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Serious Eats Gift Guide: For the Cookie Baker

Posted by Amanda Clarke, December 6, 2007 at 11:00 AM

I've been an ardent cookie baker since I learned to reach the kitchen counter standing on a stool, and through the years I have accumulated a sizable collection of the tools of the trade. While most of these items are more likely to be found enjoying something like their tenth year of uninterrupted slumber in the bottom of a drawer than drying in my dish rack, there are a few that I turn to time and time again—particularly this time of year, when my cookie production spikes. Give these gizmos a try this cookie-baking season and you’ll be singing their praises, too. Prices do not include shipping unless otherwise specified.

Metric Wonder Cup

First, the Metric Wonder Cup. It’s a simple adjustable measuring cup—just a plunger inside a graduated cylinder. But, adjustable cups are nice, ostensibly, because they save space, but really, most measuring cups nest into each other, probably taking up less space than the Wonder Cup. No, what’s really great about this device is its extrusion capacity, allowing me to measure viscous, sticky substances like peanut butter, shortening, and molasses cleanly and efficiently. Rather than packing them into a standard measuring cup, only to have to scrape them out, probably making a mess in the process, with the Wonder Cup, I just press the plunger through the cylinder and in one simple motion all of the cup's contents are in my mixing bowl. This also happens to be one of the few measuring devices in my kitchen that’s graded in milliliters (not to mention ounce-, teaspoon- and tablespoon-increments), which is handy for scaling European recipes. There are fancy chrome versions floating around too, but they’re more expensive and don’t appear to provide any additional utility or ease of use, so why bother when you can enjoy the retro-font charm of the Metric Wonder Cup in its cheerful yellow glory. 1 cup capacity, $5.99; 2 cup capacity, $9.99

Stacking Cooling Racks

Second, stacking cooling racks. Each rack has legs that can either fold up underneath it for use as a standard cooling/baking rack (as well as for compact storage) or can be deployed to raise it a few inches up off the counter so that it can stack on top of and securely lock into one of the other racks of its kind. The racks tend to come in sets of three, but can, in my experience, be stacked up to about five high without becoming too unstable. Stacked up, they save a ton of counter space, allowing me to cool entire batches of cookies using less counter area than a standard baking sheet. The rack sets are inexpensive—usually coming in between $10 and $15 for a set of three—and they’re worth every penny. Set of 3, $14.95, from Cooking.com

Old-Fashioned Cookie Press

Last, but not least, an old-fashioned cookie press. Cookie presses consist of a canister fitted with a perforated disk at one end and a plunger at the other. To make cookies, the canister is filled with dough, and as the plunger is pressed through, the dough is extruded through the disk to make decorative dough shapes—Christmas trees, camels, hearts, flowers, etc. I whip this bad boy out whenever I need to make a lot of cookies in very little time, have no time for making and decorating cut-outs, or when I want to add visual interest to a cookie selection. The resulting cookies are generally pretty enough on their own that they require little or no decoration to look finished and lovely. There are new versions with trigger-style mechanisms that make regulating cookie size a bit easier, but I much prefer the old-fashion twist- or crank-type models—even though they are a tad more difficult to come by and require a bit more vigilance to maintain size consistency. Not only are the older styles just beautiful objects, but they tend to be much more robust—I had two different trigger-style makes and models break after little use before I hunted down my current vintage model, which is similar to the one my aunt has used over the past 20-odd years. Available on eBay, price varies

About the author: Amanda Clarke is a recovering restaurant pastry chef with a background in architecture. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she writes, tests, and develops recipes and works on freelance food-styling gigs between walkings and feedings of her two dogs and husband.

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Tags: baking, cookies, gift guides, gifts, Holiday Gift Guides, holiday gift guides, holidays