Super Smartie Cookies

Gosh, I absolutely love smarties. The combination of brightly coloured exterior and sweet chocolate interior is just confectionery perfection in my mind. The smarties on the above plate are not real smarties though, they are the sort that you scoop up from the supermarket pick'n'mix and pour into  a paper bag to be weighed. You get considerably more sweets for your money this way. Plus, it's possible to do a little bit of careful scooping in order to eliminate any brown ones from your colour mix. I know. I am that crazy oddball stood in the sweetie aisle taking a weirdly long time to scoop and colour-sort the sweets.

So I actually didn't buy these for myself, although I have sampled a few. I bought them yesterday when I was planning today :: a whole day looking after not only my Little People, but my neighbour's two girls as well, with heavy rain forecast. I hatched a cookie-making plan to combat the weather. And not just any old cookies, but Super Smartie Cookies no less, designed to keep the Littlies both entertained on a grey wet day and fed all in one swoop.

This morning I made up a simple shortbread recipe, as follows ::

Into a bowl put 30g caster sugar, 60g soft butter, 90g plain flour.

Rub the mixture together with your fingertips, as if you are making a crumble topping. It starts out crumbly but gradually the whole lot should come together to form a soft, smooth cookie dough.

Now if you only have one or two Little Peeps in residence you could happily let them have a go at making the dough themselves, it's a weeny bit messy but not that bad. However, to simplify things here today I decided to get it all ready in advance, weighing the dough and dividing it into five equal portions ready for my five eager bakers.

After lunch, I announced it was Cookie Making time, which caused shrieks of excitement and a mad rush to the kitchen. No no no, not in the kitchen, sit down at the table and I'll bring everything to you! Preparation is key with small children. Give each child their ball of cookie dough on a small square of baking parchment, and instruct them to use their hands and get busy walloping. Bang BANG! Wallop that cookie into shape!! They absolutely loved it, laughing hysterically whilst bashing with the palms of their hands to get that ball of dough flattened in double quick time. The cookie wants to be about 5mm thick I'd say, but the exact thickness isn't critcal.

Give each child their own pot of smarties to avoid fisty-cuffs. Equal amounts and equal colours in each pot.....

....and watch them do their thing. It's a delight, truly, I love to watch this kind of concentrated creativity.

When the cookies have been suitably smartied, all you need to do is pop the sheets of baking parchment onto a baking tray and slide the whole lot straight into the oven :: 180 degrees, for 20 minutes. The cookies should be just turning a very light golden brown around the edges.

Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!! The smarties stay perfectly smartie-ish, embedded in the shortbread and keeping their colour beautifully.

By the way, the green "T" is Little Man's, he refused to go down the multicoloured route, tut tut, the little rebel.

The cookies do have to cool a bit before you can let the Little Peeps loose on them, the chocolate inside the smarties is very hot when it first comes out of the oven.

These were a great success, both the making of them and the subsequent devouring of them. The shortbread was really yummy (I was allowed to taste a weeny crumb), and the size of these cookies means that Little People feel like they've been given a pretty massive, super-sweet treat. Which of course they have, the lucky things.

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Cheese Scones

Artisan Bread

Granny Bunting for Yarndale

Funky Lamp Yarnbomb :: Ta-dah!

Comments

[denise rounds]

positively perfect idea! I shall prepare these with my grandkids when next we are together. LOVE the simplicity of it and I thank you for sharing - you always color the world with rainbows!

[lynette wykes]

Hi, I am sure your pick n mix are great for cooking but you can't beat genuine Smarties for eating. When I am shopping in Tesco Yeovil and I am starving I just can't resist a tube of Smarties and although I am 67 I actually put the tube to my mouth to throw them in like pills. I don't think the new tubes are as inviting as the old round ones. Love your blog. Regards Lynette.

[kayleigh]

Lovely :D Smarties cookies are a favourite here :)

[Debbie]

Those Smarties are just SO your colours! The photo looks like all of your crochet condensed into a bowl of sweeties!

(Great idea to pre-prep everything when there are so many littluns! They all looked amazing, I think I'll try some for my 'children' of 22 and 24!)

[Lizy Tish]

Ha! Here in America, smarties are a sweet/sour candy and I couldn't imagine how they would taste in a cookie! Will be trying this with my niece and nephew on the next rainy day. (with m&m's!)

[Cathy Brown]

Whichever Little Peep popped a smartie onto every available cookie space is a Peep truly after my won heart ;)

Cathy xx
http://whiskshooksandbooks.blogspot.co.uk/

[Jay]

They look so huge and yummy, baking is great for little ones when it's a wet, dull day outside.

[Thea Whalley]

Preparation is DEFINATELY the key here!

[JillD]

Oooo yummmmmm! I know another 3 Little Peeps who would LOVE these! Thanks for the idea :)

[Pamela Dungar]

Yummy, Have a coffee on me for the next batch, many thanks for the bower bird pdf.

[Darrah]

Before I moved to Canada, my husband asked me "Do you prefer smarties or M&M's?" Which I thought was a pretty silly question, because in the states Smarties are a totally different kind of candy- a sort of chalky and fruity tasting candy(Rockets are what they are called in Canada). He might as well have asked me if I prefered chcolate to yard clippings LOL. These look tasty, and I think we'll be doing some form of these soon!

[sharon]

Our smarties faded too, did anyone have any success keeping the colours. Lucy's photos are always so fabulously colourful I love her blog.

[Kim W]

Lucy,
What a good idea for a rainy day! I miss Smarties,but M & M's will have to do because I am in the US and Smarties on cookies here would just be all kinds of wrong!
Kim

[Vicky]

Hi Lucy
Thanks so much for this recipe! My little friends so enjoyed doing this yesterday :-) just love your blog with all the beautiful scenery and crafting! I'm a knitter but am determined to teach myself to crochet! Keep up the good work.
Vicky (NZ)

[Janis]

Argh. I need to make chocolate and butterscotch dipped shortbread sticks this weekend now, I'll have you know. I'm sure my coworkers will appreciate the effect this post has had on me. :-)

[Michelle]

One word - Mmmmmmmmmmm x

[Nicole]

They look yummy :-) Glad you managed to source 'fake' smarties because Nestle are bad! x

[Susan Conklin]

Brilliant! My babies have babies and live far away but I'm filing this idea for future use.

I just looked at the mandalas on Pinterest. 1,000 of them, 1,000 contributors, 1,000 photographs. Seriously awesome.

[Anna-Marie Field]

WOW!!! Full marks on that one Lucy!!! Wonderful!!!
Have a colorful and happy weekend!!!
Love
AMarie xxx

[Justine]

Love little man's T :)

[Mrs. Smythe]

Great idea! And I appreciated the tips about working with little kids. Helpful!

[ann clements]

wish I had little ones, my babys are all grown up, but will still have a go at making these,

[Pamela Dungar]

I have tried to "buy you a coffee" a few times but the button does nothing except bring up a "waiting for pay pal" box that then goes. Is it me or has it been disabled. I use so many of your ideas that i would like to make a contribution. Pam

[Pamela Dungar]

I just love smarties but really really want the orange ones, they used to sell tubes of orange at one time. I do not like the look-a-likes, well apart from m&m,s. I will take a kit to make these nxt time I visit the grands.

[Shelley (w.cork)]

Tried ur oat cookies yesterday. They were gone in like 30 secs with 4 peeps!!!! Great success!!! Must try these and preparation is key with kids,great idea to have it all made in advance. We made 2 batches of cookie dough yesterday, first one ended up on the ground with a shattered bowl!!! So I like this idea of 'here's one I made earlier!!!'