Bunny food critic | [X] - SpicaSirius

He’s not gonna weasel his way out of this one.

Rabbit Treat Recipe

Now that we have the important info out of the way. How do we make these suckers? You are going to need timothy hay pellets, steel cut oats, dry basil (optional), and dry parsley (optional). As for cooking utensils: mixing bowl, measuring instruments, cookie sheet, parchment paper, Magic Bullet (or something similar), rolling pin, and dehydrator (optional).

Soak Those Babies

Take about 1 cup of your timothy pellets and place them in a medium sized bowl. You want to give your pellets some room to expand. Fill the bowl with roughly 8 cups of water. I use warm water to help speed along the soaking process. It is essential that the pellets are completely expanded and no longer hard. For me it took about an hour/hour and a half with periodical stirring for my pellets to completely break down.

How do we know if your pellets are done soaking? Get a little dirty! No really. You will most likely get a little messy. Stick your hand in the bowl of pellet goo and run your fingers through the mixture. You should not be able to feel any hard nubs. Your fingers should be able to slip through the mixture easily. (This part reminds me of when I was kid and used to play in the black dirt while my mother gardened.) If you feel any hard nubs you can try to break them down or just give your mixture another good stir, maybe some more water, and more time to soak.

Now The Fun Part

Thought you got messy before? This next step can make a really big mess. (Especially, if you are having an off day like I was when I made my latest batch and happened to be the clumsiest person alive that day.) When your pellets are done soaking your are going to find that you have some water left over. It’s time to drain the goo! I have a metal mesh strainer that I do this with. The holes in the strainer are small enough to let the water pass through without losing your timothy hay. Some fine particles will drain out don’t be alarmed. I give the timothy pellets a good shake and press it against the mesh to make sure that I have got the majority of the water out.

Dry Them Suckers

It is perfectly acceptable to skip this part. However, your ratios for ingredients will change. If you are used to baking and don’t mind playing with mixtures in order to get the texture you need then feel free to play.

Take your drained timothy pellets and spread them out on a parchment paper covered cookie tray. Place the tray in the sunlight to dry. It should take about a day for the pellets to dry. Don’t want to wait that long or have a rainy day outside? Got a dehydrator? Cut out circles of parchment paper to fit the dimension of your dehydrator and place them on the trays. Then spread out the timothy hay on the parchment circles. It should take only a couple of hours for the timothy hay to dry out. 

Them Oats

Remember the Steel Cut Oats I mentioned in my earlier post? Get them out. If you dried your timothy pellets after soaking them you should need only 1 cup of Steel Cut Oats. Get out a food processor or a Magic Bullet (in my case) and throw your Steel Cut Oats in there. You want to grind the oats down until a flour is created. It is important that a flour is created because it is what is going to hold together your treats.

Mix It Up

Now the part you have been waiting for. Take 2 cups of your dried timothy pellets (make sure they are now a nice crumbly mess), 1 cup of the Steel Cut Oat flour you just made, 6 tablespoons of dried basil, and 2 tablespoons of dried parsley and throw it into a large mixing bowl. (The dried basil and parsley can be easily substituted out for any dried bunny friendly veggie. I normally like to use basil and dried carrot tops that I have ground down.) Stir your mixture together to evenly distribute the ingredients. Next add 2 cups of water and let sit for 15 minutes. What you are looking for is to get the mixture to have a consistency close to that of cookie dough. If it is not add a little bit more and let it rest for another 15 minutes. Why let it rest? We’re giving the Steel Cut Oat flour time to adequately absorb the water and create a hold to the timothy hay, basil, and parsley.

Bake Time Suckers!

Finally! On the home stretch. (Can you taste the end yet?) Get out the cookie sheet that you used earlier to dry the timothy pellets on. Place a new clean sheet of parchment paper down. Take about half of the mixture and place it in the middle of the sheet. Rip off another piece of parchment paper and place it on top the treat mixture. Grab that rolling pin. (Or if it doesn’t fit like mine. Grab a can out your pantry. I used a can of Chef Boyardee.) Roll out your mixture until it is wafer thin. The thinner the treats the less bake time and the higher probability that you have them thoroughly dried. Completely dried = no molding. You can get another cookie sheet and repeat the process if you wish or wait until your first batch is done baking and reuse that sheet. Once completely rolled out remove the parchment paper from top of the treat mixture. Draw lines in the treat mixture to create squares (or whatever desired shape). This will help with break the sheet into smaller treats once the baking is done. Put your oven to 225 degrees and pop your treat mixture in there for 30 minutes or until it is completely dried. It is perfectly acceptable to cook the treats at a lower temperature. The lowest I would go is 200 degrees. I tried that once. It took close to four hours for the mixture to completely dry.

And We Are Done

Once your treats are completely dried break the sheet along the lines you drew earlier to make smaller treats. Store your treats and give to your buns in moderation.

Hope you guys enjoy the recipe and use it to make all of the yummy bunny treats to bribe your little furry ones with. I would love to see how your treats come out if you decide the recipe. So please share with me how your experience goes.

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