Homemade Christmas Sprinkles

5 from 2 votes

With this recipe, you can have festive red, green and white, edible Christmas sprinkles on hand to use in a myriad of different holiday desserts.

Prep Time20

Resting Time12

Total Time12 20

Course: Dessert, garnish

Cuisine: American, Canadian

Diet: Low Salt

Servings: tablespoons

Calories: 50kcal

1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons lukewarm water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup or agave nectar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract optional - or you can pick another holiday flavor like peppermint or cinnamon
red and green food coloring can use gel or liquid

Lay a few pieces of wax paper out on the counter. In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar, cornstarch, water, syrup and extract together until smooth. Divide the mix into three separate bowls.
1 ½ cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 2 tablespoons lukewarm water, 1 tablespoon light corn syrup or agave nectar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Add red food coloring to one bowl and combine until desired color is reached. Repeat with the green food coloring in the second bowl and leave the 3rd bowl as is. The mixture will be thick but you will able to pipe it.
Transfer the mixture into 3 piping bags with #4 Wilton tips (you will have three colors: red, green and white). If you only have one tip, you will have to do one color at a time.
Using your piping bag, draw long, thin, horizontal lines across the wax paper. You can also make some small dots or other shapes if desired. Do this with each color. Let sit for at least 12 hours or overnight so they can dry and harden.
Once dried, peel off the dots and/or other shapes you made. Use a knife to cut the horizontal lines into small sprinkles (or just use your hands to break them apart). Transfer to a small, airtight container.
Use these Christmas candy sprinkles for your Christmas baking, desserts and drinks!

Yield: This recipe yields about 1 cup sprinkles.
Piping Tip Size: A smaller tip like #3 will give you finer sprinkles, but it will be harder to pipe.
Piping Tip: Try to keep the piping tip about ½" above the wax paper when piping. The tip shouldn't touch the wax paper. Keep it moving for straighter lines.
Alternative to Piping Bag: If you do not have piping bags, cutting the tip of a sandwich bag will work in a pinch; just be extra careful not to make the hole too large.
Wax Paper Tip: To making cutting easier once the candy lines have dried, I like to cut the wax paper sheets into 2 to 3 pieces with scissors and then transfer to a cutting board.
Storage: These sprinkles will keep for several weeks in your pantry, so you could easily prepare a batch early in the season and keep using them for holiday festivities as needed. A small glass jar works well but you can also use sandwich bags or small plastic containers.