Simple Rainbow Cookies Ideal to Cook with Kids
We recently bought a packet of Rainbow cookies from the store. The kids love them, and they have become one of their favourite after-school treats. But I’ve tried them and thought they weren’t that nice as cookies go so I decided to change up a chocolate chip cookie recipe I have from a friend, and make our own rainbow cookies. Let me tell you: they taste delicious. The added bonus is that the dough can be put in the fridge, covered, in an airtight container, and as long as it’s used within 7 days you can have rainbow cookies fresh from the oven whenever you want them.

Ingredients for Rainbow Cookies
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4oz Soft Margarine
4oz Granulated Sugar
4oz Light Brown Sugar
1 Large egg
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence or Extract
7oz Self Raising Flour
5 oz Sugar Coated Candy (M&M’s, Smarties or other type)
2oz Milk Chocolate Chips
2oz Raisins
This will make approximately 30 cookies from a teaspoon measure of dough.
Making Rainbow Cookies
Preheat an oven to 180C before you start.
I love cooking with my kids so much that I’m devoting this whole year to a series of posts working through cooking with kids from a to z. One of the things that I’m not very good at cooking though is cookies, so I always use a simple recipe that I can remember off the top of my head. This one is a firm favourite. We’ve used it many times with chocolate chips, and we’ve,used hazelnuts and raisins at times instead.
We got all of the ingredients out and set the scales out. I love our digital scales; especially with T who is starting to read numbers as she can recognise the numbers on the scales easily and read them off for me. So we first measured out the margarine and the sugars and added them to a bowl.
As I cook, I always explain the terms that they will find a recipe book so we “creamed” the margarine and sugar, mixing it together to a fluffy consistency.
Then we added the egg and the vanilla essence. With our vanilla we maybe a little more than the teaspoon but I’ve found that this recipe is very forgiving, which is ideal when you’re cooking with kids. Mix this all together.
We added the flour and mixed it all up. The kids measured out the sugar-coated candy.
Then they had so much fun crushing up the sugar coated candies. I stuck them in a ziplock bag and they took our wooden rolling pin, and hit them, crushing them into small bits.
Once they were in smaller chunks we added them to the dough along with the raisins and chocolate chips.
With them all mixed in, J spooned them out onto 2 baking trays. We used a teaspoon to make normal sized cookies but if you want lovely, large cookies, you can use a tablespoon.
Each large baking tray, I lined with baking paper, and then we put 9 scoops of the cookie dough onto the sheet leaving lots of space between them.
The rest of the dough, I spooned into an air tight container and placed in the fridge. It will last 7 days, so when we run out of cookies – which by the speed that they have gone down today will be much less than a week – I’ll be able to put them some new ones into the oven again very quickly and make up a new batch as an after school treat.
Put the baking trays in the centre of the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Adjust as you would any recipe for your oven. They will turn a lovely golden brown when cooked.
Remove from the oven, and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
Once they are cooled a little, move them onto a cooling rack, and then place in an air-tight container to store. I have no idea how long these will last as our batch was gone within a couple of days (at the most!).
When you are using the cookie dough from in the fridge, take it out around 15 minutes before you want to use it and let it warm up slightly, and then spoon out and cook as above.

Rainbow Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 oz Soft Margarine
- 4 oz Granulated Sugar
- 4 oz Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Large egg
- 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Escense
- 7 oz Self Raising Flour
- 5 oz Sugar Coated Candy M&M’s, Smarties or other type
- 2 oz Milk Chocolate Chips
- 2 oz Raisins
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 180C.
- Measured out the margarine and the sugars and added them to a bowl.
- Cream together the margarine and sugar.
- Add the egg and the vanilla essence.
- Mix this all together.
- Add the flour and mix together.
- Crush up the sugar-coated candy in a ziplock bag.
- Add the crushed up candy, raisins and chocolate chips to the mixture and mix.
- Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper or silicone baking mats.
- Using a teaspoon scoop out the cookie and dough and leave lots of space between each scoop of dough on the baking tray as they will spread.
- Place the tray in the centre of the preheated oven and cook for 12 – 15 minutes until Golden Brown.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes then place on a cooling rack.
Notes
Shop this Recipe
If you follow our recipes to cook with kids we tend to use most of the same equipment that I use when I cook for the family. However there are a few little things that I find especially useful for cooking with kids. These are our three essentials for this recipe.
We love these digital scales they are cheap and easy to use perfect for cooking with kids. I actually have 3 different scales we use for cooking one that is an old style balance scale, another traditional dial scales and then the digital scales. It’s part of the mathematician in me because children need to know these different skills – balancing – this is the first step in learning about weights that this substance weighs the same as that or is less than or more than. The traditional dial scale to help with the reading of measures on a circular scale – leads to clocks, and angles and then the digital which is number recognition.
I love things that are multipurpose and our pink non-stick silicone baking mat is just that. We use it for pastry, for stopping the mixing bowls from moving around when the kids use them, for rolling out cookie dough. Being non-stick and heat resistant it means that if the baking tray is accidentally placed on it when it comes out of the oven then the mat isn’t damaged at all. We went for silicone over plastic because as a family we are trying to reduce the amount of plastic that we use in the house.
I started out with a plastic cup and spoon set but over time the plastic has deteriorated and more recently I have replaced them with this metal and silicone measure cup and spoon set. I love that the handles have different colours making it easy for kids to learn which is the correct spoon to use e.g. the green tablespoon or blue teaspoon. Being metal and silicone it also means that they are much more eco-friendly and will also LAST.
More Cookie Recipes to Bake with Kids
Kid Friendly Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
Egg Free Rainbow Fish Sugar Cookies
More Rainbow Activity Ideas
Check out these other fabulous ideas for Rainbow Crafts, Learning and Fun from us at Rainy Day Mum and
Craftulate – Sparkly Rainbow Slime
Where Imagination Grows Stained Glass Craft
JDaniel4’s Mom –Rainbow File Folder Game
Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails – Rainbow Cereal Craft
Sugar Aunts- Learning Rainbow Order Stacking Cups
Pin these Rainbow Cookies to Bake Later with your Kids

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If you portion out the remaining dough on to a cookie sheet lined with wax paper, you can freeze it. After a couple hours in the freezer you can move the now frozen cookie dough balls in to a box or bag and store in the freezer. It will be good for a month- if they last that long!
Those look yummy! What a great idea to crush the candy them!
YUM! My son would love to bash the candy! 🙂
These cookies look delicious, I think that J &T’s favourite bit would be crushing the cookies and of course eating them.