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Welcome to Baking Week on the Strategist, where we’ve been obsessively researching and testing all the bakeware, tools, and gadgets that can make you a better baker.
For more, head to our Baking Week hub.
Whether you only make the occasional chocolate-chip cookie or regularly mix, scoop, roll, cut, and slice batches of dough, your cookies are majorly impacted by the gear you own. Good ingredients and technique get you part of the way, of course — but the sheet trays, mixers, spatulas, and cutters you use actually make a difference. To find the best of the best, I spoke to professional bakers — pastry chefs, cookbook authors, bakery owners — about the versions of all of these they rely on. Below, you’ll find recommendations for the basics along with 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.
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Nordic Ware’s sheet pans are our favorite for all types of baking (and cooking too). Because they’re aluminum, you should place parchment paper or a silicone mat down before baking cookies to ensure they don’t stick (recommendations for those are below). But the material means they cook evenly and last for decades (generally longer than their nonstick counterparts).
If you want to use a nonstick pan (in which case I still recommend putting down a removable layer for extra insurance), I like Caraway’s ceramic-coated version, which I’ve found to be extremely durable in the many months I’ve been using it. Kristen Tomlan, founder of Cookie DO, says the textured bottom of the OXO is ideal for baked goods because it improves airflow and “the light color of the sheet pan helps slowly transfer heat so the bottoms of your pastries don’t get too brown.” And one more suggestion on the sheet-pan front: Make cookie dough, store individual balls in the freezer, and get yourself a quarter-sheet size to bake off a few at a time when the craving strikes.
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This is a specialty pan, but baker Caroline Schiff thinks it is a worthwhile one to own. “People don’t realize that French madeleines are a relatively easy baked good that you can whip up in less than 30 minutes,” she says. “It’s a simple batter whisked by hand and baked quickly.” The thing that makes them look sophisticated and impressive, of course, are the seashell molds. “Look for one that has a nonstick surface for seamless unmolding,” says Schiff. Or you can opt for a silicone tray — one of the only times baker and cookbook author Claire Saffitz says the material makes sense.
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Silpat mats are great because they’re reusable (though Saffitz does warn that they’re so slippery, your cookies will spread more dramatically than they will on parchment paper).
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If you do opt for grippier baking sheets, go with the precut versions that fit perfectly onto half-sheets (simply fold them in half and cut down the line for quarter-sheets). “Fighting with a roll of parchment paper that keeps curling up is the bane of my existence, and these guys lay perfectly flat,” says recipe developer and private chef Maddy DeVita.
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Once you take cookies out of the oven, they continue to bake on a baking sheet. This is helpful for the first few minutes as they become a bit sturdier — but then you want to transfer them to cool completely, from top and bottom, on a cooling rack.
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If you don’t have much counter space, this multitier model could be the answer. It comes recommended by recipe developer, cookbook author, and Strategist contributor Casey Elsass, who calls it the “luxury parking garage of cooling racks.” It has four sturdy levels with three adjustable height levels, and then “collapses down into a compact two-inch-thick bundle that slides neatly into my cabinet,” he says.
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KitchenAid’s stand mixer is our Best in Class pick — a time-tested workhorse that will get you through decades of cookie dough mixing. It is sturdy and powerful, mixes well at all the different levels, and is easy to add ingredients into.
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KitchenAid makes a beater attachment that helps keep your batter from sticking to the interior of the bowl so you won’t need to pause the machine frequently to scrape it down with a spatula.
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If you’re more of an occasional baker (and honestly, even if you bake a lot), it’s great to have a hand mixer. It’s easier to pull out and clean, so I use mine on pretty much any occasion that it will work just as well. And while you might need some arm strength to cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy when that instruction is called for, it’s certainly doable.
This particular cordless model comes recommended by baker and cookbook author Jessie Sheehan, who says, “The design makes it crazy easy to move around the bowl — or even into a second bowl, if you’re multitasking — without having to worry about dragging the cord though your batter, getting it all twisted or tangled, or unplugging it and moving it to a different outlet.”
A silicone spatula is an indispensable baking tool — and no brand is better than GIR. Its various sizes and shapes are all strong and sturdy but still flexible enough to maneuver around for various tasks. “I love that their heads are firmer than traditional ones — and the lack of bend makes them great for scraping bowls clean,” says baker Gaby Scelzo. “But what I love the most is that they have no ridges for butter and batter to get lodged into. They’re easy to clean.” The Ultimate here is great for said scraping as well as mixing and folding; the Flip Spatula can be used for transferring cookies from baking sheet to cooling rack; and baker and cookbook author Erin Jeanne McDowell likes the Mini Spatula for mixing up different colors of icing. It’s also helpful if you need to get sticky or thick ingredients out of measuring cups.
A thin-edged fish spatula is also great for transferring cookies. So is an offset spatula — either Ateco’s classic smaller size or Gestura’s slightly bigger, wider version — especially when it comes to delicate cutouts. Those also work well for spreading icing.
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A scale is the best way to ensure your baking is perfectly accurate. This model from Escali is our all-around favorite. It’s affordable and reliable.
To measure dry ingredients without a scale (or if you’re using a recipe or ingredient where the weight isn’t stated), you’ll need a set of solid measuring cups. Liquid amounts are always volumetric, so get a liquid glass measuring cup, too (a two-cup or four-cup version should work well for most bakes). And you’ll need a set of measuring spoons for salt, baking powder, baking soda, and any spices (the particular set shown here fits into slim spice jars).
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A set of stainless-steel nesting bowls (which take up only as much storage room as the largest) are endlessly useful for portioning ingredients and mixing. The lip on these makes them easy to pour from; they’re lightweight but virtually indestructible; and they are supremely easy to clean.
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Gestura’s bench scraper can lift and transport cookies just as well as a spatula, along with other ingredients like chopped nuts and chocolate. It’s also a straight edge for leveling scoops of flour and sugar if you’re using measuring cups instead of a scale.
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Both DeVita and Schiff recommend using a cookie scoop to portion out your dough. While not strictly necessary, it’ll go a long way in ensuring a more uniform look when it comes to color, spread, and texture. “The OXO scoops in particular I love because the soft handles make scooping large batches super-comfortable without hand cramping,” says DeVita.
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“If I were a sports person, I would compare having the right rolling pin to having the right golf club or baseball bat for your body’s movement,” says baker and cookbook author Shauna Sever. “I’ve tried every type of rolling pin and met my match with a solid maple rolling dowel, like the 19-inch one from JK Adams. She says the pin helps ensure she gives balanced weight distribution all the way across. Plus it’s “gorgeous and takes on the most beautiful patina over time — the kind of thing you’ll want to pass down as an heirloom,” she says. Saffitz likes this style, too, saying that a pin that’s the same diameter all the way across gives you more control than a tapered version.
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Or opt for a pin with removable rings to ensure even dough (and therefore even baking). This one comes with five different thicknesses.
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A fun tip from baker and cookbook author Samantha Seneviratne: Get a three- or four-inch unadorned cookie cutter and then, when you take your cookies out of the oven, move the cutter around them in a circle. It will make them perfectly round and professional-looking.
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You can, of course, get even more intricate (if it exists in the real world, it probably exists in a cookie-cutter shape). But Saffitz likes to keep things simple with round, fluted cutters. “I don’t make a ton of shaped cookies,” she says. “The more elaborate the details are, with super-skinny pieces and lots of corners, the harder it is to get everything baked evenly. These are still really cute and easy to punch out.”
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Dining and Cooking