Carb-Forward Trail Mix
Pretzels and animal crackers carry the load. The chocolate chips are a bonus, not the base.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- No cook
- Day hike
- Backpacking
- Bikepacking
- Thru-hike
- Car camping
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Dried apple slices | 1 oz | home-dried, broken into bite-size pieces |
|---|---|---|
| Dried banana slices | 1 oz | dried, not the oil-fried banana chips |
| Raisins | 1 oz | |
| Chocolate chips | 1 oz | |
| Pretzels | 4 oz | sticks or minis, whatever survives the pack |
| Animal crackers | 2 oz |
Method
- Slice the apples and bananas thin and dry them until they snap rather than bend. A dehydrator at 135F takes most of a day.
- Let the fruit cool completely. Warm fruit sweats and the whole batch goes sticky.
- Combine everything in a large bag and shake. Total dry weight is about 10 oz, or 1035 calories.
- Split into two roughly 5 oz bags. Eat a handful every half hour instead of one big sit-down.
Most bagged trail mix is nuts and oil in a wrapper, and it runs close to 150 calories an ounce with over half of that from fat. Fat is dense, but it digests slowly, which is the wrong shape for energy you need in the next twenty minutes. This mix flips the ratio: roughly 77 percent of the calories come from carbohydrate, 18 percent from fat, 6 percent from protein.
Pretzels do the salt work that peanuts usually do, which also makes this safe for a nut-free group. Drying your own apples and bananas costs a day of dehydrator time and cuts out the sugar coating and preservatives on the store-bought stuff. Ten ounces is about a thousand calories, which covers roughly eight to ten miles of walking for most people. Eat it in small handfuls, continuously, with water.
Packing
Portion at home into snack bags by the day. Pretzels crush, so pack the bag upright against a pack wall rather than under a bear canister.
Variations
- Swap the chips for butterscotch or white chocolate if plain chocolate melts in your pack.
- Dried cranberries, pineapple, or blueberries in place of the raisins.
- Goldfish crackers or whole-grain cereal for more salt and crunch.
- Add sunflower seeds for protein without going near peanuts.
https://www.hikingdude.com/trail-mix-recipe.php