Sweet Potato & Carrot Dog Treats

Our furry family members deserve special homemade treats on holidays too…right? I recently realized that it had been awhile since I had made a batch of dog treats. I had every intention of making some cute candy cane dog treats for Christmas, and then…well, the holiday hustle and bustle caught up with me, and I ran out of time. The candy cane treats will have to wait until next Christmas, but for now, our dogs are in full St. Patrick’s Day celebration mode with these tasty, shamrock-shaped Sweet Potato & Carrot Dog Treats!

To keep with the St. Patrick’s Day colors (green and orange), I decided to try a recipe that contained delicious and healthy ingredients, that were also rich in orange color…thus the sweet potato and carrots! To sweeten the deal a little bit, I chose to dunk and drizzle a handful of the dog treats with white chocolate. If you’re reading this and starting to panic about how I fed my dogs chocolate, because chocolate is poisonous to dogs…please save your hurried comments and keep reading. Yes, I am fully aware that chocolate is poisonous to dogs. In fact, I’ve done enough research on the subject to know that what is truly poisonous, is the actual cacao you find in most chocolate. I say most chocolate, because white chocolate does not contain any cacao…making it completely safe for dogs to ingest.

Back in my days working at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, we carefully crafted white chocolate-dipped dog biscuits, for all of our chocolate lovers to share with their fur-balls. And they were a big seller! When it came time to bake these orange-hued shamrock dog treats, I knew I wanted to add just a touch of green…so I placed one drop of green food coloring into melted white chocolate, and lightly drizzled the chocolate-dripped treats. Our dogs jump for joy when the Ziploc bag of shamrock treats emerge from the pantry! While they gobble up the non-chocolate shamrocks…they seem to salivate a bit more when they see one of the chocolate-dipped shamrocks pulled from the bag! 🙂

If it makes you at all uneasy, feel free to skip the white chocolate altogether…your dogs will still love all of the sweet potato and carrot goodness!

Ingredients:

3-1/2 – 4 Cups Oat Flour (+ more for rolling out the dough)
1/2 Cup Shredded Carrot
1/2 Cup Cooked Sweet Potato (I baked mine in a 400° F oven, for an hour)
1 Egg
3/4 Cup Water
Cookie Cutters (I used this shamrock set)
White Chocolate Chips (optional)
Green Food Coloring (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the carrot, sweet potato, egg, water, and 3-1/2 cups of the oat flour.
Mix on low-medium speed until all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined and the dough is starting to form. If the dough is still wet and sticky, add more oat flour (a little bit at a time). Continue mixing in flour, until the dough reaches a nice, non-sticky consistency.
Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and knead with your hands for a couple more minutes.
Place the dough ball on a lightly (oat) floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4″ thickness.
Using the cookie cutter(s) of your choice, cut as many dog treats as you can, from the sheet of dough.
Place the dog treats on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. You can place them close together, since they will not spread.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden brown. Remove the treats from the oven, and transfer them to a wire rack, to cool completely.
While the first batch is baking, knead the remaining dough together, roll it back out, and cut out more treats. Continue this process until you have utilized all of the dough.

If you would like to dazzle your pups with a few fully-decorated treats, follow the below instructions:

Pour 1/4 – 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips into a small, microwave-safe bowl or mug. Microwave in 30-second increments (stirring well after every 30-seconds), until the white chocolate is completely melted. Be very careful not to burn it. 🙂
Dunk approximately half of each treat in the white chocolate mixture, shaking off any excess, and then place each chocolate-dipped treat on a piece of wax paper.
If you want to add a touch of green, for St. Patrick’s Day, place one drop of green food coloring into the melted white chocolate, and stir until combined. Feel free to dunk treats in the green chocolate, or drizzle the green chocolate over the top of the other treats, using the end of a knife or spoon.

You can make these treats any time of year…just switch up your cookie cutters. Besides, I’m pretty sure that your furry friends won’t care what shape the treats come in, they will just be happy to indulge in some delicious, homemade cookies!