Baking Ingredient & Baking Equipment Recommendations

Eileen’s favorite baking equipment.

Angled Measuring Cup
Baking Pans
Bread for Bread Pudding
Buttermilk
Cake Flour
Chocolate
Cinnamon
Citrus Juicers and Zesters
Coarsely Chopping Nuts
Cookie Cutters
Cookie Dough Scoops
Digital Scale
Electric Hand Mixer
European Style Butter
Flour
Kitchen Parchment
Mini Muffin Pans
Muffin Pans
Pure Flavors and Pure Citrus Oils
Rolling Pins
The Best Pans for Baking Pies
Using Oven Mitts for Safety

Rolling Pins

If you choose a heavy, large rolling pin, the pin will do most of the work of rolling for you. I recommend using a rolling pin that has a roller that is at least 14 inches long (not including the handles if the pin has them). There are many types of rolling pins, with and without handles, and you should buy the kind that feels best to you.

Cookie Cutters

Whether it's for the holidays or just everyday baking, it's fun to have a variety of cookie cutter shapes to choose from. You can also use cookie cutters to make shapes out of piecrust scraps, which you brush with milk, sprinkle with sugar, bake and use as decorations on the pies.

Mini Muffin Pans

Some of the recipes offered in this webzine require the use of mini muffin pans (these pans are sometimes referred to as “gem” pans). The wells are much smaller than in cupcake pans, so you cannot use cupcake pans to make these recipes. You also need to have paper pan liners for the mini muffin pans, or the little tarts often stick stubbornly. These little fluted paper cups are available in many grocery stores, and can be found in kitchen shops and some discount stores.

Muffin Pans

Muffin Pans can be purchased at just about any grocery store, discount store, and at many hardware stores. The basic grocery store brand is fine. I like to use non-stick pans, because they clean up more easily. Buy one you can afford, just make sure it isn’t too dark, or your muffins will have pale crusts.

Coarsely Chopping Nuts

When you want coarsely chopped nuts, one of the easiest ways to chop them to a consistent size is by using a mezzaluna. Mezzalunas are available in kitchen shops and on the internet. They are curved, sharp blades with handles. They are sometimes sold with a shallow, curved wooden bowl that is fitted to the shape of the mezzaluna. You can also use them on flat cutting surfaces, by rotating the blade back and forth on its edge while chopping the ingredient. Mezzalunas are available with either one or two blades, and there is much debate about which is better. It is a purely personal decision about the number of blades. Some people like the faster chopping with two blades, while some think it is too difficult to clean a mezzaluna that has two blades, because the food sticks between the blades and is difficult to remove. No matter which you choose, it makes fast work of chopping nuts.

European Style Butter

I have always promoted using butter instead of margarine or shortening, and for many recipes I prefer to use European Style butter, like Plugra brand, that you can find in most well-stocked grocery stores. It creates a lighter texture and richer flavor than regular butter. Most recipes call for a relatively small amount of butter, so the increase in cost to buy the premium European Style butter is really negligible. You can wrap the unused butter with plastic wrap and put it into a self-sealing plastic freezer bag and freeze it for up to a year. The European Style butters are not just hype – they actually do make a superior, more flavorful product. When I decide to use European Style Butter the brand I use is Plugra European Style Butter, which is available in most well stocked grocery stores. Where butter plays a major role in the flavor, or texture, the increase in quality makes it absolutely worth the extra expense in many pastries and desserts. Buy it when it is on sale and keep it in your freezer.

Buttermilk

Buttermilk is included in some of the recipes in this site. Buttermilk is usually only available in quart containers, and many people find that they end up throwing away what they don’t use in the recipe. If you will have no other use for the leftover fresh buttermilk, you can substitute Saco brand Dry Buttermilk, which is available in the canned milk or baking section of many well-stocked grocery stores. If you decide to use the Saco dry buttermilk, be sure to follow the instructions on the label: the powder is added with the dry ingredients and the water you use to re-hydrate the buttermilk powder is added with the wet ingredients.

Cake Flour

Some cake recipes given in this web site call for Cake Flour, which is soft flour that is lower in gluten and produces a more tender crumb in cakes and pastries. Use cake flour when specified, because it will give you a more superior product. You can find cake flour in the baking aisle of your local grocery store. The most popular brand is Softasilk by General Mills, and that is what I have used in developing the recipes on this web site wherever cake flour is called for.

Chocolate

Using a superior quality chocolate when you bake is vital to the outcome of your efforts. It is best not to use the popular American semisweet chocolates (Hershey’s and Baker’s brands) for baking, because they have a coarser texture and lower cocoa butter content, and are not the superior quality you need to get the best results from your baking. Most American chocolate companies often use hydrogenated vegetable oil (also known as shortening) when they manufacture their chocolate, which detracts from the way truly good chocolate melts in your mouth, not to mention the flavor. NEVER use chocolate coatings (also called summer coatings), which contain no cocoa butter and will have a poor flavor and texture. My absolute favorite chocolate for baking, the one I have used exclusively for many years, is Callebaut, from Belgium. You may also like Valrhona, Lindt, Scharffen Berger (an American chocolate that is worth using) or El Rey. They are all fine quality chocolates. But I prefer Callebaut to all of them. It has a smooth texture and wonderful full, round chocolate flavor. I’ve found Callebaut at the Whole Foods grocery store chain, if you have one near your home. I use their semisweet, white and unsweetened varieties.

Some of my recipes specify “Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate” and which you use depends on your own personal preference. Bittersweet chocolate contains less sugar (and, therefore, more chocolate) than Semisweet Chocolate. So if you want a deeper chocolate flavor, use Bittersweet Chocolate. You can also obtain a dark chocolate flavor by using 3 parts semisweet chocolate and one part unsweetened chocolate.

Do not substitute chocolate chips for the semisweet chocolate in these recipes, because the chips are manufactured in a different way from premium chocolate, to make the chips keep their shape when they are baked. You will get poor results in texture and flavor in these recipes if you substitute chips where I call for semisweet or bittersweet chocolate.

Callebaut also manufactures an exquisite cocoa powder, which is what I used in developing the Chocolate Raspberry Souffle Cake and Chocolate Mini Bundt Cake recipes. There are many other fine manufacturers of cocoa powder, like Ghirardelli and Valrhona, and I urge you to try different kinds to see which you prefer.

Pure Flavors and Pure Citrus Oils

When I bake, I look for pure ingredients that enhance the flavor or texture of whatever I am baking. I have found Boyajian Pure Oils to fall into that category. Only a very small amount of these oils is necessary to provide a full, round flavor to what you are baking. My two favorites are Pure Lemon Oil, and Pure Orange Oil, but I also use and love the Anise Oil and the Peppermint Oil. The lemon and orange oils have a much fuller, less harsh flavor than orange or lemon extracts, and they deliver a first-class product. Cooking.com sells the oils online, and they are also available at some gourmet and kitchen shops.

Baking Pans

When selecting cake pans, there is no need to buy the amazingly expensive brands. The basic non-stick pans are fine for baking cakes. Save your money for buying superior quality ingredients. Rectangular Baking Pans (9 x 13) like the ones used to make the Lemon Cake are available in most grocery and discount stores. For years I have used the Bakers Secret pans I buy at my grocery. That brand also carries 12-portion cupcake pans that produce a fine product.

Angled Measuring Cup

I have lately been quite enamored of the Oxo Angled Measuring Cup. The measuring cup, intended for measuring liquids, can be read from above, eliminating the need to hold the cup up to eye level, or crouching down to read the cup as it sits on a countertop. It is an amazing development in kitchen gadgets, and I highly suggest that you get your hands on one. I haven’t seen them in grocery or discount stores, but they are available in kitchen shops everywhere, and on the web. Some of the sites that carry them are: kitchenkapers.com, chefsresource.com, cooking.com and amazon.com.

Electric Hand Mixer

If you do not own an electric hand mixer, it is a handy little piece of equipment to have. The one I use is a Cuisinart hand mixer, and it has a slow-start feature that keeps what you are mixing from flying all over the kitchen and in your face. Buy a hand mixer that has at least 7 speed settings.

Using Oven Mitts for Safety

Don’t risk burning your hands or arms when removing baked items from a hot oven. Always wear long oven mitts that are sturdy and long enough to cover most of your forearm. Hot pads just don’t do the trick in a hot oven where it is all too easy to brush the back of your hand, your wrist or your arm against a searing oven wall or rack. The burns you will get from this will leave scars that will last for a very long time. Buy a sturdy pair of oven mitts that come at least half way up your lower arm, and be sure to wear them when you are positioning something in a hot oven, or removing something from a hot oven. If the tips start to wear out, replace them as soon as possible.

Kitchen Parchment

Kitchen Parchment is such an aid in baking that it amazes me that more people aren’t tuned in to it. You can get it at many grocery stores, on the internet and at all kitchen shops. But if you bake a lot, and if you have access to a restaurant supply store or an institutional paper products store in your area, and you can split the cost with other Home Bakers, it pays to buy a case of professional “pan liners” and divide the case among all of you. It’s much cheaper that way, and the professional parchment comes in large, flat sheets, which won’t curl like the parchment that comes on rolls. Parchment keeps baked items from sticking and makes clean up easier. (You won’t have to wash the cookie sheets!) You can obtain parchment online at cooking.com or kitchenkapers.com. You must line the cake pan bottoms with parchment for the Lemon Cake, or it will stick.

In place of kitchen parchment you can also use one of the permanent pan liners that are available on the market. Cook-Eze, Silpat, SiliconeZone and Exopat are all fine products. They are washable, reusable, non-disposable liners, so all you do is wipe them off and use them again. And they help reduce the amount of waste in our landfills.

Citrus Juicers and Zesters

Some of the lemon recipes included in this web site call for fresh lemon juice. The frozen or bottled kinds are not even close in quality or flavor to the fresh stuff, and the flavor you get will be significantly inferior to the results you will produce if you use freshly squeezed citrus juices. It only takes a minute to squeeze the fruit. The easiest tools to use for squeezing small amounts of citrus juice are reamers. Some recipes call for freshly grated lemon zest. Don’t be seduced into buying a dried substitute. Only freshly grated zest will give you the flavor your time and money deserve. A Microplane Grater is the most efficient way to zest a lemon, and it will provide you with zest that is free of the bitter white pith. Your desserts will have a true and clean lemon flavor. These graters are available at all kitchen shops and in many places on the web.

Cookie Dough Scoops

The best way to drop cookie dough is by using a dough scoop that looks like a small ice cream scoop. They are available in all kitchen shops, and on many retail websites. Buy them in assorted sizes. They make fast work of dropping dough, or portioning cookie dough which will be shaped by hand.

Cinnamon

The most popular baking spice, cinnamon comes in several varieties. If you can find it in your grocery or gourmet store, buy Vietnamese or Saigon cinnamon. It is much more flavorful and delicious than the other varieties. If you can’t find that, try buying one that says “canela” on the label, which is a Mexican cinnamon.

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		Years of baking experience have made me adamant about selecting the finest, purest ingredients, and the best-performing equipment. I have come to know that using certain ingredients or baking pans, or even lining your baking sheets with parchment, will make a tremendous difference in the outcome of what you bake. Whenever I feel there is something out there that will improve the quality of what you bake, I will include it in this page. Please also feel free to contact me if there is an ingredient or piece of equipment you have found that you feel others should know about. I'll check it out and if it makes a contribution to higher quality or ease of preparation, I'll include it on the "Your Questions and Tips" page, along with your name.

		Eileen’s favorite baking equipment. Angled Measuring Cup Baking Pans Bread for Bread Pudding Buttermilk Cake Flour Chocolate Cinnamon Citrus Juicers and Zesters Coarsely Chopping Nuts Cookie Cutters Cookie Dough Scoops Digital Scale Electric Hand Mixer European Style Butter Flour Kitchen Parchment Mini Muffin Pans Muffin Pans Pure Flavors and Pure Citrus Oils Rolling Pins The Best Pans for Baking Pies Using Oven Mitts for Safety Rolling Pins If you choose a heavy, large rolling pin, the pin will do most of the work of rolling for you. I recommend using a rolling pin that has a roller that is at least 14 inches long (not including the handles if the pin has them). There are many types of rolling pins, with and without handles, and you should buy the kind that feels best to you. Cookie Cutters Whether it's for the holidays or just everyday baking, it's fun to have a variety of cookie cutter shapes to choose from. You can also use cookie cutters to make shapes out of piecrust scraps, which you brush with milk, sprinkle with sugar, bake and use as decorations on the pies. Mini Muffin Pans Some of the recipes offered in this webzine require the use of mini muffin pans (these pans are sometimes referred to as “gem” pans). The wells are much smaller than in cupcake pans, so you cannot use cupcake pans to make these recipes. You also need to have paper pan liners for the mini muffin pans, or the little tarts often stick stubbornly. These little fluted paper cups are available in many grocery stores, and can be found in kitchen shops and some discount stores. Muffin Pans Muffin Pans can be purchased at just about any grocery store, discount store, and at many hardware stores. The basic grocery store brand is fine. I like to use non-stick pans, because they clean up more easily. Buy one you can afford, just make sure it isn’t too dark, or your muffins will have pale crusts. Coarsely Chopping Nuts When you want coarsely chopped nuts, one of the easiest ways to chop them to a consistent size is by using a mezzaluna. Mezzalunas are available in kitchen shops and on the internet. They are curved, sharp blades with handles. They are sometimes sold with a shallow, curved wooden bowl that is fitted to the shape of the mezzaluna. You can also use them on flat cutting surfaces, by rotating the blade back and forth on its edge while chopping the ingredient. Mezzalunas are available with either one or two blades, and there is much debate about which is better. It is a purely personal decision about the number of blades. Some people like the faster chopping with two blades, while some think it is too difficult to clean a mezzaluna that has two blades, because the food sticks between the blades and is difficult to remove. No matter which you choose, it makes fast work of chopping nuts. European Style Butter I have always promoted using butter instead of margarine or shortening, and for many recipes I prefer to use European Style butter, like Plugra brand, that you can find in most well-stocked grocery stores. It creates a lighter texture and richer flavor than regular butter. Most recipes call for a relatively small amount of butter, so the increase in cost to buy the premium European Style butter is really negligible. You can wrap the unused butter with plastic wrap and put it into a self-sealing plastic freezer bag and freeze it for up to a year. The European Style butters are not just hype – they actually do make a superior, more flavorful product. When I decide to use European Style Butter the brand I use is Plugra European Style Butter, which is available in most well stocked grocery stores. Where butter plays a major role in the flavor, or texture, the increase in quality makes it absolutely worth the extra expense in many pastries and desserts. Buy it when it is on sale and keep it in your freezer. Buttermilk Buttermilk is included in some of the recipes in this site. Buttermilk is usually only available in quart containers, and many people find that they end up throwing away what they don’t use in the recipe. If you will have no other use for the leftover fresh buttermilk, you can substitute Saco brand Dry Buttermilk, which is available in the canned milk or baking section of many well-stocked grocery stores. If you decide to use the Saco dry buttermilk, be sure to follow the instructions on the label: the powder is added with the dry ingredients and the water you use to re-hydrate the buttermilk powder is added with the wet ingredients. Cake Flour Some cake recipes given in this web site call for Cake Flour, which is soft flour that is lower in gluten and produces a more tender crumb in cakes and pastries. Use cake flour when specified, because it will give you a more superior product. You can find cake flour in the baking aisle of your local grocery store. The most popular brand is Softasilk by General Mills, and that is what I have used in developing the recipes on this web site wherever cake flour is called for. Chocolate Using a superior quality chocolate when you bake is vital to the outcome of your efforts. It is best not to use the popular American semisweet chocolates (Hershey’s and Baker’s brands) for baking, because they have a coarser texture and lower cocoa butter content, and are not the superior quality you need to get the best results from your baking. Most American chocolate companies often use hydrogenated vegetable oil (also known as shortening) when they manufacture their chocolate, which detracts from the way truly good chocolate melts in your mouth, not to mention the flavor. NEVER use chocolate coatings (also called summer coatings), which contain no cocoa butter and will have a poor flavor and texture. My absolute favorite chocolate for baking, the one I have used exclusively for many years, is Callebaut, from Belgium. You may also like Valrhona, Lindt, Scharffen Berger (an American chocolate that is worth using) or El Rey. They are all fine quality chocolates. But I prefer Callebaut to all of them. It has a smooth texture and wonderful full, round chocolate flavor. I’ve found Callebaut at the Whole Foods grocery store chain, if you have one near your home. I use their semisweet, white and unsweetened varieties. Some of my recipes specify “Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate” and which you use depends on your own personal preference. Bittersweet chocolate contains less sugar (and, therefore, more chocolate) than Semisweet Chocolate. So if you want a deeper chocolate flavor, use Bittersweet Chocolate. You can also obtain a dark chocolate flavor by using 3 parts semisweet chocolate and one part unsweetened chocolate. Do not substitute chocolate chips for the semisweet chocolate in these recipes, because the chips are manufactured in a different way from premium chocolate, to make the chips keep their shape when they are baked. You will get poor results in texture and flavor in these recipes if you substitute chips where I call for semisweet or bittersweet chocolate. Callebaut also manufactures an exquisite cocoa powder, which is what I used in developing the Chocolate Raspberry Souffle Cake and Chocolate Mini Bundt Cake recipes. There are many other fine manufacturers of cocoa powder, like Ghirardelli and Valrhona, and I urge you to try different kinds to see which you prefer. Pure Flavors and Pure Citrus Oils When I bake, I look for pure ingredients that enhance the flavor or texture of whatever I am baking. I have found Boyajian Pure Oils to fall into that category. Only a very small amount of these oils is necessary to provide a full, round flavor to what you are baking. My two favorites are Pure Lemon Oil, and Pure Orange Oil, but I also use and love the Anise Oil and the Peppermint Oil. The lemon and orange oils have a much fuller, less harsh flavor than orange or lemon extracts, and they deliver a first-class product. Cooking.com sells the oils online, and they are also available at some gourmet and kitchen shops. Baking Pans When selecting cake pans, there is no need to buy the amazingly expensive brands. The basic non-stick pans are fine for baking cakes. Save your money for buying superior quality ingredients. Rectangular Baking Pans (9 x 13) like the ones used to make the Lemon Cake are available in most grocery and discount stores. For years I have used the Bakers Secret pans I buy at my grocery. That brand also carries 12-portion cupcake pans that produce a fine product. Angled Measuring Cup I have lately been quite enamored of the Oxo Angled Measuring Cup. The measuring cup, intended for measuring liquids, can be read from above, eliminating the need to hold the cup up to eye level, or crouching down to read the cup as it sits on a countertop. It is an amazing development in kitchen gadgets, and I highly suggest that you get your hands on one. I haven’t seen them in grocery or discount stores, but they are available in kitchen shops everywhere, and on the web. Some of the sites that carry them are: kitchenkapers.com, chefsresource.com, cooking.com and amazon.com. Electric Hand Mixer If you do not own an electric hand mixer, it is a handy little piece of equipment to have. The one I use is a Cuisinart hand mixer, and it has a slow-start feature that keeps what you are mixing from flying all over the kitchen and in your face. Buy a hand mixer that has at least 7 speed settings. Using Oven Mitts for Safety Don’t risk burning your hands or arms when removing baked items from a hot oven. Always wear long oven mitts that are sturdy and long enough to cover most of your forearm. Hot pads just don’t do the trick in a hot oven where it is all too easy to brush the back of your hand, your wrist or your arm against a searing oven wall or rack. The burns you will get from this will leave scars that will last for a very long time. Buy a sturdy pair of oven mitts that come at least half way up your lower arm, and be sure to wear them when you are positioning something in a hot oven, or removing something from a hot oven. If the tips start to wear out, replace them as soon as possible. Kitchen Parchment Kitchen Parchment is such an aid in baking that it amazes me that more people aren’t tuned in to it. You can get it at many grocery stores, on the internet and at all kitchen shops. But if you bake a lot, and if you have access to a restaurant supply store or an institutional paper products store in your area, and you can split the cost with other Home Bakers, it pays to buy a case of professional “pan liners” and divide the case among all of you. It’s much cheaper that way, and the professional parchment comes in large, flat sheets, which won’t curl like the parchment that comes on rolls. Parchment keeps baked items from sticking and makes clean up easier. (You won’t have to wash the cookie sheets!) You can obtain parchment online at cooking.com or kitchenkapers.com. You must line the cake pan bottoms with parchment for the Lemon Cake, or it will stick. In place of kitchen parchment you can also use one of the permanent pan liners that are available on the market. Cook-Eze, Silpat, SiliconeZone and Exopat are all fine products. They are washable, reusable, non-disposable liners, so all you do is wipe them off and use them again. And they help reduce the amount of waste in our landfills. Citrus Juicers and Zesters Some of the lemon recipes included in this web site call for fresh lemon juice. The frozen or bottled kinds are not even close in quality or flavor to the fresh stuff, and the flavor you get will be significantly inferior to the results you will produce if you use freshly squeezed citrus juices. It only takes a minute to squeeze the fruit. The easiest tools to use for squeezing small amounts of citrus juice are reamers. Some recipes call for freshly grated lemon zest. Don’t be seduced into buying a dried substitute. Only freshly grated zest will give you the flavor your time and money deserve. A Microplane Grater is the most efficient way to zest a lemon, and it will provide you with zest that is free of the bitter white pith. Your desserts will have a true and clean lemon flavor. These graters are available at all kitchen shops and in many places on the web. Cookie Dough Scoops The best way to drop cookie dough is by using a dough scoop that looks like a small ice cream scoop. They are available in all kitchen shops, and on many retail websites. Buy them in assorted sizes. They make fast work of dropping dough, or portioning cookie dough which will be shaped by hand. Cinnamon The most popular baking spice, cinnamon comes in several varieties. If you can find it in your grocery or gourmet store, buy Vietnamese or Saigon cinnamon. It is much more flavorful and delicious than the other varieties. If you can’t find that, try buying one that says “canela” on the label, which is a Mexican cinnamon. Flour When I call for all-purpose unbleached, or whole wheat flours in my recipes, the flours I use in my kitchen and for testing my recipes are the ones sold under the King Arthur Flour label. Their Unbleached All-Purpose Flour and Traditional Whole Wheat Flour are available in many groceries, including Whole Foods Markets, and from their web site www.kingarthurflour.com. Their flour is consistent in its high quality, and I highly recommend it. The Best Pans for Baking Pies You’ll get the best results baking pies in glass Pyrex pie pans, Corning Ware pie pans, or ceramic pie pans. Never place any of these pans on a cold surface when you remove the hot pies from the oven. Bread for Bread Pudding When you choose the type of bread to use, be sure you don’t use a commercial, fluffy white bread, because the resulting bread pudding will be mushy, not dense. Brioche is the first choice, but if you don’t have a bakery near you where you can get brioche, you can use a dense, home-style white bread, like the ones made by Vermont Bread Company, Arnold or Pepperidge Farms. If the brioche top crust is very dark brown, you may want to trim it off. Otherwise, use the bread with the crusts. Digital Scale If you are thinking about buying a digital scale, the Pana by Escali is one of the neatest scales I've used. It weighs by standard pounds or kilograms, but it also converts the weights to cups and tablespoons. If you want to measure 3-1/2 cups of sugar, you press the "Vol" tab, and then enter the code for sugar from the list Escali provides with the scale. (Don't worry about losing the list - they keep it available for download on their web site.) It has a tare capability, too.