Smarties Cookies are a fun and colourful sweet treat! Also known as Smarties Biscuits or Dotty Cookies, they only use 5 ingredients! Get your bake on with pops of colour with this easy recipe.
Recipes like my Cornflake Biscuits, Anzac Biscuits and Kit Kat Biscuits are all about the sweet crunchy treats we know and love.
My Pecan Pinwheels and Nutella Pinwheels show us how to make sweet puff pastry delights.
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Recipe Highlights
Everything you will come to know and love (love, love) about this smartie cookie recipe is summarised below:
- Simple, everyday ingredients.
- Only 5 ingredients needed.
- Easily increase ingredient amounts to increase quantity.
- Quick, simple recipe: baking the cookies takes less than 15 minutes in the oven. They can be done when you need treats ASAP!!
- Baking with smarties is fun and colourful! They add such a great creative vibe to recipes, yet are very simple to cook with.
- Kid Friendly: I have never met a kid that didn't like smarties! Have you? The kids can help with this one and they will love it.
- Eggless cookie recipe: we only need sugar, flour, butter and vanilla to bring the cookie dough together.
- No baking soda, no brown sugar, we keep the recipe very simple!
- No milk needed: which means the rest of the ingredients are long term and unlikely to perish so you can grab from the pantry, not the shop as needed.
Top Tip 1: This is a fuss free recipe that can be whipped up in a hurry. Keep it in mind for those times when someone 'drops in'!.
Ingredients
Everything you need to make these cookies is shown in the photo below. For exact measurements and instructions, scroll to the printable recipe card below.
As you can see, the recipe calls for:
- Butter: I recommend using regular unsalted butter. You will find it easiest to work with if you chop it into smaller pieces/cubes. This means that when you go to beat the butter, the beaters will work across the pieces as opposed to one big block of butter.
- Vanilla Essence: you can use the cheaper alternative known as vanilla extract if you want. For a basic recipe like this, there is minimal difference.
- Icing Sugar: Also known as confectioner's sugar, this a soft powdered form of sugar. It is popular to use to dust and decorate cakes and biscuits and brings a lovely sweet taste to the cookies.
- Plain Four: we don't need to use self raising flour or baking powder in this recipe. We keep it really very simple. You will get better results if you sift the flour (and the icing sugar).
- Smarties: these are the ingredient that bring all the colour and fun to the recipe! They are great to bake with and are a hugely popular candy/lolly.
Top Tip 2: I use a colander to sift the icing sugar and flour into the bowl as I go. You might find this an easier alternative to a hand held squeaky sifter!
Instructions
Here are the step by step instructions to make the recipe. You will need electric hand held beaters and a large mixing bowl to start.
- Add butter to mixing bowl and cream till soft (Photo 1)
- Add vanilla essence and stir to combine (Photo 2)
- Gradually add in sifted icing sugar, mixing to combine (Photo 3)
- Ensure icing sugar is mixed in with wet ingredients (Photo 4)
You will find the butter easy to beat if it is chopped into small pieces as opposed to one hunk of butter.
How to Make Smarties Cookies
You don't need a super fancy expensive mix master, electric hand held beaters will do just fine.
Top Tip 3: Sifting the icing sugar and flour gives better results and only takes minutes, so it is worth it!
- Add sifted flour to butter sugar mixture (Photo 5)
- Continue to mix so that it is consistently combined (Photo 6)
- Use clean hands or spatula to knead cookie dough (Photo 7)
- Portion cookie dough onto silicon baking mat (Photo 8)
You will find that once the flour is mixed in, you can set the beaters aside.
Then you will need either clean hands or a spatula, to stir the mix (knead) it, for a minute or so as this brings it all together.
Top Tip 4: A spatula run around the top and edges of the bowl helps to bring any loose sugar and flour back into the cookie dough mix.
- Place the individually portioned cookies onto tray (Photo 9)
- Use 2 fingers to push down slightly (Photo 10)
- Decorate the cookies with the smarties (Photo 11)
- Bake for 12 to 15 mins (Photo 12)
A mini cookie scoop is the best way to get uniform sized cookies. So use one if it is available to you.
Alternatively you can scoop the mixture into your palms using 2 teaspoons and then roll into small balls.
Pushing the mixture down slightly enables us to have a space to put the smarties. They can be gently pressed into the tops of the cookies.
Top Tip 5: As the biscuits will spread slightly as they cook it is best to not over crowd them. I recommend a maximum of 12 cookies per baking tray.
The biscuits will cook quickly in the oven. They will be ready in 12 to 15 mins and will have a lovely golden brown colour.
When ready use on oven mit to remove each tray and a silicon flat turner slide gently under each to transfer to a cooling tray.
Whilst cooked, the biscuits will be slightly soft when freshly baked, so be gentle when moving them to the cooling rack. Or allow them to cool for 5 minutes before doing this to ensure they don't break.
The biscuits will cool and firm up on the baking tray, so leave them for a little bit to harden.
They smell amazing and you will be drooling over them at this point!
Serving Suggestions
A cup of tea of a bikkie of course!
You can serve these for morning tea, at parties or wrap and give for gifts.
You can take them as your plate to a BBQ, you can make them for a bake sale or whip some up for the kids.
They smell great, they taste soft like shortbread and they have chocolate in there too, all of the best worlds at once!
How to Guide
How to Store
Store the cookies in a sealed, air tight container. They will last 7 to 10 days. No need to refrigerate.
How to Freeze
To freeze this recipe, I recommend making the cookie dough and rolling it into a long log.
When ready to use, simply remove from the freezer, allow to defrost, then cut the log into portions, place on baking tray and press the smarties on top.
I don't recommend freezing the smarties as that can lead to mixed results.
How to Reheat
Once the biscuits are baked, you won't need to reheat them.
Simply allow to cool slightly, before transferring to a cooling rack where they will firm up.
Then transfer to an air tight container.
Substitutions and Variations
As always, there are a couple of things that you can do to switch in and out with this recipe. You might like to try the following:
- Use mini m and m's instead of smarties.
- Alternatively, you can use sprinkles instead of smarties.
- Switch in chocolate chips for the smarties.
- At Christmas make a batch using green and red candies!
- Use white chocolate chips if you can't find smarties.
- Got a baby shower coming up? Make pink or blue decorated cookies by using the one colour consistently.
The shortbread like texture means the cookies will melt in your mouth and you will find them hard to resist, they won't last long!
Top Tips and Tricks
These are my top tips and tricks to share so that you get cookies cooked to perfection every time:
- Ensure the oven is pre heated.
- Use silicon baking mats over baking paper/alfoil.
- Don't overcrowd the baking tray, aim for 12 cookies per sheet.
- Use a mini cookie scoop to get uniform sized biscuits.
- Use 2 finger tips to push the top of the cookies down and use that space to place the smarties. Press down slightly to stick.
- Keep on eye on them in the oven, they will bake quite quickly!
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if you bake Smarties?
When you bake smarties, they are unlikely to melt if only baked for a short period of time. Cooked for longer, they can crack.
For these cookies, we press them into the top of the biscuits and oven bake them for 12 to 15 minutes.
How many calories are in a smartie cookie?
There are 158 kcal calories per smarties cookie.
Are Smarties chocolate?
Smarties are individual chocolate drops covered in a hard coloured coating.
Nestle describes them on their packets as 'yummy milk chocolate in a crispy shell'.
What is an alternative for smarties?
If you can't find or don't want to use smarties, you can try mini or regular m and m's, chocolate buttons or chocolate freckles.
Can you buy Smarties in Australia?
Yes, almost everywhere!
Smarties are hugely popular in Australia and sold across supermarkets such as Coles, Woolies, Big W, IGA, Night Owl, Petrol Stations and convenient stores.
Do Smarties make you smarter?
Wouldn't it be great if eating smarties, did indeed make you smarter!
Ha, whilst excellent in theory, there is no factual basis for this.
Related Recipes
Sweet treats, how could we ever live without them. If you want to get your bake on and on and on, here are some recipes that might be right up your alley:
- Malteser Biscuits
- Milky Way Biscuits
- Mars Bar Cookies
- Nutella Biscuits
- Coco Pop Crackles
- Golden Syrup Cornflake Cakes
- Snickers Cookies
- Air Fryer Biscuits
- Baileys Cheesecake Balls
- Chocolate Caramel Slice
Bake on my friends, on and on and on!
Adrianne xx
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📖 Recipe
Smarties Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Large mixing bowl
- 1 Electric Beater
- 1 Mini Cookie Scoop
- 2 Baking Trays
- 2 Silicon Baking Mats
Ingredients
- 250 grams butter chopped into small pieces. Note 1
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence Note 2
- 1 cup icing sugar sifted, Note 3
- 2 cups plain flour sifted
- 120 grams smarties Note 4
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
- Line 2 baking trays with silicon baking mats.
- Add butter to a large mixing bowl. Use electric beaters to beat till soft and creamy. Add vanilla essence and beat till combined.
- Add sifted icing sugar and continue to use beaters to mix in, then add sifted flour and beat till combined.
- Use a spatular or your hands, to knead the mixture till soft and firm.
- Use a mini cookie scoop to portion the biscuit mixture across the baking trays, with 12 cookies per tray.
- Bake for 12 to 15 mins.
- Allow to cool slightly, then use an oven mit and flat utenstil to transfer cookies onto wire rack to cool. Store in an air tight container.
Notes
- Note 1 Chopping the butter into smaller pieces means that it will be easier to work with. The alternative is the beaters being stuck into 1 large block of butter.
- Note 2 You can use the cheaper vanilla extract without a second thought.
- Note 3 This is soft powdered sugar, also known as confectioner's sugar. It is not granulated like white or caster sugar.
- Note 4 You can aim for approximately 4 smarties per cookie. As this is too hard to know from the outset (the amount of smarties in a packet), I recommend buying a share packet as opposed to a small box to ensure you have enough. I use the family size 340 gram packet and you only need about half that, so 120 grams will do the trick! There is also a smaller 140gram share packet available which will work.
Emilia Smith says
These look super cute, will give them a go for sure.
Adrianne says
Thanks Emilia! I hope you enjoy them.
Anna says
Made these and they turned out perfectly, better than store bought!
Adrianne says
Awesome thanks Anna! I am so glad you like the recipe.
Vruti Rana says
I'm due to make this with the kids at school this morning so we can sell them at the school fair.
Are you able to tell me when we add the smarties?
Thanks
Adrianne says
Hi! Sorry, the smarties get pushed onto the biscuits as the last step before placing them in the oven. Hope it goes well!