Everything We Wrote About for Baking Week
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When I was young, licking the spatula and the inside of the mixing bowl — remnants of chocolate-chip cookies or else an Ina Garten pound cake — was (obviously) the best part of baking. As I grew, I would help measure and level and mix and stir, taking a bit of pride in whatever it was my mom and I made together. In my adult life, I bake to show someone I care about them, or because I had a bad day, or because I want to fill an otherwise boring afternoon with a relaxing task. Maybe you bake because you love a challenging project or only because your children’s school asked you to.
Whether you’re the designated dessert-bringer or the kind with one go-to brownie recipe, we’ve got something for you this week — five days of stories on the Strategist detailing all the bakeware, tools, and gadgets you need to become a better baker. Want to know every single thing you could possibly need to make every single kind of cookie? (Okay, many kinds of cookies.) Are you inclined to become a sourdough person? Do you want to bake more with your kids? Do your cakes always turn out unevenly cooked? Are your oven mitts looking the worse for wear? Is there absolutely no chance you’re going to spend hundreds of dollars on a stand mixer and want the best alternative? We’re diving into all this and more, complete with tons of expert recommendations from many of the best professional bakers and pastry chefs around.
If you’re a newbie, this is an extremely good place to start. If you’re already a seasoned baker, I promise there’s something here for you too — innovations to make baking even easier and more successful, plus recommendations for items like the most gorgeous cake tester on the market and a useful case for organizing all your piping tips. As they say under that big white tent: Ready, set, BAKE!
Bakeware
A lot of factors affect baking — temperature, ingredient quality, technique — but the pans, trays, and dishes you bake in are especially important. Senior writer Emma Wartzman asked tons of professional bakers about their favorite bakeware for every type of baking. Everyone loves Fat Daddio’s anodized aluminum pans and Nordic Ware’s bundt pans, and one baker says if you’re going to get any gimmicky bakeware, make it the all-edges brownie pan. See the full list of the best bakeware here.
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Whether you’re making a simple one-tier vanilla cake or an elaborately decorated three-tier cake, you’ll need the right tools. So to find the best specifically for cake-making, Wartzman interviewed bakery owners, recipe developers, and other cake experts about all their favorites, from the essentials (cake tins, spatulas) to the nice-to-haves (elegant cake testers, glass cake stands). See her full list here.
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And for those who love to make (and eat) cookies, Wartzman found all the best sheet trays, cooking racks, mixers, spatulas, and more for baking the perfect dozen (or two). Along with the basics, Wartzman says, you’ll find “items you didn’t even know you needed, like a space-saving multitier cooling rack, a mini silicone spatula for corralling thick or sticky ingredients out of measuring cups, and a cookie cutter one expert uses in an unexpected way to give her bakery-status cookies at home.” Read her full list here.
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GIR Mini Spatula
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Ateco Metal Circle Cookie Cutter
What you bake your cakes, cookies, breads and brownies in (or on) matters almost as much as how you bake them. “We understand the idea of the oven as a huge variable in baking,” says baker and cookbook author Claire Saffitz. “But I think bakeware material is not far behind as the second-biggest variable — one that can cause problems for people or lead to success.” To help you get the best bakes, Wartzman talked to Saffitz and baker Matt Adlard about the most common materials for baking (aluminum, nonstick, silicone, glass, ceramic, and cast-iron) and what each is best for. Read the full story here.
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Caraway Baking Sheet
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Tools and utensils
“A cake strip is a simple tool with a very specific purpose: helping a cake bake evenly from edge to center in a home oven,” says bakery owner Lucie Franc de Ferriere. “They’re not something I use in a professional bakery setting, but at home, they’ve earned a permanent place in my kitchen.” Franc de Ferriere noticed an immediate difference the first time she used them on a home bake—flatter cakes, tender edges, no need to trim layers, and an overall cleaner stack. “They do exactly what they promise.” Read her full review here.
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Recipe developer Christina Chaey has been cooking for decades, but, like many, she became a passionate bread baker during COVID. “With too few social events and a 25-pound bag of flour, I went deep on all things bread; I even sprouted grains for multigrain loaves and made multiple types of homemade sourdough starters,” she says. Since then, she’s tested tons of tools and gadgets for bread-baking, and a handful of them have become indispensable — including, surprisingly, the $4 Amazon shower caps that work just as well as actual bowl covers and are far cheaper. Read her full list here.
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Cookbook author Kristina Cho has been making mooncakes for a long time, and she now uses her molds to make regular cookies, too. “Over the holidays, I actually used the molds to make a glazed Chinese five-spice shortbread, also unfilled and then glazed, so the mold acted like a cookie cutter and stamp in one.” She’s used them to make other desserts, too, like ice-cream sandwiches and mochi. Read her full story here.
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“Of all the tools I use as a recipe developer and author of baking books, my hand mixer is the one I love the most,” says longtime baker Jessie Sheehan. “Because it’s cordless, using it to whip cream or egg whites or to mix dry ingredients into wet is truly like using a handheld tool, like a whisk or spatula.” It’s lightweight, creams butter and sugar quickly, charges quickly, and lasts 60 minutes on a full charge. Read her full review here.
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Junior writer Bella Druckman bakes a lot. “I regularly bake sourdough loaves for my morning toast, serve homemade pizzas for friends whenever I’m hosting, and broil meats for that last umph,” she says. The point being, her oven is often heated to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and she needs oven mitts that can stand the heat. So she asked recipe developers, cooking instructors, and more for their top oven mitt picks, put them all to the test, and rounded up her favorites. See her top picks here.
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“Take it from a recipe developer,” says contributor Rachel Sherman. “Quality measuring cups are a worthwhile investment.” For dry ingredients, you want heavy stainless steel cups that won’t tip over or warp in the dishwasher. For liquid ingredients, you want tempered glass with easy-to-read measurements. She asked fellow chefs, bakers, and recipe developers to share their recommendations for both. See her full list here.
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Measuring spoons are another kitchen essential, and there are many small variations among sets that can make a big difference in your baking (and frustration levels). “Rounded spoons are easier to clean, but flat-bottomed spoons will not tip over on the counter,” Sherman says. “A magnetic set that sticks together is easier to organize, but a set on a ring is easier to hang. A single adjustable spoon can save space, but you may have to clean it multiple times as you follow a recipe.” Sherman talk to chefs and bakers to find the best. See her full list here.
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Sur La Table Spice Measuring Spoons
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Scales are for more accurate than measuring spoons and cups, though, which is why any baker will tell you that a kitchen scale is a necessary piece of culinary equipment. “They allow you to be exact about the amount of any ingredient, which means more consistent results in your baking,” says contributor Margaret Eby, and they have the added benefit of reducing the amount of measuring cups and spoons you have to clean up. The Escali is her top pick — a reliable, affordable option popular among many bakers (and Strategist staffers). But she interviewed cooks, bakers and baristas to find all the best options. See her full list here.
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Fanny and Greta, longtime friends and the writers behind The Green SpoonSubstack, have both started baking more with their kids, who are just shy of 4 years old. “As a result, we’ve been scouring the internet for our favorite nonplastic, cute, and maximally fun baking tools and accessories to use with our kids,” they write. Many of their favorite tools double as “toys,” like the magnetic measuring cups that let little helpers learn how to scoop and measure (and, because they’re magnetic, also “also stay f*¢k!ng together in a drawer without one of those annoying rings”) and the old-school eggbeater that their kids love using to help make scrambled eggs in the morning. Read their full list here.
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Accessories and more
For our recurring “What I Can’t Live Without” column, Wartzman interviewed chef and baker David Lebovitz about his favorite things — some for cooking and baking, some not. Among his favorites are Fix & Fogg’s Everything Butter filled with tons of nuts and seeds (“It’s amazing to put on a piece of baguette in the afternoon”); the glass containers he uses to store leftovers; and the newest edition of his dessert cookbook. Read his full list of favorites here.
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