Buttercup Brownies / Buttercup Bites
Ingredients:
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1/4 c peanut butter
1/2 c canola oil
2 eggs
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c rolled oats
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. You may use a hand or stand mixer if desired, but I just stirred everything together with a wooden spoon. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together pumpkin, peanut butter, oil, and eggs. Once blended, stir in flour (substitute a gluten-free flour if desired), rolled oats, baking powder, and salt. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking dish and spread batter in dish. (I used stoneware; glass is probably fine but may alter cooking time and texture.) Bake 25-30 minutes, depending on oven.
I made these tender dog treats for my sweet Yellow Lab, Buttercup. She definitely seems to like them, but then Labs will eat rocks and think ice cubes are treats. But really, I tried them and think they are pretty tasty. One of my cats even likes them, and we all know how picky cats can be! They are not sweet, so you won't be able to fool your kids into thinking they are people-cookies, but sugar is a no-no for our furry friends. I let the cookies cool a few minutes when they came out of the oven, then cut 48 small squares while they where still warm. Once cooled, I removed the cookies from the pan and cut each one into four small bite-sized treats. Buttercup would happily eat the entire tray whether as one cookie or 100, but I am using these as a tasty reward whenever she hops down into the cabin since she used to balk at the top of the stairs before I broke down and just starting bribing her.
These bar cookie style treats were very simple and quick. Down the line I may try adding more flour and rolled oats to create a drier dough that can be rolled for crispy cut cookies, which could also be decorated if desired. However, because I have a small galley and oven aboard, rolled cookies take a lot of space and time to prepare. Here's Buttercup looking sad that her beach is all frozen and hoping spring will arrive soon. In the meantime, she's pretty happy to enjoy her new cookies and snuggle up inside the boat. Hope your furry crew enjoys the recipe!
