Last week Tom volunteered me to make the desserts for his work barbecue. I love deciding on the perfect dessert for any given situation and this was no different. After some discussion we agreed on a few tried and true favorites (Magnolia Bakery’s Banana Pudding, “Just Like Boxed” Brownies and Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars to be specific) but I wanted to make one more thing where I could experiment a bit.

I quickly decided on this creation that sort of reminds me of the Chips Ahoy cookies from my childhood. The graham crumbs give the cookie base that familiar, toasty flavor and a little crunch with rainbow sprinkles and white chocolate chunks adding color and richness. The container came home from the barbecue empty which is pretty good evidence that they went over well, I think. I’m glad I ran a few outside that morning for a sunrise photo shoot so I could share the recipe with you!

Rainbow Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup salted butter
• 1 ¼ cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup graham crumbs
• 1 ½ cups white chocolate chunks
• 1 /2 cup rainbow sprinkles

Directions:

Put the butter in a large mixing bowl and melt in the microwave. Add sugars and stir until smooth and blended. Chill the mixture for a few minutes until cooled to room temperature. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir well. Incorporate flour and baking soda. Stir in the graham crumbs, white chocolate chunks and sprinkles. Form dough balls (about 2 tbsp. each) and place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Bake for 12 minutes or until just set. Cool and then store in an airtight container.

Notes:

Don’t chill the dough without scooping the cookies first unless you have time for it to warm back up. It gets really hard and you’ll have trouble scooping out spoonful’s after it’s cooled.

Don’t flatten the dough balls out before you bake or the cookies may spread too much.

Adapted from my  Caramel Corn Cookies 

P.S. Is there anything more beautiful than a stack of cookies at sunrise?