Trail Mix Cookies

If you read my last post, you know that I recently made some homemade trail mix. Yummm! I've been enjoying it as a snack these last few days. This weekend I needed to make a dessert to bring and enjoy with friends while we watched the Super Bowl. That's when I remembered that my friend Jeanne from Adirondack Baker recently made trail mix cookies. Voila! I decided I'd make some too. 

Jeanne's recipe calls for trail mix, as well as coconut and almonds. I chose not to add the coconut and almonds to my cookies, but you definitely can. That's the beauty of this recipe. The extra ingredients you can add are totally flexible! I also cut the original recipe in half here. So the proportions below are what I used when I made these. This recipe made 20 cookies for me that were about 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter.

Ingredients:

-1 stick butter, melted

-2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 egg

-1 and 1/8 cups all-purpose flour

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

-3/4 cup trail mix*

-1/3 cup mini pretzels, crushed

-1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

*I used my own homemade trail mix that was my previous recipe on the blog, but you can use any homemade or store bought mix that you like. Also of note, with mine, I removed the pretzels from the mix and crushed them separately before adding them to the cookie dough. The trail mix itself had whole mini pretzels in it, and I didn't want pretzels of that size in the cookies. :) You can go back to my trail mix post to get other ideas for ingredients you can add to your own trail mix and/or to these cookies!

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Melt butter and pour into a large bowl. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix completely and let cool for 15 minutes (you add the egg next and don't want to cook the egg!). To the cooled mixture, add the egg and mix well. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the sugar mixture, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the trail mix and chocolate chips until everything's well combined.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, and bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned (I baked mine slightly longer than I wanted to, but they still turned out great).

I love the texture of these cookies. Although I cooked them a little longer than I intended, they were still very chewy with only the slightest crisp on the outer edges. Perfection!

Thanks to the Adirondack Baker for such a delicious, unique cookie recipe!

:)

Homemade Trail Mix

Trail mix is one of those foods, at least for me, that I could eat and eat and eat and eat... Handful after handful. Can you relate? Fortunately, I have pretty good awareness and self control so I don't actually eat and eat and eat and eat treats such as trail mix. But I know that if I were to let my cravings get the best of me, I would keep eating tasty snacks like this homemade trail mix I made last week!

I actually made this batch of trail mix to give to Mike's brother, Dave (my future brother-in-law!), as part of his birthday gift. Dave is an avid bird watcher (it's an intense hobby if you don't know much about it!), and I thought it would be nice to give him a snack he could bring along with him on his birding trips that sometimes are hours and hours long.

Below I've listed the ingredients and proportions I used for this batch of trail mix, but obviously you can add whatever your favorite ingredients are in whatever proportions you'd like! That's the beauty of a treat like this. Trail mix doesn't require a very precise recipe since there's no baking involved, of course!

Ingredients:

-2 cups mini pretzels

-1 and 1/2 cups Quaker "whole hearts" cereal

-1 cup dried cranberries 

-3/4 cup dark chocolate m & m's

-3/4 cup pretzel m & m's

-2/3 cup whole almonds

-2/3 cup dry roasted peanuts

Instructions:

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. That's it. ;-)

Store in airtight containers or ziploc baggies!

I went a little crazy with the m & m's in this batch. Feel free to tone down the chocolate if you want a healthier version!

This made about 7 cups of trail mix for me. I don't know the nutritional information for this mix, but I'd guess that eating no more than 1/2 cup of it at one time is a safe bet. If you're afraid of overeating a snack such as trail mix, simply proportion the snack ahead of time into appropriate serving sizes. For me, when I take a snack like this to work, I only bring enough for one serving a day. That way there's no temptation for me to keep eating since after I finish that one serving, there's no more!

I had jury duty today, and I brought some of the mix with me to snack on when we got a break. It was perfect! I haven't made trail mix in so long. Making it this time around and remembering how much I love it will hopefully remind me to make it more often...

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I got out of jury duty, thank goodness! There was potential I'd be on a case for 3 weeks... Yikes! 

Some other ideas of ingredients you could interchange or add in addition to the above ingredients include: raisins, dried fruits (apricots, banana chips, etc.), other nuts, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, soy nuts, and coconut. Oh, and Teddy Grahams! I love Teddy Grahams in trail mix. I didn't happen to add any to this batch because they weren't on sale at the store this week, but they are such a fun addition to trail mix...especially when it's a mix for kids! Or, for adults who are kids at heart. :)

What other ingredients do you enjoy in your trail mix? I'd love to hear about your favorites!

Oh, and stay tuned... I made a second batch of trail mix, and I ended up using some of it to make some pretty darn tasty trail mix cookies. That recipe's up next!!