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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(¸.•´(¸.•´ (¸.•¨¯`♥*x★x♥x★x♥x★x

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

Cheese Scones

Artisan Bread

Granny Bunting for Yarndale

Funky Lamp Yarnbomb :: Ta-dah!

Comments

[AngelJem]

Ooh! We love smartie cookies and we are all aged over 12!

[Karen]

What a nice colourful start to my Thursday :)

[Gillian]

Yummy cookies. Wish I could have one.

[Inge]

They look delicious !

[Katherine, NZ]

What a great idea! I did a similar thing once when I was parent help at Kindy. I pre-made the gingerbread dough then the kids rolled it out and cut used cookie cutters to make their own gingerbread men (we used currants as eyes, buttons etc - preschools aren't too keen on sweets here).

[TracyBzz]

I love Smarties, so much better than M & M's. Basically the same, hard candy coating with chocolate inside but Smarties are just better. In Canada we have Rockets which is what the Americans call Smarties, they are a tart chalky candy. Don't you have blue and brown Smarties? We do in Canada. Your cookies look great.

[Jill Gillespie]

Oh, they are so beautiful and colourful. The cookies almost remind me of some of your lovely crochet work :)

[Elizabeth de Sousa Pinto]

@ Anne from Germany: caster sugar meint einfach feinen Zucker, gibt's im Edeka, Rewe, Kaisers und so
Oder ansonsten kannst Du auch normalen Zucker nehmen, das Resultat ist einfach nicht so glatt.

Liebe Grüße aus Berlin,

Liza

[One Earlybird]

Great idea, made me wish I had little kids. Oh well another one for the memory bank for grandies.

[Tery]

I'm in the US and at first thought ,"Why would you put Smarties on a cookie?" Until I read further and discovered that Smarties are the UK's version of our M&M's! Our Smarties are little tart candies! It's funny how the same word can mean different things to different countries! I absolutely put M&M's on , in cookies, ice cream and anything else! Their awesome! :)

[CJ]

A lovely idea. That littlest boy is a rebel indeed. I'm the same as you when I'm scooping out the hamster food, avoiding the nasty brown things that he doesn't like. CJ xx

[Terri Shea]

I thought correctly; our equivalent is m&m's. Actually, check the seasonal candy aisle and you can get some color choices that way, although it's the luck of the bag! I'm going to have to put this on my list, and I'm going to share it with some friends. Thank you for this!

[Juliet]

Like Sally when I made smartie cookies the smarties faded and cracked. I'll try your recipe possibly it's a shorter bake or lower temp than the recipe I used before.

[Winwick Mum]

Brilliant! We'll have to give those a go over the next few weeks! xx

[Clare]

They look good, love the smiley face one
Clare x

[pedritxes]

I love it so easy and creative, congratulations

PEDRITXES from Barcelona .Spain

[Zoe/Pennyblossoms]

Oh wow! How cool, (or hot, if just out of the oven)!
No little peeps to try them out on, so I'll just have to do that myself, methinks.
Zxx

PS I've bought a crochet hook and loads of wool...will be on your blog...a lot!
So thanking you in advance!

[Sally A]

I made similar for my Hubby's 40th but the colour bleached out of the Smarties so they all looked beige. Most disappointing. I must try it again and see if the colour stays.

[Joy]

Ten out of Ten .... super Mum :-) xx

[Amanda Smith]

What a good idea Lucy! I have to try this!!!
I can get smarties here sometimes but there is also a Spanish version. Going to look around the supermarket tomorrow!

keep well

Amanda x
Mediterranean giveaway open to all!

[Angela-Southern USA]

How wonderful, for all! I love those kind of activities, and you are s-o right about being organized and everything equal, so less frustrating that way. I laughed out loud thinking of you at the store sorting candies, (Because I do the same!) :D They all look yummy, even the T one. lol

[diana]

Sweet idea! We have Smarties in Canada, too. ;-)

[Mouse]

Oh wow! Those look delicious!!

[Georgina]

I think we might have to make these tomorrow - if I can find some smarties! X

[Eleanor Thomson]

Yum! I'd make them with the Traidcraft chocolate meanies as were a Nestle free household.