The joy of Autumn baking is not complete until you make your furry friends these Apple Dog Treats with peanut butter and oats. With just 5 simple ingredients, these homemade apple treats for dogs will have their tail wagging with delight!
How spoiled are your dogs? Probably not spoiled enough, so let’s fix that with these peanut butter oatmeal dog treats (no banana) made with fresh apple, creamy peanut butter, a hint of cinnamon and rolled oats.
And of course, if you want to go over the top, drizzle some melted creamy peanut butter over the treats once they’re done baking. No dogs will be able to resist that!
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Simple – these simple oats and peanut butter dog treats are made with just 5 ingredients. You can count them with just one hand!
- Real and tasty – made with real apple and peanut butter, you know these apple treats will be super tasty and your furry friends will absolutely love them! Even you might try to have a bite. I honestly have readers write in saying they tried my dog biscuits.
Tools you’ll need
- A food processor to blend oats into flour and mix the dough together.
- A rolling pin to roll out the dough.
- And a cookie cutter to cut out individual apple dog treats for baking. Or simply use a knife if you don’t care for fancy shapes.
Ingredients and substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:
- Apple – any type of apple will work here, I usually use whatever I have on hand. You could try using apple sauce instead.
- Peanut butter – any kind of creamy peanut butter or even homemade peanut butter will work.
- Cinnamon – Cinnamon is perfectly safe for dogs to eat but don’t use a spice blend like apple pie spice because it may contain nutmeg which is toxic for dogs.
- Oats – I used old fashioned rolled oats, ground into a flour using my food processor. You could also use pre-processed oat flour, or another type of gluten free flour.
- Egg – I used one egg to bind everything together.
How to make apple dog treats with peanut butter and oats
The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
Make oat flour
You can buy oat flour for this recipe or make your own oat flour from rolled oats. It’s super easy if you have a food processor or a high power blender.
Tip: If you’re grinding your own oat flour, I recommend measuring a smidge more than what the recipe calls for so you can have extra flour for rolling. About 9 oz or 2 ½ – 2 ⅔ cups of rolled oats will yield just over 2 cups of oat flour.
Make the dough
These easy homemade peanut butter and oatmeal dog treats can be made entirely in the food processor.
In the same food processor that you just processed your oat flour – without washing, puree the chopped apple. Add peanut butter and egg, and process until smooth.
Add the oat flour and cinnamon, and process until a dough forms
Scrape the dough out of the food processor bowl onto a lightly floured countertop. Use oat flour if you have extra or just use regular flour if your dog is okay with wheat. Roll the dough out to about ¼” thick, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters of your choice.
Bake until golden brown and dry.
More baker’s tips
- A 2” dog bone cookie cutter will yield about 30 treats while a 1 ½ square cookie cutter will yield about 48 treats.
- Bake the treats on an unlined baking sheet so they can brown. Rotate pan, flip treats halfway through baking so they can brown more evenly. Don’t forget to lower the oven temperature at this point per the recipe direction.
- If your treats are larger, bake them longer at the lower oven temperature to dry them out properly and also give them more time to brown.
- Once you turn off the oven, you can leave the treats in there with the door cracked open for a few hours, if they aren’t already too brown. This will give them more time to dry out which will help them keep for longer.
Storage
Store them in a clean jar or an airtight container. They will last about 2 weeks at room temperature, up to 2 months in the refrigerator and up to 8 months in the freezer.
I usually keep a week to 2 weeks max worth of treats in a jar in the cupboard for my dogs and store excess in the refrigerator.
FAQs
The drizzle is just melted peanut butter, so they don’t set. If you choose to add drizzle, give your dogs the treats right away or store them in one layer, no stacking.
If you want to store them all together in a treat jar or stack them in a small container, I recommend skipping the drizzle.
One reader recommended using carob to make a drizzle, and this does harden when set. Carob is like “chocolate” but it is dog friendly.
You can eat them since they are made with all real ingredients that we, human, normally consume. But they don’t have any added sugar or strong flavor so you may not find them satisfying like these apple oatmeal bars might.
More homemade dog treats
- Sweet Potato Dog Treats
- Gingerbread Dog Treats.
- Pumpkin Dog Treats
- Fishy Dog Treats
- Bacon Dog Treats
Apple Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Treats
Ingredients
- 1 small apple (about 1 cup chopped, ~4 oz or 113 g)
- ¼ cup peanut butter (60 g)
- 1 large egg
- 2 cup oat flour (~8 oz or 227 g)
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Extra oat flour or regular flour for rolling
- Extra peanut butter for drizzling (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- If you’re making oat flour from rolled oats, use about 2 ½ cups of rolled oats and ground it in a food processor. This will yield just a smidge over 2 cups of oat flour, enough to use in the recipe and a bit extra for rolling.
- In the same food processor, without washing, add the chopped apple and puree. Add peanut butter and egg, and puree again until smooth.
- Add 2 cups of oat flour and the ground cinnamon, process until a dough forms.
- Flour the counter or a large cutting board, scoop the dough out of the food processor and roll to about ¼” thick. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Reroll the scraps and continue cutting until the dough is finished.
- Place cookies on an unlined baking sheet between ½” to 1” apart. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate pan, flip cookies, reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake for another 20 – 30 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Optional peanut butter drizzle: melt ¼ cup of creamy peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds, drizzle with a spoon over dog treats.
Notes
- Cut the treats into shapes with cookie cutters or simply slice them into squares and other geometric shapes with your knife.
- A 2” bone shape cookie cutter will yield about 30 treats, and a 1 ½” square cutter will yield about 48 treats.
- Store treats in an airtight container for up to two weeks. You can also refrigerate to keep them longer, up to 2 months. And they will last for 8 months in the freezer.
- Add peanut butter drizzle to treats you are planning to give to your dogs right away or soon. If you’re planning to pack them away in a jar, I recommend not adding the drizzle because it can get messy.
Nutrition
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Made these for my pup (10 months) and he absolutely loved them.
I melted carob and peanut butter for the top of them.
Happy to hear your pup loved these 🙂 Thanks for the wonderful review, Kim!
You can use a carob (it is like chocolate) drizzle instead of peanut butter, it does harden after being melted. Note, carob is dog friendly.
That’s a great idea!
Hola from Baja Mexico
If you choose to use the drizzle how does the drizzle set? Meaning could you stack one on top of the other without getting a sticky mess on the bottom of the other cookie
They are in the oven now and my 4 dogs are circling like sharks. I also make homemade dog jerky with my homemade beef broth. They love them. And the dogs and I can eat them because they r all natural.
Thank you
Beverley
Hey Beverley, thanks for visiting! The drizzle is really just peanut butter so it doesn’t set like a hard glaze or anything. If you don’t want them sticking together, I would skip the drizzle.
These are the sweetest little dog treats. My dog Millie loves them.
I’m so glad your baby loves these 🙂