Trail Mix Cookies!

There are very few things as instantly comforting as a perfect, warm, homemade cookie. I am a sucker for a warm gooey chocolate chip cookie now and then, but my favourite cookies are a balanced - sweet and salty, with different textures and flavours. These Trail Mix cookies have all of that going on.

Ingredients

170g (1 cup) flour 

4.5g (1/2 tsp) baking soda

3g (1 tsp) cinnamon

4g (1/2 tsp) salt

85g(1/3 cup) sugar 

240g (1 1/4 cups tightly packed) light brown sugar

225g (1 cup) unsalted butter - softened

200g (1 1/2 cups) rolled oats

40 g (2/3 cup) shredded wheat 

100g (3/4 cup) raisins 

80g (1/2 cup) pumpkin seeds 

100g (1 cup) walnuts 

95g (2 medium) eggs

15ml (1 tbsp) vanilla

Start by combining the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.

Then cream your butter and sugar together for 5 minutes. I always listen to Christina Tosi when it comes to cookie making and that long creaming time will get you perfect chewy cookies.

After 5 minutes, add in your eggs on low speed one at a time. Once they are both in, beat that whole mixture for another 3 minutes.

Now for the fun part. I love an oatmeal cookie, but what makes these really special is the shredded wheat. You can buy the large ones but I happen to have the spoon size ones here (if you have the frosted ones the cookies will be a little sweeter but you do you!). You need to crush them up into pieces, they don’t need to be uniform, just make sure each little square is broken up.

In terms of the rest of the add in you can really customize it. I’ve made them with Pecans rather than Walnuts, whatever you like and have in your pantry - if you love craisins you can use those instead of raisins, or maybe swap them out for chopped dates. The options are really endless. If you would put it in trail mix, you can add it here.

Once your butter, sugar, egg mix is nice and fluffy add in your vanilla extract.

For the next few additions you want to just mix long enough that it’s combined, less than 30 seconds each.

Start with your flour mixture. Once that’s in then add the oats and shredded wheat. Last you add your nuts, seeds, and raisins.

Once it’s all combined use an ice cream scoop to portion out the dough. I used a medium scoop and got a few more than 2 dozen. You can place them pretty close together because you’re going to chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! The butter in the dough needs to chill our you’ll have a mess on your hands when you bake them.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375*F. Once it’s there you can grab your dough from the fridge.

I used the same pans to chill everything down so there’s a little dough on them!

You’ll be able to pick up the chilled dough balls and move them around. Place them on a baking sheet with either parchment or a silicone baking mat, keeping them at least a couple of inches apart (so roughly 6 cookies on a quarter sheet pan or 12 on a half sheet pan).

Bake them for 12-14 minutes or until lightly golden and brown. When you take them out of the oven let them cool on the pans for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack, or the might fall apart on you.

I only baked off 12 and put the rest into an airtight container and popped them into the freezer. This way you can take out 1 or 2 (or 6) when you’re feeling like a cookie and bake it off from frozen (same 375*F and still 12-14 minutes!)

Then enjoy along side a steaming cup of tea, or a big glass of Cabernet!