Tip tips!

June 13, 2017 1:52 PM

I now have a set of piping tips (star, leaf, etc) and a piping bag. What can I use them for, besides making cute little meringues and decorative frosting? I've been ignoring recipes that require these items my entire life. What have I been missing? What have you done with your piping bag/tips that was especially impressive/delicious?

I am especially interested in recipes you have tried and were happy with. Anyone can google "recipes that use piping tips," I'm asking the hive mind because I value your experience and knowledge.

(Tips purchased in order to make precision meringues. I have used a ziploc bag with a corner snipped off and no tip thus far, it's fine but sloppy, I am rather excited about using the tips!)

posted by everybody had matching towels to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

I am very fond of duchess potatoes. The recipe I've linked to is pretty standard. They're easy to make and much prettier than a big pile of mash.
posted by skybluepink at 2:02 PM on June 13, 2017 [4 favorites]

Cheese straws! Oh yes, cheese straws.

Deviled eggs made fancier.

If you have really wide tips, you can use them for making homemade tater tots/zucchini tots, but those usually work just fine with a tipless piping bag cut open fairly wide.
posted by rachaelfaith at 2:48 PM on June 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Churros!
posted by furnace.heart at 2:58 PM on June 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

I just made cream puffs last week! It was great, but it would have been greater with a cute piping tip.
posted by suelac at 3:47 PM on June 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Piped mashed potatoes on shepherd's pie is also excellent.
Real macarons.
Choux paste and its fillings in all forms. Try filling tiny cream puffs with herbed cream cheese!
posted by ananci at 5:30 PM on June 13, 2017

Chicken Kiev is satisfying to fill with a robust piping bag. It needs a bit of keyhole stabbing with a thin knife to carve out the pocket, leaving only a small entrance, but you can really inflate the thing with butter.
posted by lucidium at 6:17 PM on June 13, 2017

Spritz cookies? Butter cookies? I imagine similar types might work as well, but baking is not my strong suit.
posted by Amor Bellator at 9:39 PM on June 13, 2017

(I also bought a set of piping tips, partly to make churros. Anyone have a tested good recipe?)
posted by leahwrenn at 8:58 AM on June 14, 2017

Parisian gnocchi (which are pate a choux)! I imagine the star tip could give a lot of extra-crispy edges.
posted by Maecenas at 10:46 AM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is a potentially harebrained thought, so proceed with caution. I'm wondering if you could somehow use the piping tip to make non-spherical spherified liquids.

Maybe you get something that's viscous enough to pipe when cold but somehow pipe it into hot liquid so it just melts and just sets the gel.
posted by Maecenas at 11:02 AM on June 14, 2017

I came in to say cream puffs as well. They are not too hard to make.
posted by kathrynm at 9:24 AM on June 16, 2017