My Favorite Baking Tool: The French Rolling Pin

published Feb 14, 2012
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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. I use it to roll out doughs for tarts and pies, cookies, and pizzas. I know its every little edge and nick, and my hands are so accustomed to the way it places pressure and rolls back and forth. I think the nicest thing about french rolling pins is that you can really roll out thin, uniform circles for pies and tarts and feel the dough being worked underneath you much more than if you’re using a rolling pin with handles. You’re working more closely with the dough, and when I’m making pies, there’s something reassuring about this.

Have you worked with a french rolling pin?

Related: Vermont Rolling Pins: Not Your Cookie Cutter Rolling Pins

(Image: Megan Gordon)