Spent Grain Peanut Butter Dog Treats

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I know this is a food blog for people food, but I had to put at least one puppy treat recipe up here for all my puppy people! PUPPY PEOPLE WHERE YOU AT?!?! Plus, this is just too good a recipe to keep to myself, especially for home brewers — I just HAD to share it with y’all. Even if you don’t have your own pup, if you make these they will come running.

So while I’ve been spending my time during quarantine baking and cooking, Alex started home brewing again! (Hurray that we haven’t poisoned ourselves… yet!) If you’ve done any home brewing, you know theres a big ol’ bag of spent grain that is just such a shame to toss.

Research on what to do with the spent grain mostly yielded dense brown bread recipes… mmm no thank you. You can also apparently dry the grains for like a million hours in the oven on low, then grind them, and use the ground grains as a sub for whole wheat flour in other bread recipes. Cool, but nope.

What I love about this recipe is the true inability to mess it up AND you can make them even if you don’t home brew AND the gigantic bag of treats it produces AND you can use the grains as they are, wet, AND they keep for a long time AND my dog loves them soooooo much AND they’re made with whole and real ingredients AND you can mix in herbs and spices (be sure to check which ones are safe!) for additional benefits AND… I’ll just stop there because literally the list goes on.

I mean, COME ON, look at how determined Kaylee is to eat these! I DIDN’T EVEN ASK HER TO WAVE! She’s just like “Hello! Table for one!”

The Recipe

Makes about 2 full baking sheets of treats — the actual number of treats will depend on how large you cut them

Ingredients (🔥Double Batch)

2 cups of fresh spent grains from brewing beer OR 2 cups of cooked grains (barley wheat, rye, oats, millet, sorghum, rice or corn — a mix of grains works too!)

1 cup of peanut butter, chunky or creamy works

2 cups of all purpose flour, plus more for rolling

1 egg

Optional add-ins

• 1 tablespoon total of spices or herbs (cinnamon, parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, cilantro, etc. - check which benefits you’d like for your pup)

• ¼ cup of either flax seeds or hemp seeds (🔥Omega You Guys!)

Instructions

Break down the grains (Optional)

1. In a food processor or blender pulverize the grains for 2 minutes. They don’t need to be perfectly smooth, you’re just looking to break up the grains a bit. You also may need to work in batches depending on the size of your machine (🎩Blitzed).

Make the dough

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine the grains, peanut butter, flour, egg, and any additional add-ins you so choose.

3. Mix everything well with your hands. Initially the dough will be very sticky; however, after a few minutes of mixing, you should be able to press a few fingers into the dough without it sticking — at this point it’s ready to be rolled (🎩Sticky Fingers, Help!)

Shape and parbake treats

1. Set a piece of parchment paper on your work surface then lightly dust it with flour. Place about ⅓ of the dough onto the floured parchment then lightly sprinkle flour on top.

2. Flatten with a rolling pin to about ¼-inch thickness, dusting with additional flour if it’s sticking.

3. Cut the dough into shapes (🎩Dippin-trick). Transfer the cut treats to your cookie sheet so they’re not touching. Re-roll any scraps and continue adding more dough until all the dough is used.

4. Parbake (just means to partially bake) each tray of treats at 350°F for 25-30 minutes. Reserve baked treats in a large bowl.

Oven-dry the treats

1. Once all the treats have been parbaked for 25 minutes, pour all the treats onto a rimmed baking sheet. Reduce the temperature to 225°F and bake all the treats until they’re completely dry and crunchy, about 1 hour.

2. Cool for 20 minutes.

SPOIL YOUR PUP WITH TREATS!

Dried treats can keep in an air-tight container for up to two weeks.

Hot Tips 🔥

• DOUBLE BATCH — This recipe can easily be doubled or even tripled!

• OMEGA YOU GUYS! — Flax seeds, hemp seeds, and salmon oil are all super rich in Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids which help keep a healthy coat and skin. Flaxseed also contains alpha-linolenic acid, an anti-inflammatory properties that can give your dog’s immune system a boost! Additional information from VCA here

Tricks 🎩

• BLITZED — Blitzing the grains helps to break them down, which will make it easier for pup to digest. It also aids with cutting your treats into cleaner pieces later!

• STICKY FINGERS, HELP! — At this point if the dough is still super sticky, feel free to mix in additional flour 2 tablespoons at a time, until the flour is dry enough to pull cleanly away from your hands.

• DIPPIN’-TRICK — Is dough getting stuck to your cookie cutter? Use the ol’ flour-dippin’-trick for clean cuts! Dip your cutter into flour between cutting shapes to prevent the dough from sticking.