Essential Baking Equipment

This guide outlines essential baking equipment, highlighting their specific uses and features to help you stock your kitchen effectively.

Specialty Pans:

• Angel Food Cake Pan: This tall, straight-sided pan, often with a central tube and sometimes small legs, promotes even heat distribution for angel food cakes. Its design allows for inverting the delicate cake during cooling without compression.
• Fluted Tart Pan: The signature fluted sides and removable bottom of this pan create beautifully shaped tarts. Available in various shapes and sizes, the 9-inch round is a common choice.

Versatile Baking Dishes:

• Ceramic Baking Dish: A rectangular ceramic or porcelain dish is ideal for gratins, baked pasta dishes, cobblers, and crisps. Its durability and attractive appearance make it suitable for oven-to-table serving.
• Glass Pie Plate: Tempered glass pie plates distribute heat evenly, resulting in uniformly browned crusts. The transparency of the glass allows you to monitor the bottom crust’s color. A 9-inch plate is standard for most pie recipes.
• Loaf Pan: Standard loaf pans come in two sizes: 8½ by 4½ inches and 9 by 5 inches. Metal or glass are both good choices. Lining the pan with parchment paper, with a 2-inch overhang, facilitates easy removal.

Everyday Baking Essentials:

• Rimmed Baking Sheet: These shallow pans are essential for jelly rolls, bar cookies, and catching drips from fruit pies. Opt for shiny, heavy-duty aluminum.
• Cookie Sheet: Cookie sheets feature a small rim on one or two sides for easy handling and flat edges on the others for effortless cookie removal. Open sides promote even browning. Light-colored, heavy-duty aluminum sheets are preferred to prevent warping. Avoid dark nonstick sheets, which can cause faster browning; if using them, consider reducing the oven temperature by 25°F and shortening the baking time.
• Muffin Tin: Standard muffin tins have 6 or 12 cups, each holding ½ cup of batter. Mini-muffin tins, with smaller cups (approximately 2 tablespoons), are perfect for bite-sized treats. Reduce baking time significantly when using mini-muffin tins.
• Round Cake Pan: The most common size is 9 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, with straight sides. Light-colored aluminum is recommended over nonstick to prevent over-browning. Two pans are necessary for layer cakes.

Useful Accessories:

• Wire Rack: Elevated wire racks promote airflow around baked goods for even cooling. Choose stainless steel mesh with feet. Avoid plastic racks and those with unidirectional bars.
• Nonstick Baking Mat: Reusable silicone mats, like Silpat, replace parchment paper for lining baking sheets. Clean with a damp sponge or warm water (avoid abrasive sponges). Store flat or rolled; never fold.