Easy Dog Treat Recipe: Honey & Carrot Dog Treats

To celebrate Easter and welcome spring, we present you with a dog treat recipe that is so easy to follow that even a dog parent who has never baked treats before can follow it effortlessly.

We came up with our own interpretation of dog-friendly Easter eggs. Rest assured, you won’t find any chocolate in these eggs. Instead, you’ll find healthy, wholesome ingredients inspired by the season in these dog Easter treats.

The best part is that you will need only four ingredients to make it – honey, carrots, eggs, and almond flour – and regular all purpose flour to shape it.

The Benefits of Honey For Dogs

Honey has been around for thousands of years. It has many uses from treating skin scrapes, soothing faces in masks, and sweetening our food.

And yes! If you’re wondering, you can share and feed honey to your dog. But, what does honey do for dogs?

Helps Dogs With Environmental Allergies

Honey is made from the nectar that female bees have gathered from the flowers they visited. They bring this back to the hive, form a long assembly line, and systematically regurgitate the honey into each other’s honey sacs, so that the bee nearest the honeycomb can then spit it out into the honeycombs.

Now you can imagine this honey is full of trace pollen from all the flowers the bees visited. And because of this, your dog will develop antibodies from eating local honey.

Notice we mentioned local. Because that’s key, when you buy locally, you can rest assured that it contains trace pollen local to you.

Grocery store-bought honey can be sourced globally, so it won’t help a dog with environmental allergies.

Honey Helps Soothe Your Dog’s Tummy

In ancient times, they looked at honey not only as a sweetener or a source of energy, but as medicine.

Raw honey contains both prebiotic and probiotics, which lead to a healthier gut. And it helps with digestion because a portion of the protein in honey consists essentially made up of enzymes derived from pollen, nectar, and bees.

This means it helps dogs with an upset tummy from indigestion, constipation, or diarrhea.

Honey Helps Protect Your Dog’s Cells

Honey contains polyphenols which are the most abundantly available antioxidants.

Antioxidants in turn help to prevent or limit cell damage, so honey can help bring this benefit to your dog.

The Benefits of Carrots For Dogs

Carrots have several benefits available to dogs including healthier eyes and increased fiber, but cooked carrots provide more benefit than raw, so keep that in mind when it comes to preparing and serving them up.

Carrots Are Great For Your Dog’s Eyes

The best reason to feed carrots to your dog is to help them have healthier eyes.

Carrots are rich in beta-carotene. As an antioxidant, beta-carotene helps reduce oxidative stress by keeping the eye’s surface, or the cornea, moist and healthy.

In this dog carrot treat recipe, we call for cooking the carrots, which help break down thick cell walls and effectively release beta-carotene, thereby making beta-carotene more readily available for your dog’s body to use.

Carrots Provide Healthy Fiber

The fiber in carrots helps feed the healthy bacteria in your dog’s gut, which leads to improved health.

The primary insoluble fibers in carrots are cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Insoluble fibers help against constipation and promote regular bowel movements in your dog.

Cooking The Carrots Makes it More Bioavailable

We chose to cook the carrots in this recipe instead of shredding them for two reasons.

1. It’s easier to prepare carrots by cooking them than to shred them.
2. The nutrients are more easily absorbed by your dog’s body when they are cooked.

And if you’re wondering, “Wait. Aren’t nutrients lost in the cooking process?” Rest assured that they are not. This is because the fat-soluble vitamins, including vitamins A, E and K, are heat stable and won’t be destroyed by boiling.

Instead, what happens is the vitamin’s cell walls are broken down and thus become more bioavailable to your dog.

The Benefits of Almond Flour vs. Regular Flour

Since these easy dog treats only have four ingredients, we decided to substitute our regular flour for almond flour.

Almond Flour Has Fewer Carbohydrates

Almond flour has fewer carbohydrates than regular all-purpose flour and even coconut flour.

Almond Flour Is Gluten Free

Unlike all-purpose flour, you won’t find any gluten in almond flour. And while gluten isn’t inherently bad or good for most dogs, there is a small percentage of dogs that have sensitivity.

If your dog has allergies, ear infections, or any other skin irritations, it’s best to avoid wheat products such as all-purpose flour.

Almond Flour Is Nutritious

Compared to all-purpose flour and coconut flour, almond flour has a higher source of vitamin E. It also provides iron, manganese, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and other minerals.

Baking With Almond Flour

Almond flour has a different consistency than all-purpose flour.

It will feel thicker and you might be tempted to add more flour. Resist the temptation and trust that it just feels thick, tacky, and wet.

How Many Honey and Carrot Dog Treats To Feed

Even though this is a limited ingredient dog treat recipe made with wholesome and nutritious food, we believe moderation is key when feeding these dog treats.

The consistency of these Easter egg dog treats will make it easy for you to break off pieces at a time for the smaller dogs.

They will probably be excited to eat them, so you might be tempted to give in to those puppy dog eyes. Just remember that one to two of these treats is the suggested portion size for every 10 pounds your dog weighs.

Honey and Carrot Dog Treat Recipe

Honey and Carrot Dog Treats - Easter Eggs

What's better than a dog carrot treat, a dog honey treat, and an Easter dog treat? One that combines them all with just simple 4 ingredients! These Honey & Carrot Dog Treats are festive for spring and simple to make.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 45 mins

Course Dog Treat

Servings 60

Ingredients

  

• 2 carrots
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups almond flour
• 1/3 cup local raw honey
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour For your hands when you are shaping the Easter eggs

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cook the Carrots

• Boil 2 cups of water.
• While you are waiting for the water to boil, chop up the carrots into smaller pieces.
  
• Place the carrots in the boiling water for six minutes. They are ready when you can stick a fork in them.
• Once cooked, dice the carrots further by using a blender or food processor.

Mix the Ingredients

• Place the eggs, almond flour, honey, and diced carrots in a mixing bowl.
• Mix it with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
  

Prep Your Pans

• Sprinkle all-purpose flour onto your baking pans. You can use a regular pan or one with a rack. It doesn't affect the baking process as long as the pans (or rack) are lined with flour.

Shape the Eggs

• The dough will look wet and tacky. Resist the urge to add more almond flour. 
• Take your all-purpose flour and generously cover your fingers and palms of your hands.
• Take a teaspoon of the dough and shape it into an egg about 1” in length. They should be smaller than quail eggs and close in shape to the little chocolate eggs we humans eat during Easter.

  Bonus tip - start by rolling the dough into balls and then with your palm apply some pressure so that you get egg-shaped dough balls.
  

Bake the Eggs

• Bake the Easter egg treats for 20 to 25 minutes. 
• They are done when they look a little toasted on the outside.  They will have the consistency of a chewy dinner roll which make it perfect for when you want to tear off smaller pieces when feeding smaller dogs. 
  
• Let it cool outside of the oven.
• Store in the refrigerator for up to 4-6 days.

Keyword Carrots, Dog Treats, Dogs, Easter, Easter Egg, Healthy, Honey, Simple

Takeaway Bites

These Easter egg honey and carrot dog treats take less than an hour to make and bake.

You won’t need a rolling pin or cookie cutters. All you need is some counter space, a mixing bowl, and a few oven trays.

And you’ll find that this recipe makes just enough that you can even take a few treats to your dog’s best friend to share!

Bonus, if you end up tasting and liking these, they are a nutritious snack for you too.

Ultimately, we believe that dog treat recipes should be healthy using ingredients that give you peace of mind knowing they are suitable for your dog too.

Enjoy making these Easter egg treats, and share your photos with us when you do by tagging @allpetvoices on Instagram or Facebook.

About the Author: Dog nutrition is Hannah Zulueta’s life calling. She’s on a mission to bring nutrition to as many dog parents as possible by demystifying and simplifying how you can feed your dog fresh food. You can find more from Hannah at Daily Dog Food Recipes.