Sprinkles FAQs Answered
Sprinkles, especially FANCY SPRINKLES®, can make any dessert look better, instantly. Our sprinkles add bright colors and various crispy textures to sweet treats. They’re also great for covering baking fails, and you don’t have to be a great cake decorator to use them! Most importantly, our sprinkles blends are top notch – meaning they are better quality than most sprinkles you find at grocery stores.
Being the experts in all things sprinkles, we’ve received a lot of questions over the years. What are sprinkles? Where did sprinkles come from? Do sprinkles expire? Are sprinkles vegan? Are sprinkles gluten free? Before we answer these, let’s start with how sprinkles are made.
HOW ARE SPRINKLES MADE?
Since sprinkles come in all shapes and sizes, they’re each made differently. What they all have in common is that their main ingredient is sugar. The ingredients are put into a machine, and the product is pushed out through something called an extruder. To extrude literally means to push out, or press through. An extruder can be in any shape: a star, a heart, or just a thin strand. The sprinkles are then thinly sliced as they exit the extruder. Finally, they go for a spin in a giant dryer thingy (very scientific), and are sprayed with a type of glaze to make them shiny.
The process for making regular sprinkles (also known as jimmies) ends there, but not for FANCY SPRINKLES® Crunchy Jimmies®. Our super special jimmies go through one last step – an oven! Yes, they go through a process called “hard baking”. Meaning they dry them out, yielding a satisfying crispy texture. Our Crunchy Jimmies® don’t contain a lot of oil either, and their main ingredient is powdered sugar. This is why they’re crispy and sweet, unlike their grocery store counterparts you’re used to, which can be soft, mushy and flavorless. If you haven’t tried our Crunchy Jimmies® you’re in for a real treat. They’re the cleanest, best tasting sprinkles on the planet (according to us and our fans.)
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If you’re never heard of Crunchy Jimmies®, it’s because it’s a relatively new term we came up with to describe the crispiness of our jimmies. Standard grocery store or ice cream shop sprinkles are made with less superior ingredients, and can be mushy and flavorless. Crunchy Jimmies® are sweet, crispy, and clean tasting. We also have custom Pantone® colors you won’t find anywhere else.
DO SPRINKLES EXPIRE?
Do sprinkles expire? Technically, yes, but it depends on the sprinkle. FANCY SPRINKLES® Crunchy Jimmies® alone take way longer to expire vs standard grocery store sprinkles. Why? Because our Crunchy Jimmies® don’t contain a lot of oil- a main culprit in sprinkle spoilage. Over time, sprinkles that have a higher oil ratio can go rancid faster due to the fat content. Lots of our sprinkle blends contain other sprinkles like chocolate sixlets, and some candy pearls that contain oil. It doesn’t mean they go bad quickly, it just means their shelf life is shorter than that of an a la carte Crunchy Jimmy® bottle. Jimmies alone can stay fresh for over 2 years (omg right?), but our blends are best consumed between 4-6 months post purchase. You will probably eat them all before that, anyway. They’re THAT good. Store in a dark, cool place with the lid tightly secured for longest shelf life. If they start to smell like playdoh, or taste off, it's time to toss and restock.
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ARE SPRINKLES VEGAN?
Some sprinkles are vegan, some are not. Obviously, if a sprinkle contains any type of whey powder (dairy), or beeswax as a coating, it’s not vegan. One particular sneaky sprinkle ingredient that’s prevalent in the sprinkle world is something called “confectioner’s glaze”. It’s made from something called shellac, which is derived from insects. We currently do not sell any vegan sprinkles, but are working to change that!
ARE SPRINKLES GLUTEN FREE/NUT FREE?
Some sprinkles are gluten & nut free, some aren’t. In the FANCY SPRINKLES® world, our Crunchy Jimmies® are gluten & nut free. They come from a factory where gluten and nuts aren’t handled, therefore it’s not a problem. When we get into our other sprinkles that are often combined in our sprinkle blends, it gets trickier. Almost none of our sprinkles contain gluten (except our rod shaped drageés) or nuts as an ingredient, but some of them are processed in factories that also handle gluten and nuts, therefore there’s always a chance of cross contamination.
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