More healthy dog treats for Patches (and your dog!)

I am slowly baking my way through "Baking for your Dog", one treat at a time. Yesterday while I was home, enjoying a day off, I decided to bake Patches another treat from the book. I baked some Apple and Carrot Dumplings the week before last, and while she did eat them, they were much too hard to break into pieces for her. And, since she often sometimes swallows treats whole, we decided to give the treats to the squirrels instead. They apparently loved them, because the squirrel feeder I put them in was empty the next day. :)

This time I decided to try Bonnie's Banana Biscuits. My hubby came home and saw the banana I planned on using on the cutting board and broke a piece of it off to give to Patches. Patches spit it out. She does that with things she doesn't like...peas, broccoli, and, apparently bananas. :} Hubby turned to me and said, "She doesn't like banana". Yes, dear, thank you for that update. But, I wasn't going to give her raw bananas. I'm going to bake it, with carrot and flour and oats and I think she will like it then. "Okay" he said, "We'll see". Oh ye of little faith.

As with most of these recipes, it uses a few simple ingredients and comes together quickly. It would probably go even quicker if I just cut the dough into squares, but I use small bone-shaped cutters to make her treats. I also use round cutters and even have one that looks like a little cat that I have used from time to time. This time I just used the circle and the bone-shaped one.

After they baked I broke one in half and gave her a piece. Her reaction? She spit it out! I couldn't believe she did that. Luckily her "daddy" wasn't around to say "I told you so!". I asked her what her problem was and gave her the other piece. That one she ate, and then she picked up the one she had spit out and ate that too. And, then, looked up at me, with her big brown eyes shining and her tail wagging, and clearly gave me signals that she would love to have another one, please. Which I gave to her.

Plan on making these at the end of the evening, because they are supposed to sit in the oven overnight to cool.

Bonnie's Banana Biscuits

2 carrots

1 banana

200 g (7oz) all-purpose flour

100g (3 1/2 oz) fine rolled oats

50 ml (1 1/2 fl oz) sunflower oil

water as required

Grate the carrots finely and mash the banana with a fork. Mix to make a dough with the flour, rolled oats and oil. If necessary, add a little water.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thick and cut squares about 4 cm (1 1/2 inches) in size. Place these on the sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and let them cool overnight in the oven. Store in a paper or linen bag. These biscuits will keep for about 3 weeks.