becky
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read the disclosure policy to learn more.
Thank you for supporting this blog!
In my work as a recipe developer and pastry chef, I often find myself reaching for the same kitchen tools over and over again. While workarounds or alternatives are sometimes an option, these tools and supplies make my day-to-day work much, much easier. (And these kitchen tools come in handy for hobby cooking and baking, too!)
If you’re looking to round out your baking toolkit, I recommend the following:
Pastry Brush
Buy Now → I use my pastry brushes for applying egg washes, soaking syrups, and glazes, and sometimes for brushing away excess flour, too. I prefer natural bristles to silicone. It’s good to keep a thin pastry brush (about 1-inch) and a wider one on hand to use as needed.
Kitchen Shears
Buy Now → A quality pair of kitchen scissors are an absolute must-have, and one of the kitchen tools I can’t live without. I frequently use them for trimming pastry doughs and scoring breads and rolls. They’re also great for cutting pizza, or tackling food packaging.
Rolling Mat
Buy Now → I use a silicone rolling mat to avoid damaging the counters in my kitchen. I also find that I have less issues with dough sticking to the surface, and the pre-printed measurements come in handy as well. I use mine my rolling mat with a traditional wooden rolling pin.
Chef’s Knife
Buy Now → Of all of the knives in my kit, the chef’s knife is the one I use on a near-daily basis. I suggest going with a good brand like Zwilling, Henckels, or Wusthof. They’re more expensive than cheaper knives from a big-box or discount store, but high-quality, well-maintained knives can last a lifetime.
Digital Probe
Buy Now → A must if you’re making gummy candies, caramel, or marshmallows; tempering chocolate; or working with molten sugar. I alternate between my trusty Taylor Instant-Read Digital Thermometer and a gun-style infrared laser thermometer. A clip-style candy thermometer can also be useful.
Quick Peeler
Buy Now → In pastry school, I could never quite manage to peel fruit efficiently with a traditional kitchen peeler. A classmate suggested adding a Y-peeler (sometimes called a “quick peeler“) to my toolkit, and it made a world of difference! Not only does this little gadget help me to peel fruits and vegetables with ease, but it’s perfect for making carrot ribbons and garnishes, too.
Kitchen Scale
Buy Now → Baking is all about precision, and it’s difficult to accurately measure ingredients like flour and confectioner’s sugar when using volume alone. (Ask ten people how much a cup of flour weighs, and you’ll get ten different answers!) In addition to measuring with precision, a kitchen scale means less cleanup because you can weigh everything directly into the mixing bowl. There are options on Amazon for as little as $8.
Mini Palette Knife
Buy Now → At the beginning of pastry school, one of the chef-instructors suggested purchasing a tiny stepped palette knife to add to our tool collections, as the school-issued knife kit only came with large palette knives. This small knife has been an absolute lifesaver for me on many occasions, from frosting cakes and cookies to transferring delicate pastries from counter to presentation board.
Infrared Gun
Buy Now → I rely on my gun thermometer for tempering chocolate. But I always keep my trusty Taylor Instant-Read Digital Thermometer at the ready, too.
Whisk
Buy Now → A wire whisk is my go-to for most applications. Note that if you are using a non-stick pan you’ll want to use a silicone whisk; wire can damage the nonstick coating.
Half-Sheet Tray
Buy Now → A half-sheet is versatile enough for most baking projects, including cookies, scones, and shortcakes, as well as savory sheet pan meals. Recipe websites often specify this size tray as standard, so it’s good to keep on hand.
Tiny Saucepan
Buy Now → I love my teeny-tiny saucepan! I recommend one measuring 4-5 inches in diameter. It’s great when warming purées, heating cream for ganaches, and reducing small amounts of liquid.
Silicone Mat
Buy Now → I own so many silicone baking mats, in virtually every size imaginable. These are great for baking, chocolatemaking, and confectionery. (The one exception for me is molten sugar. In instances where I want a smooth finished product, I’ll generally opt for parchment; the textured mat can sometimes imprint small marks on the sugar.) You can also find silicone mats pre-printed with circles, which offer a helpful template when piping macarons. Silicone mats also make cleanup easy.
Box Grater
Buy Now → For grating semi-hard cheeses, or for recipes where a fine zest is not required. (Also great for grating frozen butter, which is sometimes suggested in shortbread, biscuit, and shortcake recipes). It’s worth investing in a box grater as it allows you to cook with blocks of quality cheese, rather than the pre-shredded, bagged stuff. (The latter often contains anti-caking agents and other additives, and won’t melt as well as freshly grated; I also find that it’s not nearly as flavorful as the fresh stuff.)
Round Cutters
Buy Now → A set of round cutters is one of the kitchen tools that is a must for any baker. Round metal cutters come in handy for cutting biscuits and shortcakes, making cookies and hand pies in different sizes, as well as reshaping cookies into perfectly round, bakery-ready treats.
Rubber Spatula
Buy Now → While we all own our share of novelty spatulas, a good-quality rubber spatula is a must for baking and candymaking, especially when working at higher heats. This red-handled Rubbermaid spatula is standard in many culinary schools and professional kitchens..
Metal Bowls
Buy Now → It’s nice to have a range of bowl sizes to choose from, so you can mix and match depending on the recipe you’re making. Metal mixing bowl sets are also good for those of us with limited kitchen space, since they stack nicely inside one another.
Immersion Blender
Buy Now → I use my immersion blender (sometimes called a stick blender or hand blender) for all sorts of applications. It’s especially useful for blending soups and sauces. In pastry, it’s great for making fruit purées and for blitzing entremet glazes (just tap your cup on the countertop before pouring, to remove the bubbles!)
Measuring Spoons
Buy Now → While scales are amazing, they’re not great for tiny quantities. (If you find yourself working in miniscule measurements frequently, you can invest in a jeweler’s scale, but I don’t use mine often enough to recommend it as a must-have.) Use metal measuring spoons for portioning spices, leavening agents, and salt.
Microplane Zester
Buy Now → I use my microplane for zesting citrus peels (which I often add to recipes for flavor, as well as using zest as a garnish), creating fine chocolate shavings, and grating hard cheeses like Parmesan and Pecorino Romano.
Ruler
Buy Now → I reach for my ruler whenever I need to create evenly-sized strips or straight edges. It’s also good for double-checking the amount of space in between unbaked balls of dough so they have room to spread as they bake.
Sharpie
Buy Now → We don’t think of markers as kitchen tools, but they are! Someone once told me that it’s easy to spot a pastry chef because they always have a Sharpie. I keep one of these permanent markers in the pocket of my chef’s jacket, and another in my knife kit. Use them for marking times and dates on items before placing them in the fridge, tracing parchment or acetate pattern pieces, or making notes.
Bench Scraper
Buy Now → For breadmaking, scones/biscuits, and other dough-based projects. I prefer a plastic scraper to metal; the metal can damage your bowls, countertop, or rolling mat. I also like to have a few of the zigzag edged variety on hand for creating ribbons and designs with tempered chocolate. Even though I have more scrapers than I can count, somehow it’s still never enough!
Chopping Board
Buy Now → Pretty self-explanatory, really! Use it for chopping fruits and vegetables, or for cutting pastry. (You never want to cut directly on the countertop; always place a cutting board in between.) I have a small kitchen, so sometimes I also place mine over the sink and use it as an extra workspace or storage area.
Small Bowls
Buy Now → Tiny bowls are a must-have for me. I use them for mise-en-place, portioning out small quantities of spices, chopped herbs, garnishes, sprinkles, berries, chopped chocolate, nuts, sea salt, candies, and a million other ingredients to use as needed. It’s a much neater way to work, and requires less space than open bags and boxes.
Ice Cream Maker
Buy Now → I own not one but two of these Cuisinart Ice Cream makers. Use it for making homemade sorbets and ice creams, like my white chocolate coconut ice cream and peanut butter Oreo ice cream.
Electric Kettle
Buy Now → This one is mostly for my US readers! After moving to the UK, an electric kettle became a staple in my kitchen. It’s great for making tea and coffee, but also works nicely for recipes requiring boiling water,
Quarter Sheet
Buy Now → In addition to my half sheet rimmed baking tray, I frequently use quarter sheet trays for making smaller batches of cookies, preparing chocolate barks and candies, and organizing small dishes of ingredients.
Silicone Whisk
Buy Now → Although a wire whisk works for many applications, your toolkit should also include a small silicone whisk. A silicone whisk works great when using nonstick cookware—wire can damage the protective coating.
8×8 Tin
Buy Now → I use these 8×8-inch square baking tins to make everything from brownies to fudge.
Cupcake Liners
Buy Now → These reusable silicone liners are ideal for making cupcakes and muffins, and eliminate paper waste.
Citrus Peeler
Buy Now → A citrus peeler comes in handy for citrus-heavy recipes, like my flourless orange almond cake.
Stand Mixer
Buy Now → A good stand mixer is a must for any serious baker. Use it for cakes, cookies, bread, and even whipped cream.
Food Processor
Buy Now → I love my food processor for making fruit purées, nut pastes, dips, and hummus recipes.
Stemless Glasses
Buy Now → In addition to serving beverages, these stemless wine glasses are great for parfaits and Eton mess.
Fluted Pan
Buy Now → A fluted tart pan with a removable bottom makes for easy removal after baking.
Egg Tray
Buy Now → Great for organizing eggs in the fridge, or serving white chocolate deviled eggs.
J-Cloth
Buy Now → In addition to kitchen cleanup, I use these j-cloths to create a barrier between bowl and boiling water in my bain-marie.
Pizza Pan
Buy Now → Use a ventilated pizza pan like this one when making my buffalo cauliflower pizza or my go-to homemade pizza dough recipe.
Oil Sprayer
Buy Now → Decant oil from a larger bottle into this handy oil sprayer, and use it for spritzing pans and baking dishes.
Stock Pot
Buy Now → A stock pot is a must for making vegetarian chicken noodle soup or my favorite citrus simmer pot recipe.
Rebecca Frey is a freelance recipe developer, food writer, photographer, stylist, and pastry chef. She earned the Diplôme de Pâtisserie (French Pastry Techniques Diploma) from Le Cordon Bleu London in 2020 and an MSc in Culinary Innovation from Birkbeck, University of London in 2022, where she focused her dissertation research on Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. She also holds a Professional Chocolatier’s Certificate from Ecole Chocolat. Rebecca has developed recipes for websites including Serious Eats, The Spruce Eats, Wine Enthusiast, and others. Follow her on Instagram @bastecutfold.
