Imagine the most delicious dog treat on the planet…is it cheese? Is it peanut butter?
Nope. It’s liver and garlic!
After spending way too much on dog treats from the pet store I decided to make my own liver treats. I bought 4lb of beef liver at Central Market (a beef liver it 18lb!) and decided to make two different recipes. After realizing that one of the recipes had a typo that left me missing an ingredient I ended up only making one. Which is OK because it made a TON of treats!
So how successful were they? Incredibly! Wally went nuts and was willing to do absolutely anything for a tidbit of liver treat. I’ll probably save these for handling and shows since they’re easier to work with than the roasted chicken I was using. See below for the recipe! (I didn’t use PB or cheese)
Homemade Liver Treats
1 pound liver with juices
1 handful peeled garlic cloves (about 8-10)
4 eggs
1 can solid pack pumpkin (16 ounces) – not pumpkin pie filling
1/2 cup wheat germ
4 1/2 to 6 cups whole wheat flour
Optional: 1/2 cup peanut butter or some grated cheese, if you want to be decadent.
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 10″ x 15″ jelly roll pan. Pour the liver and juices into the work bowl of your food processor. Add the garlic, eggs, pumpkin and peanut butter if you’re using it, and process until liquified. Add the wheat germ and process to blend.
Pour the liver mixture into a large bowl (add the grated cheese now, if you’re using it) and mix in the flour until you have a soft dough, about the consistency biscuit dough. Pat the dough into an even layer in the prepared jelly roll pan, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Allow the treats to cool in the pan on a rack until you can touch them without burning yourself. Cut the treats into small squares. This makes a ton of soft, chewy little bait-sized treats. Because they contain no preservatives, they will go bad if left sitting out. After they’ve cooled put them into a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer, only removing what you can go through in a day.
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