My daughter has been making bags of trail mix lately. Not sure where the inspiration came from, but she often has a bag with her to snack on. I started thinking about the combination of flavors and if it could be made into a cookie. Well, yes it can! These vegan trail mix cookies are hearty, and have the amazing combination of peanut butter (instead of peanuts), chocolate chips, pretzels, and raisins. The raisins are optional, but I recommend keeping them in. A bag of trail mix is great, but I much prefer having a few of these cookies instead.
How to Make This Vegan Dessert Recipe
These cookies come together quickly. You start by creaming the peanut butter and the sugars in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. You then mix in the non-dairy milk and the vanilla extract. I use soy milk but any dairy free milk will work. Then add in the flour and baking soda and mix to combine. Then it's time for the trail mix ingredients.
Make sure you use thin pretzels to make the pieces. You just grab a handful of pretzels and "crush" them into pieces. Add in the pretzel pieces, chocolate chips and raisins and mix together with your (clean) hands. It's much easier to use your hands to mix together instead of a spoon. Once it's all mixed, roll into 1 ¼" balls and place on your prepared baking sheet. Don't try to flatten the balls with a fork like you would for traditional peanut butter cookies. If you do, the pretzels, chocolate chips, and raisins might fall out of the dough.
Bake for 12-13 minutes. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Then enjoy your hearty trail mix cookies!
Vegan Trail Mix Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 6 tablespoon non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup chocolate chips, non-dairy
- ½ cup pretzel pieces
- ⅓ cup raisins (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer or hand mixer, mix peanut butter, white and brown sugars until creamy.
- Add non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Add flour and baking soda and mix to combine.
- Mix in chocolate chips, pretzel pieces and raisins. Use your hands to work the dough and mix ins - it's much easier than using a spoon.
- Roll the dough into 1 ¼” balls and place on lined baking sheet. Do not try to flatten the dough balls as you would do with traditional peanut butter cookies. If you do, the toppings will end up falling out.
- Bake for 12-13 minutes.
- Let cookies rest for 2 min. on baking sheet before transferring to the wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Notes
- I use Trader Joe's chocolate chips which are dairy free.
- Use thin pretzels to make the pretzel pieces. Thick pretzels wont work.
Anne says
We really liked this recipe! My kids are trying to convince me that this is just as healthy as regular trail mix so I make it all the time. Thanks for the recipe!