A
pastry bag (or
piping bag in the Commonwealth) is used to
pipe semi-solid
foodFood is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal, including humans, for nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants, animals or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol...
s by pressing them through a narrow opening at one end, for many purposes including
cake decorationCake decorating is one of the sugar arts that uses icing and other edible decorative elements to make otherwise plain cakes more visually interesting...
. It is filled through a wider opening at the opposite end, rolled or twisted closed, and then squeezed to
extrudeExtrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed or drawn through a die of the desired cross-section...
its contents.
Though a circular nozzle is quite useful for making round shapes and for filling pastries such as profiteroles, many differently-shaped nozzles are commonly used to produce star, leaf, and flower-petal shapes.
Aside from
icingIcing, also called frosting, is a sweet glaze made of sugar that often also contains butter, water, egg whites, milk, or flavorings and is used to cover or decorate baked goods, such as cakes or cookies....
, pastry bags are commonly used to shape
meringueMeringue is a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and powdered sugar. Some meringue recipes call for adding a binding agent such as cream of tartar or the cornstarch found in confectioner's sugar. Meringues are often flavoured with vanilla and a small amount of almond or coconut extract...
and
whipped creamThe term "whipped cream" refers to cream that has been beaten until it is light and fluffy, as by whipping with a mixer, whisk, or fork.Cream containing 30% or more fat can be mixed with air, and the resulting colloid is roughly double the volume of the original cream as air bubbles are captured...
, and to fill
doughnutA doughnut is a sweet, deep-fried piece of dough or batter. The two most common types are the torus-shaped ring doughnut and the filled doughnut, a flattened sphere injected with jam, jelly, cream, custard, or other sweet filling. A small spherical piece of dough may be cooked as a doughnut hole...
s with jelly or
custardCustard is a range of preparations based on milk and eggs. Most commonly, custard refers to a dessert or dessert sauce, but custard bases are also used for quiches and other savoury foods. As a dessert, it is made from a combination of milk or cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla...
.
A
pastry bag (or
piping bag in the Commonwealth) is used to
pipe semi-solid
foodFood is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal, including humans, for nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants, animals or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol...
s by pressing them through a narrow opening at one end, for many purposes including
cake decorationCake decorating is one of the sugar arts that uses icing and other edible decorative elements to make otherwise plain cakes more visually interesting...
. It is filled through a wider opening at the opposite end, rolled or twisted closed, and then squeezed to
extrudeExtrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed or drawn through a die of the desired cross-section...
its contents.
Though a circular nozzle is quite useful for making round shapes and for filling pastries such as profiteroles, many differently-shaped nozzles are commonly used to produce star, leaf, and flower-petal shapes.
Aside from
icingIcing, also called frosting, is a sweet glaze made of sugar that often also contains butter, water, egg whites, milk, or flavorings and is used to cover or decorate baked goods, such as cakes or cookies....
, pastry bags are commonly used to shape
meringueMeringue is a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and powdered sugar. Some meringue recipes call for adding a binding agent such as cream of tartar or the cornstarch found in confectioner's sugar. Meringues are often flavoured with vanilla and a small amount of almond or coconut extract...
and
whipped creamThe term "whipped cream" refers to cream that has been beaten until it is light and fluffy, as by whipping with a mixer, whisk, or fork.Cream containing 30% or more fat can be mixed with air, and the resulting colloid is roughly double the volume of the original cream as air bubbles are captured...
, and to fill
doughnutA doughnut is a sweet, deep-fried piece of dough or batter. The two most common types are the torus-shaped ring doughnut and the filled doughnut, a flattened sphere injected with jam, jelly, cream, custard, or other sweet filling. A small spherical piece of dough may be cooked as a doughnut hole...
s with jelly or
custardCustard is a range of preparations based on milk and eggs. Most commonly, custard refers to a dessert or dessert sauce, but custard bases are also used for quiches and other savoury foods. As a dessert, it is made from a combination of milk or cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla...
. They are used to form
cream puffA profiterole or cream puff is a popular choux pastry. Choux paste is baked into small round puffs that are served cold with a sweet filling and sometimes a topping. The term profiterole refers to a filling of ice cream. A cream puff has a filling of whipped cream or pastry cream, however cream...
s,
eclairAn éclair is a long, thin pastry made with choux pastry filled with a cream and topped with icing.The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside...
s, and ladyfingers. When presentation is especially important, fluted tips can be used to shape savory foods such as filling for devilled
eggsAn egg is a round or oval body laid by the female of any number of different species, consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo and its nutrient reserves...
, whipped
butterButter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications such as baking, sauce making, and frying...
, and
mashed potatoMashed potato or Smashed potatoes is one way of serving potatoes. It is made by mashing freshly boiled , or sometimes baked, potatoes with a ricer, fork or potato masher...
es (especially for
Pommes duchesse).
A high-quality reusable bag is often made from tightly woven
nylonNylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides and first produced on February 28, 1935 by Wallace Carothers at DuPont...
,
polyesterPolyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...
, or waterproofed
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
. Medium quality bags are similar, except they are not so tightly woven and may let some contents pass through the weave or the seams. After use, a reusable bag is washed by hand and hung open to dry. A high-quality bag may last for many years.
Pastry bag users who have a dishwashing machine may prefer to use disposable bags, and thus avoid hand-washing messy bags. Disposable bags are ready-made in inexpensive plastic. A plastic food storage bag also is commonly used as a pastry bag. For small quantities and fine piping, a pastry bag can be made by rolling cooking
parchmentParchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. Its most common use was as a material for writing on, for documents, notes, or the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned, therefore it is very...
or
wax paperWax paper is a kind of paper that is made moisture proof through the application of wax.The practice of oiling parchment or paper in order to make it semi-translucent or moisture-proof goes back at least to medieval times. The invention of wax paper is credited to Thomas Edison or Thomas Conners,...
into a cone, filling it, folding the wide end several times to close it, and then cutting the tip into whatever shape is desired. This is especially useful for small quantities of melted
chocolateChocolate comprises a number of raw and processed foods produced from the seed of the tropical cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC...
, since a very small hole can be cut and the bag can be discarded when it cools and becomes clogged.
Tips come in sets of interchangeable pieces; expensive tips can be purchased one at a time. They may be chrome-plated or
stainless steelIn metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox, is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 11% chromium content by mass. Stainless steel does not stain, corrode, or rust as easily as ordinary steel...
, or plastic. Each tip is cone-shaped, with a base too large to fit through the small opening in the bag; they are to be inserted through the larger opening before food is spooned in. Tips can be used with pairs of adapter rings: an inner ring is dropped inside the bag and pushed part way out the hole, a tip is slipped over the ring, then an outer ring is slipped over the tip and screwed onto the inner ring. This permits the tip to be changed without emptying the bag. Some inexpensive sets are of disposable
plasticPlastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic amorphous solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products...
film with a drop-in ring and screw-on plastic tips (see image, above). Many foods (including frosting and pressurized "spray can" whipped cream) can be purchased in disposable packaging designed to serve the function of a pastry bag.