How to Use Pastry Bags? - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats.
There are reusable pastry bags that are made from nylon or canvas. I tend to use the disposable bags because I just do not like washing dishes, although I did grow up washing out plastic and reusing it, so I have been known to save these bags and then reuse them again. What I am going to do is I am going to make a cuff and fold down the top half of this bag. I am going to take that nifty tool, the coupler, and I am going to separate the two parts, the ring and the base. I am going to drop the base directly into the pastry bag, and I am going to push it down considerably, because I'm going to have to trim this bag. Untrimmed, these disposable pastry bags are great for Easter and making those jellybean carrots and things like that.
Now, I have pushed it down significantly. I am going to take some scissors. There is a large ridge here which is at the bottom of the threads. I am going to actually take my scissors and go around that ridge. I am going to push my tip back, and it is almost completely cut for me but I need to cut off just a little bit more. This is a great way to know where to cut your bag. Many times people do not cut off enough or they cut off too much. If you actually use your scissors as your guide, you do not have to worry about that. And so now, I am able to screw my ring back on, but before I do that, I can take my pastry tip - I am going use a star tip - I am going to put it on the outside and I am going to screw that on. So now, whatever color I put in here, I can actually change the tip and use that same color without completely emptying the bag.
Now, I could take a tip and drop it directly into my bag but the danger in that is that if I need this tip because I only have one or if I need a different color, I am going to have to completely empty the bag which can be messy, or destroy the bag so that I cannot use it any more at this time. And then I will just clip off that end right there. Again, using the right tool for the job is important. There is a reason why somebody decided that a cone-shaped bag was the best vehicle for transporting icing to a cake. Every time I have tried to use the zip-bags and things like that, it is come out with me being a little bit frustrating. So I happen to keep either reusable bags or disposable bags at hand.
Now, remember my friend, parchment paper? Well, I can also use that to make pastry bags. I am fortunate that there is a brand of parchment paper that actually comes in flat sheets as big as 18 inches, which is fantastic. What I can do is to turn this sheet into a parchment paper bag for decorating. Now if I do not have the triangles already ready for me, I can take that full sheet of parchment that we used earlier, and I can actually turn that into smaller triangles and then make those into pastry bags. So, what I am going to do is I am going to take the small point of the triangle and face it towards me. I am going to use my right hand and I am going to take the right triangle. I am going to curl it under and I am going to let it meet that center point, curled under. I am going to pick it up with my left hand, again I am going to take my right hand and cross over, and I am going to wrap it around the back, so that I have all three of my triangles in the same area. One is inside, one is in the middle, one is outside.
I am going to take the outside triangle and the inside triangle, and I am going to pull them up and away. Up and away. By doing this, up and away, I am able to make sure that my open part at the bottom is a nice, sharp point. If I can see through that, then I did not do it right, and I am going to be frustrated. So my goal is to make sure that I cannot see through that pastry bag. So, once that is done, I am sure that I have enough room to actually put icing inside. I am going to fold the center in, and I actually like to fold it just one more time, and then I have a bag that will work very well for me. If I poke myself, technically I could bleed, but not so bad, but it should fill a point there. Now, because there is no opening, the integrity of this bag is going to be phenomenal. It is going to hold whatever I put inside. So, I am going to take my pastry tip, I am going to drop it in small-side down. I am going to clip an opening.
Before I put icing in here, I need to make sure that all of the opening is on the other side of that bag. So I am going to take a spatula, and I am going to press down. Yes, everything is clear, so now I know that whatever I squeeze out is going to look like the shape of the tip that I am have. If I do not do that before I fill it, it is just super hard to then fill the bag and push that tip up enough to check it and make ...
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Thanks so much for this informative video. I need to practice doing this!!!
9doves 3 months ago
@9doves glad you found this helpful!
geobeats 3 months ago
Do you have any cake baking tips? Share with us in comments!
geobeats 4 months ago