Gingerbread men don dragees for buttons and snowflake cookies depend on dragees for their sparkle. But don't count on getting ahold of these small shiny decorations if you're in the Golden State.
SFGate.com reports that as of December 2003 "because of a Napa lawyer's lawsuit alleging that the shimmery mini-orbs are toxic, stores . . . wholesalers and Internet suppliers simply won't sell sugar decorations filmed with silver, gold or copper to anyone in California."
Amy Sherman from Cooking With Amy told me that while dragees still aren't for sale in California, they can be legally brought in to the state. Amy smuggles her dragees in to San Francisco via Seattle. "It's lucky they don't set off airport metal detectors!" Amy said.
Here in New York City -- land of the trans-fat ban -- dragees can be bought and sold out in the open. But call ahead first.
Oh, hell. You know how many of those my sister and I ate as a kid? Tons! No wonder we didn't get into Harvard.
Maybe it's just me but eating metal sounds weird to me. And kind of gross. I thought gingerbread men had gumdrop buttons anyways. (Cue Shrek movie quote "Nooo! Not the gumdrop buttons!")
If people can sell pipes "for tobacco use only" on the streets of New York, I think dragees are okay to be sold with a "decoration only" label and left at that. I remember having them around as a kid and thinking they were kind of gross...who would want to eat enough to be made ill?
I certainly ate plenty in my childhood. I think I turned out reasonably well. ;)
We never decorated with these things though at home. I have a feeling my mom avoided them for the very reason that they say "for decoration only". So, our gingerbread men always had red hots for buttons.
And don't forget New York Cake Supply at 56 West 22nd Street. It's the vatican for dragees.
Don't worry, Kristen -- I ate plenty of them as a kid and I did get into Harvard. :)