The Covered Dish - Mark Twain Trail Cookies

It’s a Sunday afternoon, and I once again find myself picking chickens. That is taking roasted hens and pulling the meat from the bones and then making homemade stock! I think the stock is sometimes my favorite part! Tonight I’m making salads for dinner with chicken added to the vegetables.
Then; my palate has been watering for a good trail cookie. I’ve named them Mark Twain Trail Cookies, because I live in the Mark Twain Forest, here in the Ozark Mountains. You can call them by your own name, just remember to change the recipe out with at least 2 changes, and re-write the directions in your words. I haven’t shared that tip in a very long time!
There have been times when I just go ‘poof’ and write a recipe as I’m making something. This time, however; I put 3-5 days into my thought process, trying to render a trail cookie that met my personal specifications.. What was I looking for? First, I didn’t want a rock hard cookie, thus the reason for using part shortening and part butter in the mixture. The shortening helped with the body and the butter brings in the marvelous flavor. My shortening was also butter flavored, but I think you would be fine without butter flavored.
I have both baking soda and baking powder in the recipe. The powder is going to help with a little lift to the cookie. I did dissolve the baking soda in warm water, that’s just to give it a better disbursement within the dough.
My additional product was dried cherries, dark chocolate chips, walnuts and date pieces. Can you believe I was blessed with a gift this weed of walnuts, almonds and date pieces??!! Indeed, what a gift, so tomorrow my husband, Ervin, gets to go deliver a few of these yummies to the kind friend who shared them with us.
I wondered when I baked them if I would be happy with a 2 tablespoon scoop versus a big 3 tablespoon scoop. The 2 tablespoon won, after dropping the scoop on the sheet I gently pressed each cookie down just a bit. This ended up rendering a beautiful size with the perfect thickness.
Sugar content, if you desired, a bit of honey could be brought in to help with the bind, but if you let these cookies sit to cool, and don’t try to eat them hot they stay bound quite nicely. I used dark brown sugar and no white sugar at all because I wanted more of the molasses flavor. Some people will take a cookie like this and shake on a bit of salt over the top, just as they wrap up the baking, or they will string a bit of melted caramel over the top. I’m great without these additions.
I eat a great deal of breakfast bars of a morning because I don’t like to eat when I first get out of bed. This week I popped into a favorite local bakery and had one of their trail cookies. What I noticed was the fact that I didn’t get hungry as fast as usual, in fact I made it til 3pm for lunch. It wasn’t planned for such a late lunch, it just happened, do to all the errand running. So the point
I am making is use these for your breakfast to go bars. You might even consider the 3 tablespoon scoop in a muffin tin for a bigger on the go serving.
White chips might be nice with the dried cherries too. Coconut is another addition, but I would omit it if kids are eating the cookies. I broke up the English Walnut in a Ziploc bag with a soft pounding tool. Why? I wanted the walnuts to stick out, not ground down like you would for a cake or muffin. I started with halves, not pieces, etc. All kinds of nutmeats would work, you might even use a peanut!
Let’s chat flour real quickly. If you wanted to take out the small amount of all purpose flour for perhaps almond flour, it’s quite doable. Blue Diamond Almond Flour has a good chart on line to help you with the switch out. One thing you may need to pay heed to is the bind using almond flour, you may need to add a bit of honey or other binding agents.
Oatmeal comparisons: If you go with original long cooking oats you can use the same amount as I did with the quick cooking oats. You will notice they bake crispier than the quick cook which render a softer cookie.
OK tip time is wrapping up, and I have another dozen of cookies to pull from the oven. I cannot believe we are looking at returning to school, summer has just flown. Have an outstanding week my friends. Simply Yours. Debbie MOMS: Bake these and put them in the freezer for after school snacks or the lunchbox! It’s time to get creative again for lunches.

Mark Twain Trail Cookies
350 degree oven, 12 minutes per dozen
Yield: 3-4 dozen if doubled
4 tablespoons softened salted butter
1⁄4 cup butter flavored shortening
1⁄4 cup smooth peanut butter
3⁄4 cup dark brown sugar
1 whisked egg
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in1 tablespoon warm water
1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 cup all purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons additional flour
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1⁄2 cups quick cooking oats
6-7 ounces dark chocolate chips
1⁄2 cup scant dried cherries, my cherries were pretty big
1⁄2 cup date pieces, also scant half cup
1⁄2 cup English Walnuts, broken, not small pieces
Basically the recipe comes together in the order it is written. Cream the butters and shortening until well blended before working in the dark brown sugar, followed by the egg. Add the baking soda, baking soda, flour, salt and vanilla next. Bring to a good blend. Lastly; add the quick cooking oats and the remaining 4 ingredients. I did not use a mixer for this recipe, so by the time I got to the last four ingredients I dawned my disposable gloves and worked the dough quite well before baking. Using a 2 tablespoon scoop drop a dozen cookies on a sheet. Using an oiled glass press the cookies down slightly before baking. My bake time was 12 minutes per dozen; but I baked mine on a jelly roll pan. If you use a traditional cookie sheet with no sides, you may find them cooking faster!
Be sure and read the notes within the column for the reasons behind each ingredient and the baking outcome.