Welcome to my dream cookie. Ram packed with healthy ingredients, chewy, crispy around the edges, thick and hearty, with dark chocolate sprinkled throughout. Not one who is content with a mediocre cookie, I tested these 4 times before they were deemed “in the vault”. That’s a lot of cookie eating! It’s a tough job I tell ya. Although, I secretly think Eric keeps telling me to “work on them” so he can have more cookies to eat. I’m onto you Eric, I’m onto you…
This is a clean-out-your-cupboard or hit-up-the-bulk-bins or everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kinda cookie. I threw it all in and went a bit crazy. From the sliced almonds to the three kinds of seeds to the cacao nibs, this cookie has an incredible chewy, crunchy texture that can’t be beat. I expect the mix-ins are versatile, so feel free to play around with the nuts and seeds if you’d like.
Despite the lengthy dry ingredient list, they are a breeze to throw together. Plus, how hard is it to throw seeds into a bowl? I rest my case.
We are doing this for the cookie!
Just a quick housekeeping note: I’m using a new recipe card display (below) that Eric created for the site. However, I just noticed that the recipe is not showing up in my feed. This will hopefully be fixed soon, so not to worry!
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Irresistible Chewy Trail Mix Cookies
Yield
23 small cookies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Welcome to my dream cookie. Ram packed with healthy ingredients, chewy, crispy around the edges, thick and bite-sized, with dark chocolate sprinkled throughout. One thing to point out. I used a very "drippy" raw almond butter in this recipe. If you are using a more solid & thick and less liquid-y nut butter, you may want to add another 1/2-1 tablespoon of water into your flax egg to prevent the batter from becoming too dry. I did make a version with a traditional flax egg using 1 tbsp ground flax and 3 tbsp water, but the cookies spread out too much and were quite thin. So by reducing the flax egg to 2 tbsp water, it produced a much thicker cookie. As you can see, small changes in the consistency of the batter will produce greatly different outcomes so keep this in mind when experimenting!
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats, blended into oat flour
- 1/2 cup almond meal or almond flour
- 1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup Sucanat or coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 3 tablespoons mini dark chocolate chips (or finely chopped chocolate)
- 2 tablespoons raw cacao nibs
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Wet Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flax + 2 tablespoons water, mixed together
- 1/4 cup "drippy" raw almond butter (or other all-natural nut butter)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
- 1 tsp vanilla
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the ground flax and water in a small mug and set aside so it can gel up.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
- In another medium sized bowl, stir together the wet ingredients, including the flax egg until thoroughly combined.
- Add the wet mixture on top of the dry mixture and stir well until combined. This will take quite a bit of stirring until all of the dry patches of flour are gone.
- Portion small balls of dough (just smaller than golf balls) onto the baking sheet, spacing them a couple inches apart. I ended up baking two trays of cookies because I didn't know how much they were going to spread out.
- Bake cookies for 13-15 minutes (I baked for a full 15 minutes), until light golden brown on the bottom. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack until completely cool. The cookies will break apart easily until cooled, so be careful.
- Wrap up and store leftovers on the counter or in the freezer, if desired.
Tip:
Notes: 1) For a completely gluten-free cookie, be sure to use certified gluten-free rolled oats and to check all other ingredient labels. 2) To make oat flour: Add 1 cup of rolled oats into a high speed blender and process on high until a flour forms. 3) To make almond meal, add a scant 1/2 cup of almonds into a high speed blender and blend on high until a fine meal forms. Break up clumps with your fingers and measure as normal. 4) The raw almond butter I used was very drippy, so be sure to use a drippy, all-natural nut butter if possible.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Soooooo, I’m basically looking for another excuse to make these cookies again real soon and I’m wondering if there is a demand for a totally nut-free version of this cookie? If so, let me know in the comments and I will try to come up with a nut-free version. It would be great to have the kiddos bring these to school. I think some schools are peanut-free while others are totally nut-free these days. What about sesame? Is that a no-no too? Fill me in, I’m outta the loop.
Also, you may have noticed that we have a new snazzy looking recipe display up there. That’s thanks to Eric’s handy programming work. If you notice any problems or encounter any issues with the print or email function, please let us know. We’re also hoping to get a recipe rating feature at some point too.
I made these and I must say, Angela, you hit it out of the park. Gluten free oats and all manner of healthy stuff. I doubled the chia seeds bcs. i didn’t have the other seeds, no problem. Also i might have upped the pb a little… :-)
As i’ve said before, who needs a bunch of old cookbooks calling for animal products and white flour. So passe~ We have Oh She Glows! And I do believe I am glowing…
I’ve just made these and they’re still in the oven so haven’t tried them yet, but the dough is delectable! 12 minutes to go… COME ON!!!
I made these just as is and they are perfect! I love that they’re decadent and healthy at the same time. Thanks for sharing!
Is there anything to substitute for a liquid sweetener that would give moistness! I can’t use syrups, honey, agave etc. and I can sweeten naturally but need the moistness.
Thanks
OH MY GOSH!!!!! found your site by accident, so glad I did! I am always looking for goody recipes that are good for you without all the sugar. The ways to use up seasonal foods are amazing too! My Husband has an autoimmune disorder so we have to be as fresh as possible, you have made my job a lot easier . you are on my favorites list, WHOO HOOO!!!!
Welcome Janet! So glad you found the blog :) enjoy
hi there…these look so yummy. Just wondering…..I have oat flour could i use that instead of grinding my own? and how much would i use? thank you in advance. PS your site is my absolute favourite. :)
Hey Tammy, Usually pre-made oat flour equals the same amount of rolled oats ground into a flour. Dont you love when that happens? I just measured it the other week actually! so, 1 cup rolled oats should equal out to be 1 cup oat flour. hope this helps!
Omg. Go make these now. Delicious. Nutrient-dense and super yummy.
Hi Angela! Long time reader, first time poster – I made these cookies today, they are incredible! Crispy and not too sweet. I just ate four by noon today…could be trouble…
Thanks for all the great recipes, you are amazing!
Hey Nat, hah yea that sounds like me around the cookies too! So happy you enjoy them so much :) They are a fav around here. Thanks for reading!
These are the most delicious cookies! Next time I’ll have to make double!
Yeah, I’ll also vote for a nut-free version. Sunbutter is pretty drippy, IMO, so I’d be tempted to try it with that.
My other question is, if you leave out the oats, could these work as no-bake cookies, maybe with melted chocolate swirled in or with dried fruit instead? Or would other adjustments need to be made? And if you already posted such a recipe, I’m sorry, I haven’t been to this site in a while…
Absolutely delicious!! They did not last one day in the house!! So irresistible!! Thank you for the recipe!! :)
These are now my familiy’s official favorite cookies! The 2 runners up are also from your website (the raspberry jam thumbprints and the happy trails cookies). I follow the recipe except leave out the cacao nibs as my kids don’t like those. I guess they are an acquired taste.
Happy to hear you’re working on a cookbook. Let us know when we can pre-order :)
All i can say is yum. I finally was able to try this recipe and can say the batch didnt last long . . oops haha! So so delicious, love the nutty texture, subtly sweetened and the perfect way to solve a sweet craving. xx
Just made a batch of these day, per yr recipe……crikey they’re good ;-)
I just made these and they are soooo good! Irresistible indeed. Thanks so much for the recipe! These will make the perfect emergency snack for when I’m traveling.
Hi I made these delicious cookies.
Im not a great baker and I found when I made the cookies according to the recipe they would not bin and were very crumbly. I could not think what to do so I added an egg and they were perfect.
Could anyone please advise what I could do. I think the issue was that my nut butter was not drippy enough but that was all I had and I am unsure how to make nut butter drippier. Any advice would be welcome. Do you think adding more flax/water would help or could I add some water/vegetable oil to the nut butter?
These are delicious though and I want to make them again.
I just made these and they are delicious!!!! Thank you!!!
Have been making mine with oat flour & spelt flour.
The Best!!
Made these and they are wonderful. Chewy, rich, just enough sweetness and satisfying. I didn’t have sesame or chai seeds but I didn’t miss them because these cookies are packed with so many yummy ingreds. I will make these again and again!!
I used natural peanut butter for my drippy butter and it worked perfectly. I found the batter needed to bind more when I had all the ingreds mixed so I added water by the tablespoon until I could form balls. That worked great. I also found I had to push the balls down a little because they didn’t really flatten in the baking process. I love chocolate and pb so my cookies had that flavor and were soooo good!!