Watch this video tutorial
In this article – Part two, I am going to share with you 5 of my top 10 essential baking tools for you, as beginners, to set up for home baking. You can watch my video tutorial to see all those 10 tools in action.
Look no further, let’s get started to see what those essential baking tools are!
10 Essential Baking Tools – #6 Flour sifter (also called a sieve)
Flour is one of the main ingredients in almost every bake. Of course, some bakes don’t use flour, such as my flourless walnut Swiss roll with coffee cream, but these are the exceptions rather than the rule.
When you use flour or sometimes cocoa powder, these ingredients tend to be lumpy, which isn’t what we need for a perfect bake. So it’s essential to sift (or sieve) flour and similar ingredients before mixing them into any wet ingredients. I’ve tried a number of different types of flour sifters to find the one that gets the job done most efficiently. Here are my four considerations when it comes to choosing the ideal sifter.
- Budget friendly – a basic sifter suits this criterias. It’s not expensive and you can easily find one in any household section. However, I would recommend that even the simple sifter needs to have two hooks on either side of the rim. Those hooks allow you to rest the tool on top of your mixing bowl while you filter the ingredients through it. This leaves one hand free to hold a spatula or two hands for a heavy mixing bowl.
- Simple to use – as sifting the dry ingredients is a must-do step in baking, the sifter needs to fulfil that basic function well. Basically, pour the dry ingredients in and sift, that’s it. It doesn’t need to be fancy at all, beware gimmicks that don’t actually enhance your experience.
- Fast sifting process – this criteria is easy to understand, no one wants to spend ages sifting flour because it’s not the most fun activity. Again, the simple sifters are also often the fastest to use.
- Won’t make a mess outside the mixing bowl – in other words, the sifted flour needs to end up in the mixing bowl! If large amounts of flour sift outside the mixing bowl and onto your kitchen top, the amount of flour will be less than what is needed in the recipe. Precision is critical in baking and the wrong amount of ingredients will damage your bake’s chances of success. So, being able to keep all the flour in the mixing bowl is also a must-have feature.
Here are my two flavorite flour sifters, a metal sieve and Wilton hand-crank sifter, that suit the above four consideration.
Based on my experience, I prefer to use this basic one the most. The reasons are pretty obvious. It is budget friendly, simple to use, fast sifting and doesn’t mess up my working surface. Apart from the basic one, I do like using the hand-crank one to particularly sift icing sugar. If you want to understand more about the reasons why I don’t choose another sifters, you can watch my video tutorial. I explain them in action so that you can understand the reasons visually.
10 Essential Baking Tools – #7 Baking pans
Baking pans is a very broad term to describe any containers that are dry heat safe for baking food in the oven. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the variety of different sizes, shapes or designs of baking pans and some of them can be quite pricey. Which ones should I invest in? Which sizes do I need? There isn’t a ‘right answer’ to this one. Every baker has her or his own preference that will determine their baking pan collection. So here I’m sharing with you what you can bake with particular baking pans. I hope it can help you decide which pan or pans you need.
- Cupcake/muffin pan – this kind of pan is a very common one. I believe every baker will have one or two of these pans tucked away in the kitchen. Obviously, the function is mainly for baking cupcakes or muffins, which are delicious but very basic bakes. However, to be creative, I sometimes use my pans to bake bread rolls or to bake shells with dumpling wrappers as well. My mouth is watering thinking about the possibilities…
- Round cake pan with a loose base – this kind of cake pan comes in different sizes. I recommend a 6” pan for small cakes and an 8” or 9” for a medium cake. Due to the versatility of the detachable bottom, you can also swap the standard base for a tube base. If you want to try to bake chiffon cakes as well (great fun, I recommend trying one of my recipes). I highly recommend you to try my Black Sesame Chiffon Cake, Coffee Chiffon Cake or Pandan Chiffon Cake recipes. They are super yummy!!
- Non-stick shallow baking pan – you can easily find this pan in either square or rectangular shape, whatever suits you best. Why is it worth investing in one? This kind of pan can be so versatile. I use it to bake brownies, cookies, Swiss rolls, any sort of tray bake or any kind of free-form bread. I’m pretty sure that you’ll get good use from one of these. If you get one of these pans, I highly recommend you to try my THE BEST homemade garlic bread EVER recipe. It is the Best of the Best!!!
- 1lb loaf tin – Another cake tin that I suggest you consider is a 1lb loaf tin. As a beginner, loaf cake is probably the easiest bake that gives a high guarantee of success. Great for building confidence, requiring only basic skills. You just mix all the ingredients in one bowl, pour the mixture into the tin. Let the oven do the rest! You can try my popular loaf cake recipes – coffee walnut loaf cake, banana walnut cake or banana loaf cake. I also use this tin to bake bread.
The pans I suggest here are not only suitable for beginners. I’m still using my very first pans for baking because they’re all so versatile. As you become a more sophisticated baker, you will come to understand what you really love to bake and invest in more pans with more specific functions to suit your interests. But this collection will get you a long way without the need for anything more complicated.
10 Essential Baking Tools – #8 Rolling pins
Rolling pins are for rolling out cookie dough, bread dough or pie crust, or for using on any ingredients you want to have an even thickness.
From my point of view, rolling pins don’t need to be fancy. However, there are decisions to make in terms of designs or what the pin is actually made of. As a result, they can vary a lot in price as well.
My first rolling pin
As you can see, very basic! It’s just a wooden stick without handles on the ends. When I began, I used it to roll out everything and I still use it a lot.
Rolling pin for my baking business
However, when I set up my business, I invested in a rolling pin which has measurements on both ends. This one even has a non-stick coating as well, which can be really helpful. This one was more pricey but because I was baking commercially. I needed to have evenly baked cookies for my customers, often in quite large numbers. Consistency was key, so I bought this pin and it was a great investment. The measuring scales are really very useful. As you can see, they enable me to roll out dough with precision into thicknesses of 2mm, 4mm, 6mm or 8mm.
If you want to see how this rolling pin works in more detail, you can check out my video tutorial My 10 baking essential tools for home bakers to understand more.
What should you choose?
In conclusion, a basic wooden rolling pin can get the job done, you can choose whether you want one with or without handles, depending on your personal preference. As I said, it doesn’t need to be fancy and there are ways of creating DIY solutions to achieve consistent thickness with a regular pin but for ease of use you can invest in an adjustable pin if this appeals. I use it a lot but the upgrade is nice to have rather than need to have, especially when you are starting out.
10 Essential Baking Tools – #9 Silicone baking mats or parchment paper
Silicone baking mats and parchment paper are for preventing freshly baked goodies from sticking onto your baking pans as they bake. You may know parchment paper by a different name – baking paper or greaseproof paper are also common names for this most helpful baking tool. Having our delicious bakes stuck onto the pan is the scenario that we really don’t want to see. Therefore, the big question is when to use a mat or when to use parchment paper. Here I share my thoughts on how I choose between them.
Silicone baking mat
- Reusable – baking mats are reusable while parchment paper is one-off usage.
- Excellent with hot confections – a baking mat is an excellent tool when you are working with a hot confection, such as toffee.
- Flat surface – this is the only surface for using a baking mat because it can’t do its job when folded or bent.
- Needs some care – the mat needs to be completely clean every time you use it. Also you should never use a knife on the surface or it will become damaged and unusable.
Parchment Paper
- Flexibility – You can tailor-cut paper to fit your variously sized and shaped baking pans where mats will only fit particular baking sheets.
- Budget friendly – Compared with buying a silicone baking mat, using parchment paper is more affordable because a silicone baking mat can be quite pricey as a one-off. Obviously, the more you use it, the more value for money it gives.
Personally, I use parchment paper more than my mats for baking, although I do have several baking mats in different sizes. It isn’t a matter of better or worse in choosing between them. However, I find using parchment paper is more convenient. You might like to watch my video tutorial showing you how to line your baking pans with parchment paper without any hassle. Check it out.
10 Essential Baking Tools – #10 Wire racks or cooling racks
Wire racks, also known as cooling racks, always appear at the last stage of the bake. You can see almost all recipes will tell you to allow your bakes to cool down completely on a wire rack. This is to prevent sticking and soggy bases to your bakes as moisture escapes during cooling. This makes wire racks one of the baking essential tools. There are a lot of choices on the market, round, square or rectangular. It totally depends on your personal preference and how you want to store them. I have a set of three which are foldable and stackable in order to save some space. I bake a lot so this set is perfect for me. You can choose the type and the number of racks that suit your needs. Maybe just start with one basic rack and see how you go.
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Thank you very much for stopping by and reading the blog. These same 10 tools are demonstrated in My 10 baking essential tools for home bakers video tutorial if you want to explore the ideas a bit further and see the tools in action.
I also share my other 5 essential baking tools in Part 1. You can check it out here. I hope that my suggestions have given you some insights on what to invest in and how to choose the tools to help you kick off your exciting baking journey.
Please leave me comments if you have any questions. I would love to chat with you!
Happy baking!
