Sprinkles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is about the decorations for sweet foods; for other uses, see Sprinkles (disambiguation).
Sprinkles are very small pieces of candy used as a decoration or to add texture to desserts – typically cakes or cupcakes, cookies, doughnuts, 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. However, it's a Dutch custom to use chocolate sprinkles as sandwich topping.
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. However, British hundreds-and-thousands (which, with a chocolate spread, can be a child'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.
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[edit] Jimmies
In some areas of the United States sprinkles are sometimes called jimmies. In some areas "jimmies" applies to the chocolate (like the Dutch nl:Hagelslag) variety, with "sprinkles" being reserved for colored candy varieties. However, in other areas any elongated opaque variety (regardless of color) are called "jimmies", whereas only the smaller, round variety is referred to as "sprinkles".
[edit] Origin
A commentary in 1986 on National Public Radio by the late Boston poet Cody Carl claimed: "From the time I was able to run to the local ice cream store clutching my first nickel, which must have been around 1922, no ice cream cone was worth having unless it was liberally sprinkled with jimmies."[citation needed]
In the 1930s, the Just Born candy company of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, produced a topping called chocolate grains. The man who ran the machine that made these chocolate grains was named Jimmy Bartholomew. "Thus, his product became known as jimmies," said Ross Born, the chief executive officer.[citation needed] He was told this story by his grandfather and company founder, Sam Born. Just Born registered jimmies as its trademark, and continued producing jimmies until the mid-1960s - which is why the name was so popular there.
[edit] Other terms
Also in New England (particularly Massachusetts and Connecticut) sprinkles are sometimes referred to as shots, though less predominantly than "jimmies". Shots can refer to either the rainbow or chocolate variety of sprinkles.
In or around the year 2001 the term "Jo-Jo's" started being used to describe sprinkles around the New Jersey shore area. The term was coined by Toby Hilliard, an active member in the NJ underground music scene, in an attempt see if he could invent a word and one day see it in the dictionary. The word is used often in the NJ hardcore and punk community but has slowly been spreading up and down the coast.
In the early 50's maybe, the "Jimmy Fund" in Boston was raising money for kids with medical problems. If you went to buy an ice cream cone at the local drugstore, they'd ask if you wanted Jimmies on it. They cost an extra penny, and the money supposedly went to the Jimmy Fund. At least this is what happened in Chatham on Cape Cod. The Red Sox and the Jimmy Fund work hand in hand even today.
