Essential Kitchen Tools for Baking

A practical and thorough list of essential kitchen tools for baking at home.

As a lifelong baker, I couldn’t get by without my battered cookie sheets and trusty 8-inch round cake pans. When I think of all the birthday cakes and lunchbox cookies they have turned out over the years, I get a little emotional.

My teens are already thinking ahead to when they have their own apartments, and are asking about stocking it with essential kitchen tools for baking. So I wrote this post for them, as well as all of you.

Casual bakers, who take on the occasional showstopper dessert, here’s my professional advice on tried and true gear that will not break the bank and will stand the test of time. Read on!

Essential Tools for Baking: What to Thrift and What to Buy New

I set up my very first kitchen at the age of 19, in a tiny Montreal walk-up. I was living off a meagre cooks salary, and built my collection of essential tools for baking from thrift shops, garage sales, and warehouse bargain bins.

Over the years, even as my budget has grown more flexible, I’ve kept a similar frugal mentality. My beloved collection of bakeware comes from all over the place. I’ve inherited bundt cake pans, thrifted vintage pie tins, and salvaged aplenty from garage sales. 

My point is, you don’t have to buy out Williams Sonoma to get started (or ever, really). I recommend you avoid trends, and stay with classic gear.

Please read what I wrote about Kitchen Tools and the Zero Waste Conscious Cook in my previous post, Essential Kitchen Tools for Cooking. 

Kitchen Items to Thrift:

Snatch up these lucky finds when you come across them second hand:

Copper pots. Enamelware casseroles. Mixing bowls of all sizes. Le Creuset or Staub pie plates and ramekins. Pyrex pie pans. Vintage bundt pans. Offset spatulas. Sturdy whisks. Cookie cutters. Vintage tart pans. The list goes on!

Consider giving a home to preloved kitchen items before buying new. Your collection will be much more interesting and you’ll be pushing back against consumerism.

Kitchen Items to Buy New:

These are examples of baking tools that are more technical and should be bought new. They require special care to maintain well: keeping them sharp or spotlessly clean.

Pastry brushes. Digital Scale. Nonstick baking pans. Grater/Microplane. Pairing knife. Box grater. Instant read thermometer. Silicone Tongs. Heat resistant spatulas. Fine-mesh sieve/strainers.

Essential Kitchen Tools for Baking

Twenty five years after that first Montreal home, my essential kitchen tools for baking remains edited and modest. I’ve made a career out of cooking and baking, written two cookbooks and fed a family with the items listed below and in my last post.

Unless you’re a formally trained pastry chef or aspiring chocolatier, here’s all you really need to truly bake up a storm. Targeted ads may want you to believe you can’t live without that shiny new gadget, but believe me, you can.

As the title suggests, this post specifically covers kitchen equipment for baking. Refer to my previous post for Essential Kitchen Tools for Cooking.

Measuring

These essential tools are used day in and day out!

• • Digital Kitchen Scale

• • Dry measuring cups – I prefer stainless

• • Wet measuring cups – I like Oxo

• • Pyrex liquid measuring cups – handy for melting butter, ect

• • Measuring spoons – I like to have a couple of sets in rotation

Mixing

• • Large stainless mixing bowls – Lightweight and durable, I love my set of nesting stainless mixing bowls from a local restaurant supply store.

• • Glass bowls – I have glass nesting bowls from the French company Duralex (found at Lee Valley); the little bowls come in handy for sauces, spices and herbs during the cooking process. Also great for marinating meat because glass is non-reactive. Anchor Hocking also makes a set.

• • Silicone spatulas – all shapes and sizes. I prefer mine with wooden or bamboo handles and wash them all by hand.

• • Wooden or bamboo mixing spoons -I like to collect wooden spoons with character. Hunt for them at farmers market’s or craft shows, or look up local wood carvers in your area.

TRAYS! I have a collection of trays that I use every day, an assortment of enamelware trays, cafeteria trays and metal sheet pans. I use them to assemble ingredients, chill balls of cookie dough, decorate cookies and much more. 

Large and Small Appliances

• • Stand Mixer – The third arm of the home baker, a stand mixer is a worthy investment. It folds butter into flour for my Rich Pie Crust, beats the eggs whites for pavlova, and easily creams together butter and sugar for my Monster Cookies.

• • A 6-Speed Hand Mixer works great for small batch baking, whipping cream, eggs and various batters.

• • Electric Spice Grinder – The a practical investment. I grind most of my spices myself, and use an old $20 coffee grinder.

Bakeware

Bakeware. It’s one of my favourite words. It conjures up images of delicate madeleine pans and vintage tart pans with their fluted edges. If I had the space, I’d collect vintage bakeware and display it from floor to ceiling.

• • 8-inch round cake pans. Get two or three. Wilton is great.
  • Quarter sheet pans – handy for toasting nuts, small batch baking and so much more.
  • Rimmed sheet pans – nonstick

• • 9×13 cake pans – Here’s the only one you need, by Nordic Ware. I have this 9×13 cake pan and quarter sheet pan with a lid and use it constantly. If you want to give the perfect gift to a budding baker in your life, pair the 9×13 Nordic Ware pan with fantastic One Tin Bakes cookbook. 
  • Stoneware baking dish – Ceramic baking dishes, oval, square or rectangle, are nice to have for desserts presented at the table such as fruit cobblers, fruit crisps and cakes. My personal favourites are from Le Creuset (pictured above); beautiful, timeless pieces that last for many generations.

• • Bundt Pan – every baker should own a pretty Bundt pan! I love this Nordic Ware Heritage swirl pan. As seen in my Apple Cider Gingerbread Bundt.

• • Muffin tins – they last forever. Mine are thrifted.
  • Tart tins – a few shapes and sizes
  • Springform pan – 9-inch is standard size

Utensils and Gadgets

Ohhhh these run the complete gamut and most of them are a complete waste of money! I’ve been known to march straight out of a baking supply store after being confronted with such foolishness as an egg separator.

Unless you’re a formally trained pastry chef or aspiring chocolatier, here’s all you really need for everyday baking.

• • Thermapen or digital, instant read thermometer

• • Spatulas: silicone lifter, silicone spatula, offset spatula

• • Whisks – at least 3 sizes

• • Wooden spoon

• • Rolling pin

• • Silicone pastry brush

• • Microplane or rasp, Box Grater

Nice to Have:

• • Bench Scraper/Chopper

• • Cookie scoop, medium (2Tablespoons) is perfect

• • Pastry bag and a few tips

• • cookie cutters

I’d love to hear about your essential kitchen tools for baking! Are you the caretaker of any sentimental hand-me-downs? What’s a modern gadget that’s changed your life? Share in the comments…

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