Storytime Chefs: Rainbow Fish Digestive Biscuits

makes 10-12 biscuits

Here’s the second recipe in Rainbow Fish themed Storytime Chefs series, our monthly virtual cookery and book club for families with children aged 2-10 years.

Read more about this month's book choice here, or try our delicious veg pack Rainbow Fish Pizzas.

Ingredients

150g wholemal flour

150g fine or medium oatmeal

50g dark muscovado or soft brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda

125g butter, melted

2-3 tablepoons milk or one egg (to bind)

a pinch of salt

Optional: icing or melted chocolate, fruity decorations (eg snipped fruit leather) or naturally coloured chocolate beans

Method

1) Weigh dry ingredients into a mixing bowl (flour, oatmeal, suagr, bicarb and salt) NOTE if you can't find oatmeal, make your own by blitzing porridge oats in a food processor/Nutribullet

2)Add melted butter and stir well with a wooden spoon or silicone spoon

3) Add egg or milk to bind. The mixture should start to clump together in a crumbly dough

4) Place in a food bag and chill for 20 mins in fridge.

5) Lightly dust a worksurface and rolling pin and roll half of the mixture to about 8mm thick.

6) Cut out cookies and carefully transfer onto a baking sheet.

7) Repeat with second half of dough.

8) Reroll scraps until all your dough is used.

9) Prick with a fork and bake for approx 15 mins until golden brown.

10) Leave to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

11) When completely cool, decorate.

equipment:

You will need:

• an apron and clean hands
• two baking sheets, lined with greaseproof paper
• one large mixing bowl
• one small bowl to melt butter
• weighing scales
• measuring spoon
• a wooden spoon or silicone mixing spoon
• a fish shaped cookie cutter
• a rolling pin (and optional rolling mat)
• a palette knife or similar to lift biscuits
• a cooling rack
• oven gloves

Ideas for decorating your rainbow fish biscuits:

To ice or not to ice?

It’s pretty impossible to decorate biscuits (and avoid a mini sugar rush) without using some form of icing, chocolate or sweets and whilst this isn't the healthiest of food stuffs, it is part of the magic of this activity for your kids. These biscuits are delicious on their own, and are not overly sweet, so we normally decorate about half and leave the remainder plain.

When it comes to choosing decorating ingredients, we prefer to go as natural as possible, choosing options which don’t contain palm oil, artificial colours and flavours, and are organic where ever possible.

Baking and decorating biscuits/cakes (especially Rainbow Fish ones) isn’t an everyday event  - just like eating birthday cake isn’t an everyday event, which most children understand.

Here are some options (either fruity or chocolatey):

• A little icing, white or naturally coloured (we used these freeze dried fruit powders from Healthy Supplies to colour/flavour ours)

or

• Melted chocolate (milk or white)
• Colourful dried fruit ‘scales’ (eg cranberries, chopped apricots, golden raisins, chopped mango) or snipped up Bear Fruit Yoyos/homemade fruit leather
• Naturally coloured/flavoured ‘Smarties’ or ‘Jelly Tots’ (eg Biona)

Where to get hold of a copy of The Rainbow Fish:

Link to Rainbow Fish on Amazon UK                      Link to Rainbow Fish on Amazon US

Or don’t forget to check your local library.

By shopping with the links we have provided, we may earn a small referral commission which goes straight back into our community outreach projects for vulnerable families It also doesn’t cost you anymore. Thank you!