“Hi! I’m Joe the carpenter, and I’m here to build your bookshelves. I only have a hammer and a screwdriver, but I have vision, and I really feel like this is going to work out.”
Would you trust Joe? Neither would we. The guy needs better tools, and if you’re trying to turn out that amazing batch of cookies with a poorly stocked kitchen, you probably need better tools, too. The right baking tools will not only help you create a better cookie, they can help you be more efficient in the kitchen.
(freepiik/Freepik)
At Chocolate Shipped Cookies, we’ve baked countless cookies for delivery, and we know that making perfect baked goods involves some cool gadgets. Here’s our list of the top seven tools that will take your cookies from OK to OH MY GOSH!
1. Stand Mixer
We’re starting out with the biggest price tag here, but trust us, it’s worth it. If you’re still using a wooden spoon, prepare to be awed by the capabilities of the legendary stand mixer. If you have a hand mixer, we still highly recommend the upgrade.
A stand mixer brings the horsepower, so it can handle thick dough and big batches of dough without a hitch. You can significantly reduce your mixing time, and you can walk away because you don’t have to sit there and hold the hand mixer. That leaves you free to prepare your next ingredients or do the dishes.
Your stand mixer will be a workhorse for more than just cookies. It can handle cake, whipped cream, meringue, mashed potatoes, biscuits, pizza dough, and all kinds of yeast breads. You can even invest in attachments that grind wheat and meat, grate cheese, slice veggies, and flatten and cut your pasta dough into linguine, fettuccine, and more.
These mixers can be pricey, but they will last you for many years. If you like to cook and bake, you’ll have a loyal sidekick in your stand mixer.
2. Kitchen Scale
Exact ingredient quantities make predictably good cookies, but dry ingredients are predictably hard to measure. Flour is a big culprit. The most common problem is that it is over-packed, which will result in too much flour in your cookies. It’s common to think you’ve measured 2 cups, but the flour is so densely packed, you really end up with 2.5 cups. Cookies with too much flour are dry and crumbly.
On the other hand, flour can also be full of air pockets. When you scoop your “fluffed up” flour into the dough, you’ll think you have more than you actually do. That leads to cookies with too little flour. These cookies are flat, greasy, and overly crispy.
Flour measurements matter! There are 120 grams in a cup of flour, and you’ll have a much higher chance of hitting the mark when you rely on your kitchen scale, not your measuring cup.
Flour isn’t the only ingredient that is famously hard to measure. Brown sugar is another tricky one. Conventional wisdom says to pack it, but how tightly should you pack it? End the wondering with a kitchen scale. One cup of packed brown sugar equals about 200 grams.
Kitchen scales are also great for messy ingredients like shortening, oil, and honey that turn your measuring cups into a greasy or sticky mess.
When you use a kitchen scale, you’ll increase your chances of ending up with cookies that look and taste just right every time. Not too dry, not too crispy, not too flat, not too sweet. Just predictable perfection
3. Cookie Scoop
You know that mom that pulls up to the PTA meeting with perfectly coiffed hair and perfectly uniform cookies. We can’t speak for her do, but the cookie consistency…we’re guessing she owes it all to the scoop.
We can hear the peanut gallery asking, “What can I do with a scoop that I can’t just do with a kitchen spoon? Or my bare hands?” Answer: You can get the same size cookie over and over again.
When you simply punt, you end up with different sized chunks of dough that don’t bake evenly. After their designated oven time, the big ones might still be a little doughy when the smaller ones are donezo. Inequality is never good…especially on a cookie sheet.
A spring-loaded cookie scoop can save you time, too. You won’t have to guesstimate, roll the cookies, or pull a little dough from this cookie to plus up a smaller one. Just scoop, drop, and bake your perfectly uniform dough chunks into mouthwatering cookies.
4. Bowl Scraper
You worked hard to make that cookie dough. Why wash it down the drain? Instead, when you think you’ve scooped your last dough ball, run that scraper around the bowl. You’d be surprised at how much dough you can recover with your handy-dandy scraper. We’re willing to bet you can get a whole cookie’s worth.
5. Rimless Baking Sheet
We’re fond of the flat cookie sheets because there are no raised edges to obstruct the currents of hot air. Avoid thin, flimsy sheets unless you like burnt bottoms. Dark cookie sheets can also cause burning.
6. Silicone Baking Mats
If you want to encourage even baking, prevent burnt cookie bottoms, and avoid having to grease your pan every time, we recommend a silicone baking mat. These food-grade liners come in the size of a cookie sheet. Parchment paper works well, too, and some people say it keeps cookies from spreading out too much. However, we have great results with silicone liners, and they’re more cost-effective than parchment paper in the long run.
Silicone mats are also easier on the environment than parchment because they’re reusable. Most are heat resistant up to 450°F and can be cleaned in the dishwasher. They’re also great for plenty of things besides cookies—baked chicken or pork, roasted veggies, yeast breads, and more.
7. Cooling Rack
If you’ve baked many cookies, you know that the margin between a perfectly done cookie and an overbaked one is very slim. When a cookie sits on a hot pan, it will continue to bake. To avoid this tragedy, invest in a cooling rack.
After your cookies have cooled for just a few minutes on the baking sheet, you can transfer them to the rack. Not only does this keep them from overbaking on the hot pan, it lifts them off the surface so that air can travel beneath them. This stops steam and condensation and keeps the bottom of your cookie perfectly crisp.
We recommend a rack that is the size of your cookie sheet so it can hold a dozen cookies and store nicely on top of your sheet. (Some pans are sold with an equally sized cooling rack.) We also recommend a rack with a tight grid, so the cookies don’t sag through the openings.