Baking Tool Reviews

I tried making pizza a few different ways with stones and crisping pans but my oven never gets hot enough to cook both the crust and the toppings together. I was thinking of getting a hearth kit but the price was a few hundred bucks so I figure I should try this first.

I never used cast iron before and I was kind of put off by the idea of seasoning pans but the possibility of saving whole bunches of money made the process not so hard to try.

Basically you line the lower rack of the oven with aluminum foil. Then you wash the pan with mild soapy water and dry it with paper towels. Then you turn the oven on to bake at 350 degrees. Stick the pan in the oven until its just a little warm. Then you pull it out and rub it all over, including the handles, with a paper towel that's been dunked in vegetable oil. Then stick in back in the top rack of the oven upside down and let it cook for about an hour. Two things to remember are to not take too long getting the pan back into the oven while its getting up to 350, the sooner the better. You want the pan to ease up to 350. The second thing is that the aluminum foil catches any drips from the pan. There will be a few and the house may smell a little like hot oil for the hour. It wasn't a really bad smell, if it was my wife would not hesitate to tell me, and the smell went away pretty quickly as the oven cooled. The pan changes color from a dark grey to a brown. And that's that.

I made my first pizza today and it went really well. I had the oven to 450, even though most recipes say 550 or higher; and even though it took a few more minutes the crust got crusty, the toppings cooked at the same time without burning and it slid right onto the peel without sticking. It all cooked together like real pizza and I basically washed it with water and a dobie pad when it cooled and dried it with paper towels.

Now I have to work on getting my pizzas into the classic round shape.

A must for any chef, cook or party animal. Makes perfect pizza, but make your own pizza dough. The store-bought stuff is too thin and you'll overwork it trying to make it happen. There are great dough recipes on the Net to experiment with.
PS: We use it as a griddle too.

I just recieved these pans last week. We bought two of them. They are 14" pans, very heavy, very nice construction quality. For the super bowl I baked some pizza pillows, chicken tenderloin strips, fish sticks. All of the items came out with a nice crispy and brown texture and just perfect. Very nice. Easy to season, and so far easy to care for. I am thrilled with the quality and the way these pans work. I definately recommend the Lodge products. They work, are durable, and frankly worth twice what you can find them for here on Amazon. I am a believer. I have ordered more Lodge and I am waiting for those items now. If they turn out as good as my other Lodge pans have I will keep adding more Lodge items for our home. Nothing but praise here.

There's not that much to say, is there? This dough blender works perfectly. It's much faster and more comfortable than the old "two knives" method. And it's sure easier to clean than a food processor. For making biscuits, pie or tart crust, or any other kind of baked pastry product, it's a great tool to have. It costs less than $10, so if you're thinking about getting it, stop thinking and do it.
A tip: if you're good at planning ahead (I'm not, unfortunately), you might want to try putting it in the refrigerator an hour or so before using it, which will help to ensure that the butter doesn't melt excessively before you can finish cutting it into the dough.

This tool makes it so much easier to make dough for biscuits, no more cramped hands! You'll never go back to the "two knives" method again! It's also incredibly easy to clean, I just stick it in the dishwasher. So far, so good! Highly recommend!

If you make biscuits by hand (no Bisquick!) or make a pastry dough now and then, this is a useful device. I used to just cut in the dough by rubbing the shortning in with cool hands or with a fork, but this is so much faster. Unlike a food processor (which I no longer have) it doesn't heat the dough. The thin tines don't clog the way a fork does.

I bought this for all sorts of uses in the kitchen and am very happy with the quality of the product. Kitchenaid consistently produces quality products. I use it when making bread to scrape it off the board to prevent sticking, for dividing the dough for rolls and loaves. Overall I'm very pleased with it.

For decades, the makers of pastry scrapers obeyed an unspoken code: never make a handle that is actually graspable. I guess if they did that, and made a durable product to boot, they would never sell another one.

I imagine the designers at Kitchenaid won't be invited to any of those people's parties for unceremoniously breaking this vow and adding a handle that is actually very comfortable and allows an unprecedented amount of control and endurance in scraping, cutting, and most importantly for me, cutting butter into flour with this beautifully designed implement.

The only thing they could have done better? Give me more. This scraper is only 5 inches wide...less than the industry standard of six. Well, give me a big honkin NINE inches already! You've got that great handle, you could easily hoist a big blade on it.

And that's the only improvement I could suggest to this best-available scraper.

This KitchenAid scraper is great! Besides the fact that it does what it is made to do so well (cuts and scrapes dough like nothing!), it also has a useful ruler and makes it easy to lift and move what you chop. Super easy to clean, highly recommended!

I'm a make-do cook. When I saw a well-known personality touting this stuff on her TV show, I just poh-poohed the notion. Then, at a pre-Christmas sale, I decided to try a sheet. Whoa! What a wonder! I promptly bought a second sheet, and I would never try to bake cookies again without one. The savings in time (1-2 min per sheet), headaches (cutting parchment to size every time and then running out), and clean-up (nothing - I say again NOTHING - sticks to this stuff) make it worth every penny!

I LOVE this product - it works so fantastically I may never butter a pan again! I understand they have different sizes/shapes that fit in cake pans, muffin tins etc. and I'm going to start looking for them. I know that Martha Stewart uses a similar product, but these are quite a bit less expensive (about 1/2 the price as far as I can tell) and, since I've always wanted to try something like this but didn't want to pay the price, I was thrilled to find these. My only very SMALL quibble is they're a little hard to clean - my sink isn't really conducive to their size/shape, and I don't really want to put them in the dishwasher - so I put a little grease-cutting dishwashing liquid in the sink with some HOT water, let them soak a little while, then sponge them off and rinse. I sometimes have to do it a couple of times since they still feel "greasy" to me after I wash them - However, that is a VERY small "con" in a multitude of "pros!!!" I just wish there was something like Matfer sheets to help me with ALL the sticky situations in my life!

Silicone baking mats (the matfer is one of several widely available brands) are amazing. If you bake, then get one. No if's, ands, or buts. I've used them to line the baking pan while making cookies, cakes, even sticky candy. Worked great every time - no more problems with your baked food sticking to the bottom of the pan, or dealing with tears in the parchment or whatever sort of liner you used to use. And no matter what I've cooked on it, cleaning the mat has taken mere seconds with a sponge and soapy water.
These mats aren't just a gimmick; they're truly an example of new technology making possible significantly better products.

If you make your own pizza, either by reheating a frozen or a custom fresh home-made pizza, this is a valuable must-have tool. It's relatively easy to use and washes up fine. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches and you'll feel like pro (but it won't make your pizza taste better).

My only complaint is storing it. It's too big to store in a drawer, and I don't have extra wall space to just hook it up. I hangs on my pantry door and annoyingly clunks every time I open it. But, that's minor.

FYI: If you can avoid cutting your pizza on the board, do so. It saves a lot of wear and tear on the board's surface, keeping it smooth for the pizza to slide on and off with. For cutting and serving, an aluminum pizza pan (or similar) does the trick without torturing your wooden pizza peel.

This pizza is great to use when making pizza at your house! The sharper, sloped edge of the paddle allows you get the pizza off the grill quickly and easily. It's also really fun to look like a pro pizza maker in front of family when using this, it makes your pizza (even if its ready-made) look homemade!

I bought this pizza peel and it was so light weight and wonderful to use. I would recommend it to everyone.

I was attracted by the comtemporary design of these measuring cups. Their flat design allows you to get into places that you could not get into with the taller dipper designed cups. They are easy to clean. The stainless steel finish holds a bright finish. I want to mount them under my kitchen cabinets, but I am having trouble deciding if they should be mounted separately or in a group. The handy clasp that encloses them makes them easy to keep together. I would highly recommend them from all standpoints.

Okay, so they may not make your cooking any better, but you'll look extremely stylish as you improvise your way around the kitchen. Just as the Michael Graves measuring spoons these are quality cups that are easy to clean, great to use, and cool to look at. The little hook/holder/clasp is useful for keeping them together, and they have a nice solid feel when digging through a bag of flour.

These cups work great. I love the look and the flat bottom allows you to set them on the counter with out them rolling over. The ring they are on is a bit akward but that obviously doesn't take away from their practicality.

I LOVE THIS SET! I never realized how nice it would be to have so many measuring cups - I used to have one and just wash it in between each use when measuring ingredients for cookies (or whatever else I was cooking/baking). This saves me so much time! I use the cup, rinse it out, stick it in the dishwasher.

The bowls are great - I use mine for everything from serving chips in them, to microwaving soup, to mixing, to storing.. they are wonderful and the fact that they are seethrough is a great benefit. They also do well in the dishwasher, I've had my set for many years and they still look brand new.

The measuring spoons are ok. They work, and I stick them in the dishwasher too, but I don't like the keyring design (it's good for keeping track of all the spoons though!).

Overall, 5 stars. Can't beat this great deal - where else will you get a set this good for $25?

I'm getting ready for my own place and bought this because it was on sale. I like how there was almost everything that I need to start out for those first yet attempts at making something edible (hey, tastes good is the next step!).

I agree with another reviewer that you should get some smaller bowls to hold things after you measure them out and a set of measuring cups, too.

This set makes a great gift, too. HINT HINT!!! :c)

I'm getting ready for my own place and bought this because it was on sale. I like how there was almost everything that I need to start out for those first yet attempts at making something edible (hey, tastes good is the next step!). I agree with another reviewer that you should get some smaller bowls to hold things after you measure them out and a set of measuring cups, too. This set makes a great gift, too. HINT HINT!!! :c)

This is a good, solid rolling pin. Everyone loves a heavy rolling pin, but I find this one to be TOO smooth. Dough sticks to it like crazy, and you'd be better served by getting a simple (and cheaper!) wooden rolling pin that lets you spend more time rolling out dough and things instead of trying to peel off the huge pieces that are sticking to it.

This smooth rolling, hefty, nonstick rolling pin is perfect for the avid baker. I've been coveting a ball-bearing rolling pin for years, but the expense has always stopped me. Now OXO has introduced a more reasonably priced nylon-bearing pin that does not adhere to dough the way wood does and is not as heavy as a marble one. The result is an ease of rolling that will make you wonder why you didn't get this sooner. It is easy to clean by hand, or, if you have room, in the dishwasher.

Highly recommended for serious bakers.

This rolling pin is weighted so wonderfully. The handle grips are very comfortable and the pin glides effortlessly.
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and can barely roll out bread dough, let alone pasta or toritalls lately. That is... until I bought this little marvel! The dough practically rolls it's self out, all I need to do is direct it's path!

I love this rolling pin and recommend it to anyone! Why it is worth it's WEIGHT in GOLD to me!

Warmly,
Sharon Anne

Visit my cooking info site at www.sharonanne.com!