2010 7 Feb

A Fundamental Handbook For Cooking And Baking: Professional Bench Equipment: Article #1

Pastry Bags: Do I really have to explain what a pastry bag is used for? Ok, so I won’t, but here are the variety of kinds. Pastry bags come in all kinds of materials and sizes. Lightweight, double coated polyurethane bags include a reinforced bottom, stitched border and a hanging loop, while the heavier duty “European Pastry bags” feature a welded seam, reinforced tip and hanger that will remain flexible after long usage. These bags are more high-priced, but they are resistant to boiling and suitable for all mixtures. An alternative type of pre-made pastry bag is the disposable non-slip variety. Disposable clear plastic decorating bags are popular for fast and easy decorating. These bags are moisture resistant and make color recognition easy as well as providing a convenient storage for icing. Parchment paper is inexpensive and disposable. Parchment should be purchased in triangles so that you do not have to cut it by yourself. Merely roll into cones for use. A innovative and useful product is a Pastry Bag Stand which allows you to easily store your pastry bags while filling them or storage of them when not in use. They are for use with bags up to 21″ in length. The stand is a specialty item and cannot be found in most kitchen stores, you’ll have better luck sourcing this item at cake decorating supply stores that sell all kinds of hard to find cake decorations.

Spatulas: In our trade most spatulas are used to ice cakes with. Even though the term spatula can be used for many flat edged kitchen utensils, for our purposes the baker’s spatula will be blades that are made from high quality stainless steel while the handles are polypropylene. Due to safety concerns, the handling of spatulas with wood handles is decreasing. The polypropylene handles prevent saturation of grease, bacteria, and moisture. A baker will normally use two kinds of spatulas to ice cakes, one being the straight blade spatula and the other is an angled or offset blade spatula. Sizes for spatulas range from 4″ in length to 12″ long and the width will differ between ¾” to 1 ¾”. Additional Spatulas: The other spatula that a baker might use is a turner, comparable to a spatula that would flip hamburgers.

Knives: You’ll find many of the identical knives in a bakery as you would see in a commercial kitchen. The bread knife has saw-like edges and the blade length would be between eight and twelve inches long, which is opposed to a cake knife which is longer. The blade on a cake knife is around seventeen inches in length. Most bench knives are made from a high-class, stain-free carbon steel, molded in a polypropylene plastic handle. These knives are resistant to moisture, bacteria, fats, and grease. In the next article I’ll speak about Vienna, Paring, and Cook knives.

For more details on knives and other cake decorating supplies feel free to contact us and we will be glad to help.