Bakeware Basics

Here are some of the essential items to have on hand that will make your next baking project fun and easy. It’s a good idea to lay out the tools and ingredients you need ahead of time so you can avoid scrambling for something while the oven is beeping at you telling you it’s preheated and ready to go.

Baking Sheets –Jelly-roll pans and cookie sheets fit into this category. Jelly-roll pans have a 1 inch high side and are used for baking batter for jelly-roll, biscuits, pastries and cookies too. Cookie sheets have at least 2-3 open sides for air circulation to allow the cookies to bake evenly. Choose a heavy duty, quality pan to avoid buckling in the oven. Ideally you’ll want to buy 2 to keep both oven racks filled.

Cake and Tart Pans- For layer cakes you can choose round or square shapes, preferably with sides 1.5 to 2 inches height. Other cake pans include bundt, loaf pans (for loaf cakes and breads), rectangular pans (perfect for brownies), pie pans (exclusively for pies), tart (for tarts and flan), and muffin pans (available in both full size and mini’s for special treats).

Cooling Rack – Fresh baked goods should be elevated so air can evenly cool them. They come in different shapes and sizes. What’s most important is to buy a sturdy rack or two that won’t collapse.

Mixing Bowls- These come in a variety of sizes and materials including glass, ceramic, and stainless steel. It’s good to have a few different ones in different sizes- bigger ones for the actual mixing and smaller sizes that are handy for pre-measuring your ingredients. Glass and ceramic are helpful to have for microwave use when you need to melt butter or other ingredients for a recipe.

Utensils & Measuring – “Must haves” include: a rubber spatula (for mixing and for scraping the side of the bowls); pot holders (regular size or long mitts); timers; a quality whisk (for hand whipping and hand mixing); scales; measuring cups (dry measuring cups generally come as a nested set, liquid measuring cups are made of glass, metal or plastic; measuring spoons; and a hand-held or stand mixer.