Tools for Baking Cookies

Essential Cookie-Baking Tools

• Baking pans: To make bar cookies, such as brownies, you’ll need heavy-duty aluminum square or rectangular baking pans. Look for shiny, light-colored pans, which reflect heat better than dull, dark pans and help prevent the edges of your bar cookies from overbaking or burning. Common baking pan sizes are 8" square, 9" square, and 9" × 13" rectangular.
   
  
• Baking sheets: To make regular cookies, you’ll need at least two aluminum baking sheets. You can use nonstick baking sheets, or grease regular sheets with butter or nonstick spray. Baking sheet sizes vary, so check what will fit in your oven before buying anything.
   
  
• Bowls: Pyrex® glass or stainless steel bowls are preferable because plastic bowls tend to absorb odors.
   
  
• Measuring tools: These tools are indispensable for measuring ingredients. Dry measuring cups and measuring spoons can be made of metal, plastic, or ceramic, and wet measuring cups can be made of glass or plastic.
   
  
   
  
   
  
• Mixer: If you bake often, an electric mixer is an essential tool. A stand mixer with multiple attachments makes quick work of mixing, creaming, whisking, and kneading jobs. Hand mixers are much cheaper than stand mixers and powerful enough for most cookie making, but may not be strong enough to cream, knead, or mix very heavy batters.
   
  
   
  
• Spatulas: Thin, flexible metal spatulas are helpful for lifting cookies from baking sheets. Rubber, curved-tip spatulas are great for scraping dough from bowls.
   
  
   
  

Additional Cookie-Baking Tools

• Balloon whisk: A whisk with a wide head, necessary for cookie recipes that require whipped egg whites (such as meringue cookies).
   
  
• Bench scraper: Also called a dough scraper, this straightedge with a wooden or plastic handle is handy for scraping clean a cooking surface and for portioning and moving dough without having to handle it with your hands.
   
  
• Cookie cutters: Molds for cutting cookies into shapes. Avoid cheap metal molds, which warp easily and can rust. If you’d rather not pay the added price for sturdier copper or tin-plated steel molds, opt for plastic ones.
   
  
• Oven thermometer: Making perfect cookies requires precise baking temperatures. Unfortunately, many home ovens are inaccurate and maintain temperatures above or below the indicated settings. Getting a $10–20 oven thermometer lets you know your oven’s actual temperature.
   
  
• Parchment paper or silicone baking mats: As an alternative to greasing baking sheets, you can cover baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Silicone mats cost more than parchment paper, but can be reused and are therefore less expensive in the long run.
   
  
• Pastry bag: A cone-shaped bag with two open ends, a pastry bag is used to decorate cookies. Icing is spooned into the large end and then piped out the small end. Many pastry bags come with different decorative tips and are generally inexpensive.
   
  
• Rolling pin: To make rolled cookies, you’ll need a rolling pin. Wooden pins are preferable, as plastic absorbs odors, glass is fragile, and hollow metal pins harbor bacteria if water and flour seep into the interior. Never clean a wooden rolling pin by putting it in the dishwasher or submerging it in water—this will cause it to warp. Wipe it with a damp cloth instead.
   
  
• Wire cooling racks: Made of crisscrossed wires, cooling racks are designed to cool cookies quickly and evenly after baking. They ensure that your cookies won’t get soggy or over-baked from the residual heat in your baking sheet.