Homemade Sprinkles

It’s finally Friday!

Here’s my week in an equation

(Lack of sleep³ x a sick baby, the real one, not MJ)
÷
the overcast, absence-of-sunshine multitude of days
+
too many out-of-the-house appointments, errands, etc
x
a to-do list current stuck at ‘way too much to do’
=
a ~~somewhat grouchy~~ mom who is ready for the weekend!!

Dear math wizzes, I know that my equation makes no real sense. Please excuse my tired brain. Thanks. -amy c

I’ve been trying to complete gifts and projects but with running all over the place, a sweet baby needing some extra snuggles and needing some extra sleep myself, I’m a little frustrated with my progress.

I did succeed in making two varieties of homemade sprinkles to use on sugar cookies. (I used this recipe from the 25 Days of Cookies. It’s wonderful.) I thought Love Bug would enjoy decorating. Turns out, she was really only interested in decorating the ones she was going to eat herself. Oh well.

First up, a really simple technique. Take sugar, regular white sugar or raw. I used raw sugar because I like the size and shape. Use any amount you want. I used a ¼ cup, barely full.

Squeeze in a few drops of food coloring and stir until blended.

Because the raw sugar isn’t processed white, the colors didn’t end up exact but I liked the result anyway. And Bug ate them up just fine. They do cause some wickedly colored teeth. Just a warning. :)

Also, if they sit overnight or something, they start to stick together. This is easily remedied by loosening them again with your fingers or a spoon.

The other recipe took a little more time but not too bad. I first saw a recipe for sprinkles in an idea email I get and my first reaction was “sprinkles can be made at home?!”. Duh.

After a bit of research, I landed on this recipe to try out.

Because I wanted to use what I had, I used half an egg white instead of the egg white powder. I added a little too much water to mine so the lines didn’t stay perfectly circular but the odd shape doesn’t bother me. I’ll go slow on the water next time.

Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar
½ an egg white
1 Tbsp warm water, plus extra as needed
1/4 tsp flavoring – vanilla, almond, etc
Pinch salt
Food coloring paste

You will also need:

Parchment or wax paper, pastry bag and a very small round pastry tip

In a bowl, sift the powdered sugar to prevent clumps in the pastry tip.

In another small bowl, whisk together the egg white and 1 tablespoon water until smooth and foamy. Whisk in your flavoring of choice and a pinch of salt.

Pour the egg white mix into the powdered sugar and stir to combine. The mix will be thick and clumpy.

Add in additional water, in ½ teaspoon increments, until the mixture is smooth and liquid, but still thick. It’s need to be smooth but not liquidy. This is where I made my mistake.

Add in your coloring. I separated my mix in order to make a few different colors.

Then fill the pastry bag with the small tip and pipe long, prefereably straight, strips on the parchment/wax paper. Continue until all the icing in all your colors has been piped.

Allow icing to dry for a full 24 hours, enough to complete dry it out.