Homemade Sprinkles

Growing up my mom would always fill the Christmas stockings for everyone in the family. Colorful hand knit stockings with wooden names pinned to the tops.  Once my  brother was in his 20s my mom decided that was enough with the stockings.  When she announced her decision my younger sister and I, we both love traditions, decided instead of getting away from stockings everyone one would just make a gift for everyone’s stockings.  To keep it from getting too crazy as our family grows (I love traditions, but not enough to come up with something handmade from me and something else from my infant son), we pared it down to one gift from every household.

This year I decided to make sprinkles, both because I have a silly need to see if I can make everything in the kitchen from scratch and I had some leftover royal icing from my gingerbread house making party.

Turns out DIY sprinkles are both incredibly easy and difficult at the same time.  I made this handy flow chart so you can decide if you’d like to make your own sprinkles.  Spoiler alert it was undiagnosed tendinitis.

Of course I chose the obstinate path.  I needed to make eight gifts, and I needed to fill the 8 oz. mason jars to a respectable level.  That’s a lot of sprinkles, so I ended up filling half the jars with Christmas sprinkles and half the jars with chocolate meringue drops.  Everyone wins!

DIY Christmas Sprinkles

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tablespoons Egg Replacer*
• 8 Tablespoons water
• gel food coloring

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or a in a large bowl while using a hand mixer, add the first three ingredients.  Start slow and then move to high, mixing for about 5 minutes.  When it’s finished the icing should take about 5-10 seconds to run off the whisk and back into the bowl.  If it is too dry add more water, 1 T at a time.  If it is too wet add more powdered sugar 2 T at a time.

Divide the icing into three bowls, or however many colors you’d like to make.  Using a toothpick, scoop the gel food coloring into the icing and stir.  Adding just a little each time until you get the color you desire.

Using piping bag fitted with a size 10 decorating tip pipe lines and/or dots of icing onto wax paper on top of a cookie sheet.  This is the hard part.  The icing should be thick, and may be difficult to squeeze out of the piping bag.  If it seems easy your icing is too wet and will not dry into a sprinkle consistency.  

Place the sheets of wax paper somewhere safe to dry for 24 hours (i.e. somewhere your cat cannot gain access).  When the sheets are completely dry use a knife to cut the lines into sprinkles and then use the knife to scrape the sprinkles off into cute jars to share with friends or keep in a sealed container at room temperature (like a cute mason jar).  This recipe made about 2 1/2 cups of sprinkles.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you gift these sprinkles or use them on a cake or cookies for anyone besides yourself INFORM THE RECIPIENT THAT THE SPRINKLES ARE HOMEMADE!  No one will ever assume you would make your own sprinkles, it is too extra.  Make your sprinkles, have your fun, and take your credit!

*meringue powder can also be used at 1 for 1 substitution.  It can be found at any JoAnn type crafting store, baking supply store, or Amazon.  Grocery stores may or may not carry it, but are more likely to carry egg replacer.