It’s DIY Friday yet again! In case you couldn’t tell based on the last few posts, we’re definitely running with the seasonal theme and this week we’ve made sweet potato dog chews! I saw the recipe here, and figured it would be super simple and a little different than the standard treats we’ve been making the last few weeks.
So this is another really basic treat you can make for your pups, and the only ingredient is sweet potatoes. You can use however many you want, but I used three because that’s what I had on hand. You’ll also need a knife, cutting board, parchment paper, and a cookie sheet.
So I’ve been cooking with sweet potatoes a lot lately since they’re kind of in season, and the fall weather really just calls for anything pumpkin/sweet potato related. The one thing I’ve definitely learned is that sweet potatoes are NOT an easy vegetable to cut. They’re much harder than a standard potato and take a lot more effort to slice. I started with the serrated knife you see in the photo, but ended up having to use a much larger serrated knife in order to get the slices I wanted. I changed knives about 3/4 of the way through the whole process so none of my slices look the same, but hey I’m not a professional and I’m pretty sure the dogs aren’t going to care.
Preheat your oven to 250 F, wash your potatoes, and slice them. Then arrange them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
So ultimately, you want to slice them uniformly and at no more than 1/3 to 1/4 of an inch. You’ll need them relatively thin as we’re essentially just dehydrating them in the oven.
Once they are in the oven, leave them in there for about 90 minutes and then flip them over. Pop them back in for another 90 minutes. You can add another 30 minutes if you want the chews to have a more crunch consistency. When they’re done, take them out and place them on a cooling rack. I, unfortunately, do not have a cooling rack so my chews just cooled on the cookie sheet. Below are photos of the chews at the 90 minute mark, 3 hour mark, and when they were cooled.
The chews after 90 minutes in the oven.
Fresh out of the oven.
After cooling for several hours.
When they were completely cool, I popped them into a Ziplock bag. These can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Some of my chews never really completely dried out, and I think there’s two reasons for that. The first reason is that they were clearly not cut uniformly or to the correct thickness, and the second reason being that I didn’t have a wire rack to cool them on. So I checked all of them and only kept the ones that I felt were dry enough.
Now it was time for the pups to taste them. It was a rainy day so we stayed inside. Again, these two just know when I’m coming in with food for them, so at first they went wild. They eventually sat still long enough that I was able to snap their picture.
Pippa immediately took hers under the table to prevent any possible thieves from taking it.
River, on the other hand, ate his so quickly that I had to get a second one out to play tug with.
Overall, the dogs really enjoyed them. They weren’t really a good substitute for a good ol’ fashioned chew, but if done properly they could work. We’ll just stick them in the freezer and use them as regular treats!
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