Buying Guide To Baking Tools & Equipment
The success of a bakery relies on the right tools as much as the chef’s skills. Your choice of oven, baking pans, cooling racks, pastry tools, and other baking equipment all impact the look and taste of your products. Below you’ll find a buying guide to the best and most essential baking tools.
Baking and Oven Pans
Presentation plays a vital role in baking, and baking equipment reflects this reality. Baking and oven pans come in various shapes and sizes, from the simple utility of a flat sheet pan to more specialized baking tools, such as cake pans, tart molds, and baking molds. Molds and baking pans determine the finished appearance of your product — an appearance customers expect. Few customers would buy an angel food cake baked in a loaf pan or cookies baked in muffin pans.
Baking Mats and Pan Liners
Products can stick to even the best quality baking pans unless you use parchment paper or spray grease, non-reusable products that require constant replenishing.
Silicone baking mats and pan liners provide a long-term alternative to parchment paper and grease. Silicone mats handle high baking temperatures and dissipate heat quickly to prevent burned goods.
Pastry Utensils
No bakery is complete without a selection of pastry utensils. Flour sieves and shifters help you create light, fluffy baked goods. Every bakery needs a selection of rolling pins and pastry dowels to roll out cookie dough, pie crusts, and pizza dough, while flour-absorbing pastry cloth helps you roll out sticky dough. Don’t forget a collection of cookie cutters and dough or pastry cutters to help you cut and shape products.
Pastry Decorating Tools
Before your product impresses customers with its taste, you need to tempt them with the look of your pastries and cakes. Combined with the alluring smells of baked goods, the visual appearance of your product is what draws people to bakeries.
Decorating tools for baking put the finishing touches on your product. Create edible art with cake and pastry tools, and use high-quality pastry bags, couplers, and piping tips to decorate cupcakes, cakes, and more.
Proofing Baskets
Yeast-based doughs need a warm, humid environment as they rise and expand. The design of professional proofing baskets helps you create traditional and textured breads with ease. Available as lined or unlined baskets, proofing baskets are attractive enough for tabletop service.
Cake and Pie Markers
The portions for individual pie and cake slices should be uniform. While many bakers can slice even pieces by hand, cake and pie cutters make the process much easier and produce uniform slices every time.
Sample Domes and Display Trays
While most tools for baking are back-of-house, don't neglect the front-of-house, where presentation is critical. Cake domes, display trays, and covers let you present your products in the best light, tempting customers to make purchases.
Disposable Bakery Items
Customers need a way to transport their purchases home. A collection of disposable baking containers is the perfect way to make this happen. Depending on your products, you may need paper baking cups, cake boxes, cupcake holders, or bakery boxes.
