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Rainbow cookies. Rainbow bagels. Rainbow grilled cheese. Rainbow challah. It seems like we can't get enough of rainbow food lately.
But it turns out the obsession with those red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple stripes are nothing new. People from Australia have been down with multicolored food since forever, thanks to a little snack they call "fairy bread."
Although the name gives it an air of magic, Australian fairy bread is actually just a delicious 3-ingredient treat: a slice of bread spread with butter and covered in—wait for it—rainbow sprinkles.
If it seems unusually simple, it is. "Fairy bread is a basic food," says Australian food blogger and cookbook author Lorraine Elliott, "typically made with white bread spread with butter and then what we call 'hundreds and thousands,' or colorful, round sprinkles."
But basic or not, it's a childhood favorite, making regular appearances at birthday parties. "It's popular at kid's parties because it's easy to make and inexpensive," says Elliot, "but it's colorful and fun-looking and children like it." Neighboring New Zealanders dig into fairy bread as well, and the treat is also popular in the Netherlands, where the sprinkles are chocolate and the toast is called hagelslag, which quaintly translates to "hailstorm."
Although its exact origins are uncertain, fairy bread is mentioned in a 1913 poem from Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson ("Come up here, O dusty feet!/Here is fairy bread to eat./Here in my retiring room, Children, you may dine"), which means it's much older than the internet's latest rainbow craze. And while the Aussies might stick to fairy bread for kid's birthday parties, I wouldn't be surprised if Australian fairy bread started popping up in Brooklyn cafes sometime soon.
Until then, it's insanely easy to make at home. Throwing a birthday party? Why not add sprinkles and bread to the menu? Here's how to make Australian fairy bread:
1. Pick Your Bread
This isn't fancy food. Fairy bread is made with good old fashioned, super market white bread. "Don't use fancy bread unless you want to start a heated debate and get on the wrong side of Australians, " says Elliott. "Use the cheap, white loaf you buy at the supermarket for a dollar or two."
2. Spread It With Butter
Next up, cover the bread with butter. Although you might want to go butter-crazy, Elliot recommends only using enough to get the sprinkles to stick to the bread.
3. Add Hundreds and Thousands
Now it's time to rainbow-fy the fairy bread, aka cover it in sprinkles. Traditionally, as Elliot mentioned, Australians use what they call "hundreds and thousands," or colorful, round sprinkles. Personally I like the look and texture of sparkly colorful sanding sugar, which makes the treat more like the sugared toast I grew up with, but this is not traditional fairy bread. But since there are almost as many different types of sprinkles as there are rainbow foods, you can have a uniquely decorated fairy bread every day of the week.
4. Cut It In Half
Elliot says the bread is typically cut into triangles. And her pro tip: "If you leave the crust on, you can pick it up holding the crust end."
5. Dig In
Don't think you have to be a child to enjoy fairy bread: everyone deserves a little sparkle in their snack, even grown-ups. Although "it's only really eaten at kids' parties," says Elliot, "adults love it for nostalgic value."
