22 Best Pie-Baking Tools, According to Experts 2021

May 16,2024

We asked pie-baking experts about all the necessary tools for baking a pie from scratch (as well as some tools that are just nice to have), including the Ateco French Rolling Pin, OXO Good Grips Pastry Blender, Nordic Ware Pie Shield, and more..
Over 3,000 reviewers describe this scale as “easy to use,” and hundreds claim to use it daily. “After binge-watching every season of the Great British Baking Show, I decided to spring for a kitchen scale not just for baking ingredients but for general cooking use as well,” writes one reviewer. “This particular scale is light but tough, small but hardworking, easy to operate and to switch from imperial to metric measurements … For such an inexpensive tool, it’s really become indispensable in our kitchen.” Many shoppers point out that this scale requires AAA batteries (included in the package), which are less expensive and easier to find than the button batteries used in other scales. One popular use for this scale among reviewers is portion control: “This made dieting so much easier … I lost fifty pounds since the beginning of this year! And it didn’t even feel like a challenge, I just had the tools to monitor what was going in my body.” .
If you are only going to have one rolling pin in the house (and you have decided it’s time to move on from using wine bottles to roll your dough) make it a tapered pin. Choose one made from good solid wood. You will never need to repair it (there is no metal rod through the middle that will break eventually) and it provides versatility in that the thicker center creates heavier pressure while the outer edges create lighter pressure. Work with it a little so you understand it’s power. .
Pyrex is the leader in baking glass. Forget about metal pans — clear pie pans allow you see what’s happening on the bottom (i.e. if your crust is still pale). Here’s a tip, actually: If the crust is pale but the top is browning, cover it in foil, drop the temperature 20 or 25 degrees, and bake until the bottom crust is done. No one likes a soggy-bottomed pie. .
There’s near-constant debate about which type of pie pan — glass, metal, or ceramic — is the best, but for my money, a simple metal pie pan ensures the most consistent results, especially when blind-baking is involved. .
“The scraper is seriously so useful. Being Korean, I make kimchee every couple of months or so which means a lot of friggin’ garlic. This thing is awesome for mincing up some serious amounts of garlic because bigger chunks tend to get stuck at the top and not get minced evenly. The scraper solves that problem. I also tried using it to process crab meat to make it flaky, to make California rolls, and the motor can handle dry and dense foods like crab meat. I also tried processing chicken breast for chicken salad with it and no problems there either. The amazing price is just that — an awesome deal.” .
There are a lot of styles and makes of handheld pastry blenders out there, but most of them are subpar and fall apart. OXO got it right. Comfortable, easy to clean, and lasts forever, so you can make a lifetime of pie crust by hand. .
Admittedly, we were skeptical of this contraption at first (it looked to be much more trouble than it was worth), but we were so wrong. For making salted caramel apple pies we churn out, this peeler is the easiest way to peel, core and slice all at once. The stable vacuum base attaches to surfaces without rocking, plus it works on pears and potatoes, too.