Maybe this is a bit silly but in trying out the macarons today the thing that's given me the most trouble has been working with bags. Pouring the excess Tant Pour Tant into an edge sealer bag resulted in it going everywhere - I've probably lost about a quarter of it - and transferring the dough to the piping bag has been a pain as well, the bag keeps folding in on itself and sticking and I get dough down the outside and so on. The trick in the recipe of twisting the end of the bag and 'tucking it in' doesn't stay put and just comes undone quickly.
What am I doing wrong? Is this a common affliction?
My best guess at the moment is that I've got crappy bags, at least as far as the piping bag is concerned - it's too small, too narrow, and made of a thin fabric material which means it flexes easily. From looking at the macaron videos it looks like the Chefsteps team use big polythene bags, but I've not seen those for purchase in shops around here - maybe I need to find a more specialist cookshop. But the edge sealer bags I don't see much alternative to, so I think the problem there is my technique.
