Crunchy, Salty & Sweet Trail Mix

While I can’t eat this one at home due to Alistaire’s allergies, it has been one of my favorite hiking trail mixes to take along with me. On those rare occasions when I get out kidless!

Crunchy, Salty & Sweet Trail Mix? Oh yeah. This is the good stuff. The stuff you hide and deny you have with you.

There is so much more to life than buying a 5 pound bag of pre-made trail mix at Costco that isn’t at its freshest and frankly, taste is lacking. The textural of this mix is chewy, crunchy, poppy….

Buy the best ingredients you can. I used non-sulfite cranberries and cherries, snappy oven-roasted almonds and organic chocolate chips. When buying the pretzels look for thin rods and read the ingredients. Some brands add in sugar or corn syrup, pass up on those! You want the savory flavor, not sweet in them. The granola was full of raisins and slivered almonds, for even more texture.

Crunchy, Salty & Sweet Trail Mix

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granola
• 1 cup salted pretzel sticks
• 1 cup semisweet or dark chocolate chips
• 1½ cups Dried Cranberries
• 1 cup cocoa covered almonds
• 1 cup Dried Cherries

Directions:

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Break the pretzel sticks up coarsely, place in a cereal bowl. Add the granola to a second cereal bowl.
Place 2/3 cup of the chocolate chips in a small heat safe mixing bowl. Melt in the microwave on High for 30 seconds, stir, continue on 20 second intervals, stirring after each one, until the chips are melted and smooth. Mix in remaining chips, stir until melted and smooth.
Drizzle half of the melted chocolate over the pretzels, the other half over the granola. Stir each bowl until thoroughly coated. Spread each on the parchment paper, separating into small chunks. Place in the refrigerator until set, about an hour.
Break into small pieces, add to a large mixing bowl with the cranberries, almonds and cherries, toss to mix.
Store in an airtight container, take with you in snack bags.

Makes about 5½ cups.