Trail Mix Cookies

I promise you will not be able to keep these trail mix cookies around for long. It doesn’t seem to matter how many I make; they disappear immediately. By baking the trail mix into a cookie, it stops the “pickers” (guilty) from swiping all the good stuff out of the trail mix bag.

This recipe is from the Joy the Baker Cookbook. She has a great website and fun humor to go along with it.

The dough and the cooked cookies freeze well to make an easy grab and go snack. I won’t claim to say they are healthy with the sugar content, but there are worse things your kids could be snacking on (as in any store-bought cookies with suspect ingredients).

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks/8oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated cane sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
• 1 cup (6oz) butterscotch
• 1 cup M&Ms
• 1 cup roasted and salted peanuts
• 1/2 cup crushed pretzels
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric hand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 3 to 5 minutes).
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating on medium speed for 1 minute between each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl as necessary.
5. Beat in the vanilla until incorporated.
6. Stop the mixer and add the flour mixture all at once. Beat on low speed until just incorporated.
7. Add the butterscotch chips, M&M’s, peanuts, pretzels, and raisins. Mix the additions at low speed until just incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and finish incorporating the cookie batter with a spatula.
8. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared cookie sheet.
9. Bake for about 13 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through, or until lightly browned, around the edges.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

If you enjoy baking as much as I do, check out my favorite Double Chocolate Chip Cookies here.

Enjoy and good luck keeping them in the house!