8 Cookie Tools We Use All The Time

Cookie Tools That’ll Make You A Better Baker – Here are 8 of our favorite tools for making fabulous cookies of all kinds. Most are under $20 and make a big difference in the quality of your bakes!

When people find out I have a baking blog or love to bake, they often ask “what’s your favorite thing to bake?” and while I genuinely love baking just about anything, my answer is COOKIES.

Cookies are so low-fuss, feel like comfort food, and they make enough to share. Even just saying “cookies,” can’t you immediately picture what a warm cookie tastes like? Or conjure up the aroma of chocolate chip cookies in the oven, a memory of your favorite holiday cookie, or a time when you snuck a taste of cookie dough? I sure can!

Beyond having amazing cookie recipes to bake from, having the right tools can make a big difference in the quality of your cookies, so today I’m sharing our favorites–the tried-and-true baking tools I think are 100% worth having on hand if you love cookies as much as I do.

Here are 8 of our favorite baking tools for making the best cookies…

1. An Oven Thermometer (Or Two!)

I’m starting with an inexpensive oven thermometer because knowing how your oven bakes will impact EVERY SINGLE THING you bake, broil, or roast in it. If you can, I actually recommend using 2 oven thermometers. Some ovens run hot on one side and cooler on the other, so having one on each half of the oven lets you see 1) how your oven’s ACTUAL temperature measures up to what the temperature SAYS it is, and 2) it lets you check if there are any hot/cold spots in the oven so you know how evenly things bake.

BONUS BAKING TIP: Use your oven thermometer to check that your oven is truly preheated correctly before baking. My oven (still new!) beeps to tell me it’s preheated a full 50-100(!!!) degrees before it’s ACTUALLY reached the proper temperature. Waiting those extra few minutes for it to properly preheat means I can count on consistent bake times and temperatures.

2. An Inexpensive Kitchen Scale

For less than $20, you can INSTANTLY improve the quality of your bakes with a kitchen scale. Even careful bakers can’t be sure exactly how much flour they’ve measured without weighing it. It’s easy to pack in an extra tablespoon (or two or three or four!), even if you’re measuring using the scoop and level method, which (especially in gluten-free baking), can lead to dense, tough, or dry baked goods.

Weighing your dry ingredients whenever you can doesn’t take much extra time and gives you precise results every time. It’s common practice in industrial or professional kitchens, but it’s also REALLY easy to do at home. Once you start, you’ll never want to go back! (The results are THAT good!)

Again, they don’t have to cost much! We’ve had this silver kitchen scale for several years and recently picked up this slimmer profile white kitchen scale that we love, too. Both are really affordable, don’t take up tons of space & work like a dream.

3. Cookie Scoops

I LOVE cookie scoops–they’re such a versatile cookie tool! I own three sizes—small (sometimes labeled #60 or 1 Tbsp.), medium (#40 or 2 Tbsp.) and large (#20 or 3 Tbsp.). They’re in nearly daily use at my house for jobs like:

• Prepping cookie dough to freeze for later
• Scooping cookie dough to bake
• Adding muffin or cupcake batter to muffin liners
• Portioning out meatballs or energy bites

If you’re just starting out, or your budget is tight, I use the medium scoop the most, then the large scoop. (The small scoop is best for littler jobs, like truffles, energy bites, or meatballs.)

4. Light-Colored Baking Sheets

Light-colored sheet pans make ALL the difference when you’re baking. They conduct heat more evenly and gently than dark metal, color-coated metal, ceramic, or glass baking pans.

Using coated aluminum sheet pans will give you cookies that are beautifully golden on the bottom, rather than scorched (like dark baking pans). I’ve had great luck with NordicWare, but there are lots of brands to choose from that’ll work great.

5. Pre-Cut Parchment Sheets

Not 100% essential, but if you bake a lot, you’ll LOVE the convenience of pre-cut parchment paper. These folded parchment sheets are convenient when space is tight, and I love bigger packs of pre-cut parchment paper like this for people who bake a lot (like me!).

Parchment isn’t just for fancy people–it prevents baked goods from sticking to the pans and helps them brown evenly. It’s worth using!

6. A Large Round Cookie Cutter

One of the best styling tricks I’ve learned as a blogger and baker is the cookie cutter trick for shaping freshly baked cookies. You know when you pull a batch of cookies out of the oven and some of them are a little oval, or irregular, or wonky? When they’re hot from the oven, you can still shape cookies into perfect circles with a large round cookie cutter!

Use a large round cookie cutter (I recommend a 4-inch or 5-inch size—something larger than your cookie!) and move it in little circles to gently coax the edges of the cookie into a circular shape. (See it in action in this Reel!) I use this little cookie tool every time I make a batch of cookies. EVERY time!

7. A Flexible Edge Paddle Attachment For Your Mixer

The scraper paddle attachment (sometimes called flexible edge beater) is the attachment I use on my mixer for 90% of the jobs I do! I love that it helps scrape down the edges as it spins, which means you need to stop less frequently to do it yourself. It works like a charm for mixing up cake or muffin batter, brownies, cookie dough, frosting, and more.

The only thing I *don’t* use it for is whipping egg whites, whipping cream, or whipping meringues (I use the whisk attachment for that!).

8. A Mixer!

While we’re at it, if you’re a regular baker, a great stand mixer is a fabulous investment. They often go on sale around the holidays (and occasionally throughout the year), but even a refurbished mixer works great and can save you about 50% of the price!

I have a refurbished 5-quart KitchenAid mixer. It’s the ultimate cookie tool! It’s a touch larger and more powerful than the more common 4.5 quart size. I love that my ingredients don’t slosh over the edges as often as they did with my 4.5-quart mixer, and the sturdy motor can handle big batches of cookie dough, bread dough, and more. In my opinion, if you bake a lot, it’s worth saving a little longer for the 5-quart size!

Did I miss any of your favorites? What baking tools would you add to my list?

Photos by Jessie Boyd Photography.