit dough
(Makes enough to fuel many waggly-tailed adventures for bounding wooflers)

• Two medium bananas (mashed)
• 120g crunchy peanut butter
• 300g wholemeal flour
• Four tablespoons of carob powder (I used some I received in a recent foodie penpals parcel)
• Almond milk (a little glug to form a smooth pastry dough, dogs aren’t meant to have too much of this)
  

  Puppy treat ingredients, ready for mixing

  I weighed out all the ingredients and poured into the food mixer, adding a good glug of almond  milk until I achieved the consistency below:

  

  Peanut and carob puppy treat mix, ready for rolling

  Next, I rolled the mixture out  fairly thinly on a floured surface and cut using different size heart cutters, you can see the lovely texture from the crunchy peanut butter.

  

  Peanut and carob puppy treats

  I baked these at 160c for about 12 mins on a fan assisted oven and tested with my finger to make sure they were baked through. My biscuits were fairly small and thin though so baking time will vary and you really out to aim for crunchy rather than soggy – it will give the dogs something to sink their teeth into and keep longer. My biscuits happily kept in an airtight container for a few weeks until they ran out.

  

  Peanut and carob puppy treats packaged to go

  I packaged up the treats for Flash in the same confectionary wrapper/ribbon combo I wrapped the lavender shortbread in the same parcel and I thought they looked really pretty. Overall, I found these treats really quick and easy to make and fairly cheap considering I already had the ingredients in the cupboard. They aren’t something I’d make my already very pampered pooches all of the time but they are definitely something I’d consider including in Christmas/special occasion hampers from now and they certainly bought lots of extra affection from our miniature Jack Russell and Border Terrier!