Sprinkles
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Sprinkles are very small pieces of candy used as a decoration or to add texture to desserts – typically cakes or cupcakes, cookies, ice cream, and some puddings. The candies are usually too small to be eaten individually and are in any case not intended to be eaten by themselves, being nearly flavorless.
Popular terminology tends to overlap, while manufacturers are more precise. with their labeling. What consumers call sprinkles covers several types of candy decorations which are sprinkled informally over a surface rather than placed in specific spots. Sanding sugar; crystal sugar; nonpareils; silver, gold, and pearl dragées – not to be confused with pearl sugar (which is also sprinkled on baked goods); and jimmies or hundreds-and-thousands are all used this way, along with a newer product called "sugar shapes" or "sequins". These latter come in a variety of shapes for holidays or themes, such as Halloween witches and pumpkins, or flowers and dinosaurs.
Sanding sugar, which is a transparent crystal sugar of larger size than general-use refined white sugar, has been commercially available in a small range of colors for decades. Now it comes in a wide variety, including black, and metallic-like "glitter."
Crystal sugar tends to be clear, and of much larger crystals than sanding sugar. Pearl sugar is relatively large, opaque white spheroids of sugar. Both crystal and pearl sugars are typically used for sprinkling on sweet breads, pastries, and cookies in many countries.
Some American manufacturers deem the elongated opaque sprinkles the official sprinkles. In British English, these are hundreds-and-thousands, and multi-colored. They are also called jimmies in the Northeast U.S, although here they are often chocolate. [1] (http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/6548594.htm?1c)
However, British hundreds-and-thousands (which, with a chocolate spread, can be a children's tea sandwich filling), may also be spherical. Known as nonpareils in French and American English, these tiny opaque spheres were traditionally white, but now come in many colors. They date back at least to the late 18th-century, if not earlier. French confectioners may have named them for being "without equal" as delicate decoration for pièces montées and desserts.
The sprinkle-type of dragée is like a large nonpareil with a metallic coating of silver, gold, copper, or bronze. The traditional almond dragées (confetti in Italian) are not sprinkles, although they are sprinkled on people at weddings and other celebrations. The food-sprinkle dragée is now also made in a form resembling pearls.
Toppings which are more similar in consistency to another type of candy, even if used similarly to sprinkles, are usually known by variation of that candy's name – for example, mini-chocolate chips) or praline.
An interesting alternative use for sprinkles is the confetti cake. In this dessert, sprinkles are mixed with the batter, where they slowly dissolve and form little splotches of color within the cake, the appearance of multi-colored confetti. Confetti cakes are popular for children's birthdays in the United States.
- See also Nonpareils