Stress & mess aside, I really do love baking with The Boys. John in particular loves nothing more than putting on his apron & chef’s hat and getting his hands floury. It doesn’t actually matter what you tell him we’re making, he will always tell people he’s been, “making biscuits!” But as far as recipes for baking with kids go, I’m always a fan of something, quick, easy & with flavours that meet their approval and these Rainbow Cookies come out tops. What child doesn’t love biscuits, especially those packed with colour? We don’t need to pretend that these are in anyway healthy (although I maybe should consider doing some sort of healthy kids recipes in future…) but they are definitely a winner as far as John & David are concerned. I even caught them helping themselves to seconds when my back was turned!
The base recipe for these rainbow cookies is one that Granny & I have treasured for years. It came from one of my magazines as a kid (Animals & You, for any 90’s kids out there!) and was part of an article for bake sales to raise money for an animal charity. In fact, I still have the page of the magazine in all it’s dog-eared, butter-stained & faded glory! Part of the reason for sharing it here is also so I can document it somewhere more permanent, as despite managing to keep it for close to 20 years I know a time will come when someone will pick it up, think it’s rubbish and chuck it in the bin!
One of the great things about this recipe is that you can mix it up with any kind of chocolate. A personal favourite of mine is to use left over Easter egg chocolate, which for whatever reason always tastes nicer than chocolate you buy at any other time of year. Otherwise you can use white, dark, dried fruit… On this occasion though we opted for Chocolate M&Ms
, just to give ourselves a colourful treat to brighten up a rather stormy week! Sweet, chewy and an array of colours – these rainbow cookies will certainly bright up your day. 
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Rainbow Cookies
PRINT RECIPEIngredients
- 75 g Butter (at room temperature)
- 125 g Caster Sugar
- 1 tbsp Golden Syrup
- 125 g Self Raising Flour
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 100 g M&Ms or Smarties
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°c and lightly grease a baking sheet with a little butter.
- Cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Warm the golden syrup a little (until it's runny), then add to the butter mixture.
- Add your M&Ms/Smarties, then sift in the flour & bicarbonate of soda. Mix until combined.
- Spoon out a heaped teaspoon amount and roll into a small ball before placing onto your pre-greased baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the mixture - you should get around 8-10 cookies.
- Bake for around 10 minutes or until golden brown. Once cool enough to handle, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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13 Responses
Yumm I totally love rainbow cookies, always the ones I get from subway! These look delish, I really need to get baking!
They look perfect! Thanks for linking x
I have made some and they went within a day. So good and delicious
Can’t wait to try this recipe they look lush! I’ve never been successful with baking cookies – always baked cakes, flapjacks or melting moments with my mum as a kid always on a Sunday! My son LOVES to bake so can’t wait to give this a go. Already made your tiffin which was absolutely yummy and shared with others who loved it too!
Been searching for years for a cookie recipe that’s the perfect amount of crispy outer and chewy inner, and these hit the mark dead on :)
I’ve made these about 5 times in 2 weeks and each time I made them the plate has cleared.. I also use rolo chocolates chopped in half for chewy but soft rolo cookies and I also only use 120g caster sugar for the rolo ones. Perfect thank you.
Just made these with my two daughters – they loved making them and they were absolutely delicious!
Thank you
Sundeep (dad)
I love the look of these they look DELISH! Yum…yum
I just made these exactly according to the recipe and they are awful. They just taste like bicarb soda! and the texture is flat yet gritty and sandy. Yuck!
How much bicarb did you add, the first time I made these I thought it was a tablespoon not a teaspoon
Been making these for the past year now, the whole family loves them, I’m 15 and these are super easy to bake and impress :)
I made these yesterday with the children I look after and they were delicious! Recipe was very easy and the kids loved making them. I will use this time and time again. Thanks
Brings back childhood memories :)
These rainbow cookies are perfect. The texture is great, nice and crumbly but still firm and they aren’t too sweet. I used mini smarties instead of m&m’s because they have more colours and taste better.
Thanks for the recipe.