Apple and carrot gobstoppers | Dog Treats

Making healthy dog treats is becoming a hobby of mine; there’s something therapeutic about about making treats that the dogs will enjoy is a great way to relax and regain focus from busy lives.

All the ingredients in this recipe are either probably already lurking in your kitchen cupboards or extremely easy to pick up in your weekly shop and cheaply too.

 

Health benefits of our ingredients

Apples

Once the core and seeds have been removed, apples are a great fruit for dogs. The seeds naturally contain cyanide so if built up will be toxic.  Apples are low in protein and fat but high in fibre which is great for digestion; giving the gut a workout in the process. It is also believed that Apples are packed full of antioxidants and alongside the Vitamin C content are great for joints.

Please remember that fruit is high in natural sugars and should be fed to your dog in moderation.

Carrots

The worlds most popular root vegetable offers so many benefits for your dog; not only are they great chew sticks for dogs teeth but they contain many vitamins. These vitamins include: Vitamin A, Vitamin K & potassium to name a few.

Oats

Flour is used to bind and hold ingredients together but a lot of dogs have a gluten intolerance so oats are a great alternative. Oats are naturally high in protein and fibre meaning they are easily digested and contain some vital minerals too. Vitamin E, B vitamins, zinc, iron all of which play an important role in maintaining or improving  canine health.

 

Lets get to it…

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4.

This recipe calls for apple sauce which if you want to make this quicker you can buy in an unsweetened version at any supermarket. I added my skinned and chopped apples along with some water to a sauce pan and heated until the apples resembled apple sauce. I kept adding more water to the pan as needed.

Whilst your preparing your sauce; add 1 cup of oats, flour and 1 shredded carrot to a mixing bowl adding the apple when it has done. Mixing until all ingredients are combined, paying particular attention to the flour.

If your dog has an intolerance to flour you can switch for more oats or a gluten free flour such as rice flour

Now for the messy part; using your hand roll the mixture into balls, the size is down to you whether you wish for them to be smaller or larger treats. I started off with smaller balls and they got considerably larger as I went along. Next time I make these I will keep them all to a uniform and smaller size as the larger ones stuck to my greaseproof paper.

Bake your treats on a low heat for around 15 – 20 mins. These treats don’t take long to cool to the touch but be careful of the hot apple sauce within the treats.

Pup’s Review

Well they loved them, I expected Wren to take one and leave it on the rug however that was not the case. She loved them! They were not as crunchy as I expected them to be & had more of a bouncy texture to them. Not that the dogs cared..a treat success! I will be making these again and improving the recipe to make them more crunchy as I go.

What treats do you make for your dogs and what would you like to see made in the future? Let me know in the comments below.

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