Trail Mix Cookies for Hiking or Snacking

Hiking is one of my primary hobbies, and good snacks are very important when considering long walks or hikes. These trail mix cookies have long been a staple snack for us, especially because they’re surprisingly sturdy and good to carry in a backpack. We used to camp a lot when we lived in Manitoba and I always made a batch of these cookies for camping trips.

The ingredient list looks long for this recipe, but that’s because you really are adding trail mix to the cookies, with a mix of seeds or nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate. A mix of buckwheat and oat flour, combined with nut butter and coconut oil, makes the cookies sturdy. I chose coconut sugar to sweeten the cookies, which adds a pleasant caramel flavour but other sugar types can be used (see below).

These vegan and gluten-free buckwheat cookies are adapted from a couple of other recipes I’ve shared – these date sweetened oatmeal breakfast cookies and hazelnut oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I wanted them to be a bit like chocolate chip cookies but something you could take on a hiking trip too.

I first published this recipe in 2018. It has since been updated with step-by-step photos, additional helpful information, and some slight updates to the recipe to make it easier to follow.

I don’t use affiliate links. Any links you see here are to other recipes or related information, not paid links.

Why You Should Try These Cookies

These are true trail mix cookies, with lots of energy-boosting ingredients like whole grain flours and plenty of seeds. If you love to walk or hike, or often need a nutritious midday snack, these are just right for you.

• No beating needed: the ingredients are first whisked and then you switch to a spatula or spoon, but there’s no need to bring out the electric mixer.
• It’s ultra flexible: these are like build-your-own cookies, with the add-ins changing to whatever you like most. Use different fruit, seeds, and chocolate if you want to.
• It makes a big batch: the recipe makes two dozen cookies so you can freeze plenty for later. (Use the slider in the recipe card to reduce it if preferred.)

Ingredients You’ll Need and Why

I’ve been making these cookies for a long time and have made notes and tweaks for years – these are my notes from recipe testing, and you can find the full recipe card below.

• Flour: I don’t recommend changing the flours used. There can be some variation in how much liquid is absorbed between types of oat flour and buckwheat flour, so if you feel that the dough seems dry, go ahead and add an extra splash of milk. This might be the case if your nut butter is on the dry side as well. I haven’t tried these cookies with 100% either oat or buckwheat flour, just the mix.
• Seeds: you can use any seeds or nuts you like instead, barring extra chia or flax. As long as it’s not a seed that sucks up a pile of moisture you’re good. If you have grain free granola kicking around you could toss a cup of that in instead of the seeds too.
• Nut or seed butter: any type can be used, as long as it’s fairly soft or runny and not dry. Try the mixed nut/seed butter from my cookbook, sunflower seed butter, peanut, almond, or hazelnut butter.
• Coconut sugar: not just for flavour and sweetness, sugar also adds moisture to baking. Coconut sugar contains less moisture than most other granulated sugar types, but you can substitute cane sugar or other dark sugars like muscovado. These substitutions will make the cookies a little softer.
• Maple syrup: this adds more moisture than coconut sugar and shouldn’t be omitted. If you really feel you need to reduce sweetness, you’ll have to adjust the amount of added milk to account for the lost moisture if you choose to leave the maple syrup out.
• Milk: you might have to adjust the amount depending on the flours used as the amount of liquid they’ll absorb will vary. Look at your dough: it should looks exactly like the dough in photo for step 4 below. If it looks dry, add milk bit by bit until it’s the same consistency as in the picture.
• Add-ins: other dried fruit can be used in place of cranberries, and of course you don’t have to add chocolate (but they are so much better with chocolate).

Expert Tips for the Best Cookies

• Don’t preheat: not preheating the oven first isn’t a typo – the dough needs to sit for a few minutes to allow the chia to absorb some of the moisture and make it easier to handle. Once it’s rested slightly, you should be able to roll the dough into balls. If you have a cookie scoop that can be used instead.
• Don’t forget to flatten: these cookies won’t spread much in the oven, so they should be flattened slightly before baking to ensure an even bake.
• Make your own flour: If you don’t have the flours on hand, but you have buckwheat groats and rolled oats, you can make your own flour in a high-speed food processor. Just blend until a very fine flour forms (it’s best to measure with weights). You can make buckwheat flour in most home mills, but they don’t generally work for oat flour.
• Use actual trail mix: if you have a favourite trail mix on hand, use that to replace the mixed seeds or nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate in an equal amount. That’s about 300 grams or 1 ¾ cups.

More Gluten Free Cookie Recipes

Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Double Chocolate Chickpea Flour Cookies
Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies
Ultimate Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

If you make these Trail Mix Cookies or any other cookie recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.