Bakeware

Do cake pans matter all that much? I learned to bake through sheer necessity — no one in my family would bother to make dessert if I didn’t. I first made do with whatever detritus my parents had collected over 20-odd years of cohabitation, from warped cooking sheets to mismatched cake pans scavenged from grandparents’ houses. And they all got the job done, more or less.

Even though it is snowing in some parts of the country today, it is now officially spring. And although most of us won’t need much help putting winter behind us, Le Creuset has a few new pieces that can get us all thinking spring thoughts. The common theme? Flowers, flowers, and more flowers! Take a look at some of Le Creuset’s newest (and soon-to-be-released) pieces for spring. Perhaps you saw this post, in which we showed off a 4.5-quart Provence applique Dutch oven and a 1.

Keeping your family happy (and fed) at dinnertime is a balancing act. It’s a fine line between making sure everyone’s preferences and dietary restrictions are accommodated while also maintaining your sanity. There may never be one perfect solution, but this pan from Chicago Metallic can at least help with lasagna night.

Amazon Prime Day is just four years old, and it’s already become a full-fledged shopping holiday. And other retailers want in on some of that sweet retail action. So, once again, Sur la Table is running its own sale called Lime Day (any rhyming with the other shopping holiday is purely coincidental, we’re sure.) This one-day event is full of “juicy deals” — as much as 65 percent off top cookware brands like Staub and Le Creuset.

If there’s one tool that we rely on more than most here at Kitchn, it’s a trusty sheet pan. Sadly, though, in a sea of Instant Pots, air fryers, and fancy blenders, the humble sheet pan doesn’t get enough credit. How else would we make all of our miracle sheet pan dinners, two-ingredient chicken bites, and the best roasted veggies Let’s finally give our favorite sheet pan the respect that it deserves.

Every once in a while, a new product line hits stores that is so brilliant that we can’t help but face-palm and wonder why we didn’t come up with the idea or what took someone else so long. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does … man, is it amazing. If you couldn’t tell from the title (or the intro) of this post, there’s a game-changing new line of baking stuff that launched online at Williams Sonoma today.

I’ve been reviewing kitchen equipment for more than 30 years and I’ve seen it all, from potato-peeling mitts (fuhgettabout ’em) to cooking robots (for those who don’t actually like making dinner). It takes a lot to impress me, and yet this month at the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle, I saw something that made me think, I want that in my own kitchen!

With their tube-shaped centers and rounded, ridged bodies, there’s no question that Bundt pans make some pretty beautiful cakes. But that’s not all they can do. This classic piece of bakeware is far from a one-trick pony. Here are five more ways to put your Bundt pan to work (and they don’t involve cake). Beyond cakes and loafs, the bundt pan is the magical tool that let’s you reimagine a classic phyllo tart or pie. And the result is downright impressive!

When you take the time to bake a cake at home, you want to be sure that it’s time well spent. You definitely need a good recipe, but you also need a good pan — especially with bundt cakes. The decorative sides create a beautiful presentation, but the crevices are also a prime place for sticking.

Garage sales can be the place to find hidden gems — especially when it comes to equipment for the kitchen. With fall baking in full swing, it’s a great place to look for baking pans, including Bundt pans. If they’re selling pots, pans, or utensils that are in good shape, then they’re likely made of good material that can last. With these tips, you’ll know how to spot the great deals from the duds.

A few years ago in an attempt to perfect my own biscuit recipe, I started experimenting with different baking pans. Starting with a simple baking sheet, I worked through metal and glass baking dishes, a pie pan, and a cake pan before finally landing on a likely candidate: my favorite cast iron skillet. A sturdy cast iron skillet has become my favorite biscuit pan for three reasons.

Summer cooking should be low-key and fuss-free, especially when you’re on vacation, which is why I’m such a fan of the sheet-pan supper. Throw everything on one sheet pan, bake it in the oven, and voila! Dinner is served. Sheet-pan suppers mean less prep and cleanup time, so you can get back to lounging on the deck with a cold beer in hand.

Size matters, and so does shape. This truism is never as true as when you are baking in tube pans. Each has a specific purpose and usage, and they aren’t easily interchangeable. Does that mean that if you want to bake a Bundt and a chiffon cake or an angel food cake that you need different pans? The answer is a firm yes. Tube pans share one distinction: the tube down the center. But some have sloped sides, some drop straight from top to bottom, and some are decoratively fluted.

Baking a lasagna? A pie? A roast? When you are choosing a pan to bake or roast your food, the pan you reach for shouldn’t just be the first one you can grab, regardless of the material, because some materials great for certain situations and terrible for others. Most of us gravitate towards metal baking sheets when we are baking a batch of cookies, but glass dishes for lasagnas and casseroles.

When the Pyrex bug bites, it bites hard. One offhand thrift store purchase turns into a house brimming with Crayola-colored bowls and casserole dishes, as Andrea Lutz knows all too well. Andrea, a reporter for KTVB in Boise, Idaho, spends her off hours hunting down Pyrex in local antique shops and flea markets.

This old 8-inch round pan is the cake pan I reach for above all others for the simple reason that I know whatever cake I make in it will come out neatly and easily. Why? Because of the slider bar, which completely rotates around the pan, neatly separating the bottom and sides of the cake from the pan. Once a more common feature, it’s rare (although not impossible) to find the slider bar feature these days. Have you ever used one?

In every pizza lover’s quest to approximate a fiery-hot brick pizza oven at home, a pizza stone is first on the list of necessary equipment. But of the variety of materials available — stone, cast iron and even steel — which one is the best pick for you?Picking the right pizza stone depends on your personal needs and kitchen habits. Are you looking for a stone that produces an ultra-crispy crust? Does it need to move easily in and out of the oven?

Choosing my favorite baking tool was a difficult challenge. I thought first about the things that I use often like my favorite zester or my Silpat. Then I thought about things with emotional significance like my grandmother’s cookie cutters or my mom’s old sheet trays. But when it comes right down to it, there’s only one favorite. And for me it’s the tool that I find both useful, practical, and beautiful. My french rolling pin is a true champion.

Q: After making a couple of ice cream cakes (including this amazing S’Mores version) this week with a fabulously sturdy borrowed springform pan, I’m realizing that I’m due for an upgrade of my own. I’d love a recommendation of a good brand. My friend’s pan is Wilton, but it looks like her particular model is not being made anymore (and other Wilton ones have mixed reviews on Amazon).

Do you use a pastry cloth? Though little more than a canvas cloth, this old-fashioned kitchen tool is charming in its simplicity and usefulness.Usually made of durable cotton canvas, a pastry cloth makes an excellent work surface for rolling out pie crusts, biscuits, cookies, and other doughs. Rubbing a little flour into the cloth prevents sticking without adding excess flour to the dough, keeping the pastry light and flaky.

That Pyrex baking tubeAside from being perfectly symmetrical, loaves baked in these kinds of pans have a very thin crust and a soft, finely-textured crumb. In fact, these loaves are called pain de mie in French, which literally means “bread of the crumb.” These loaves are perfect for sandwiches.Many pumpernickel bread recipes also call for using a Pullman pan. It helps to get that dense, chewy crumb and to keep the loaf from drying out during the traditionally long baking time.

Have you ever used a glass bundt pan? We’ve been eyeing this one at Amazon, curious about whether it would make bundt cake baking easier, or devilishly difficult.It would be interesting to be able to watch a cake as it browns in the oven, and know just when it’s done on the bottom… err, top. But we also wonder if this kind of bakeware would make it very difficult to get the cake out intact.Have you ever used a glass bundt cake pan?

Pie birds (also known as pie funnels, pie chimneys, and pie whistles) are hollow ceramic devices used to keep pies from bubbling over in the oven by providing ventilation from the hot filling through the crust. They originated in Europe and historians often argue over whether they came about in the 1500’s or during Victorian times.The nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence” which has the lyrics “Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie” is based on pie birds.

Uh oh – watch out! Williams-Sonoma and Nordic Ware are at it again.This is a new seasonal pan, made by Nordic Ware just for Williams-Sonoma. The pan makes up to 18 little acorn cakelets, and even the pan itself is shaped like an acorn.Nordic Ware’s pans are always very well made; we have an elaborate castle cake pan from them, and it has always performed beautifully. Great baking, easy cleanup.

I’m a pie girl. And when the stone fruits start dropping from the trees, my pie plate begins its annual workout. My mother in law turned me onto a great pie plate from Hess Pottery, a little company in Reeds Spring, Missouri, started in 1979 by Tom Hess. She’d gotten one as a gift, and I’ve since given it as a gift. The pie love goes ’round and ’round.The Hess Pie Plate is made from smooth, native red clay without any harmful glazes.

So you’ve invested in a pizza stone–or dusted it off from where it was hiding at the bottom of the cupboard!You’re loving it when you bake your pizzas, artisan loaves, and various baked goodies.Now it’s collected a few spills and stains. Lovingly gained, but spills and stains none the less.How should you be cleaning your pizza stone and what kind of wear is normal? Read on!First off, always heat the stone with the oven.

Whenever we have bread dough to separate, icebox cookies to cut apart, or even onions to scoop into a prep bowl, we find ourselves reaching for our bench scraper. As those of us diving into the Kitchn Cure this week start to think about trimming down the number of utensils cluttering our drawers, this one is definitely a keeper.A bench scraper is primarily intended for baking, where you’ll sometimes hear it referred to as a bench cutter or pastry scraper.