Trail Mix Cookies (And Yet Another Recipe Contest)

As you know if you’ve read more than about three of my blog posts, I love to bake. At this point, I’ve built up a pretty solid collection of go-to recipes, and so it’s fun to start modifying those tried and true treats a bit to create something new.

That was the case with these trail mix cookies. My friend Watson suggested I figure out a trail mix cookie recipe (she’s always full of awesome recipe ideas, by the way) and so I put it on my baking to-do list a couple of months ago. (Yes, I keep a list of things I want to bake. What — you don’t? Weird.)

I felt like it was the perfect time to give these a try because I’d decided I wanted to enter yet another cooking contest: the Sun-Maid Milk Chocolate Raisins “Naturally Irresistible” recipe contest. (I know, I know. I couldn’t help myself. It’s a legit obsession at this point. Mini-obsession, perhaps.) I started brainstorming recipe ideas incorporating chocolate-covered raisins, and the trail mix cookies came back to mind. Trail mix tends to have raisins, after all, so wouldn’t chocolate-covered raisins fit into that theme?

I used the cookie recipe my mom made growing up, a deliciously chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, as the base for this recipe (oatmeal also felt right for trail mix cookies) and went from there. I removed the chocolate chips and added plain M&M’s, chocolate-covered raisins, and salted cashews, but am convinced that these would work great with lots of nut/salty variations (peanuts, almonds, pistachios, even sunflower seeds, I’m betting, would all do the trick).

Here are the deets:

Trail Mix Cookies

Ingredients 

• 1 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup chocolate-covered raisins
• 1/3 cup plain M&M’s
• 1/3 cup salted cashews

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat. Set aside.
• Combine oats, flour, both sugars, soda, and salt, stirring well.
• Mix in egg, oil, and vanilla. Dough may seem dry — it’s all good!
• Stir in raisins, M&M’s, and cashews.
• Roll dough into balls and place on baking sheet. (I like to make larger cookies — about two Tablespoons of dough for each cookie — so they come out nice and chewy.)
• Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until just SLIGHTLY browned on top.