13 Bakeware Essentials Used by Professional Bakers

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A great bakery lives and dies by the quality of its ingredients, the talent and ingenuity of its bakers, and the type of equipment it invests in. The first two factors probably seem obvious, but you might not have thought of the role that bakeware plays in creating irresistible baked goods. Sometimes, the difference between your homemade cake and the professional one lies not in the technique or ingredients, but the types of tools that pastry chefs rely on. These aren’t ridiculously high-priced and clunky machines either; the bakeware I’ll be talking about is still accessible to any home baker. Think specialty spatulas, niche pans, and slender thermometers.

Although I’m a home-taught baker myself, I’ve interviewed many pastry chefs and researched numerous bakeries during my time as a managing editor at a baking magazine and co-host of a baking podcast. Most of these recommendations come from in-depth conversations with professional bakers, including test kitchen professionals I worked with daily, who were happy to share their go-to tools and favorite bakeware. 

Of course, there’s some industrial equipment I won’t be including in this line-up, because they have no practical purpose in a home kitchen. These include industrial mixers, giant cooling racks, blast chillers, and laminators or dough sheeters (the machine that makes croissants a breeze to create). In the meantime, let’s take a look at the professional bakeware that can help you in your homespun endeavors. 

You probably already have a loaf pan in your bakeware collection, but chances are rarer the you have a true Pullman loaf pan. A long rectangular loaf pan with a lid (typically with 9-by-4-by-4-inch dimension), this iconic bread dish got its name back in the late 1800s, as they were favored by the chefs on luxury dining Pullman rail cars. Indeed, their neat, sharp angles made them easy for stacking while also producing perfectly uniform loaves of bread with minimal crust. 

Today, bakeries often use these pans to make classic white bread recipes, like pain de mie, shokupan, and milk bread. Alternatively, bakeries can also use it to make beautiful cubes of croissant, brioche, or other butter-heavy bread that can then be spun into sophisticated bostock or French toast. Breads swirled with fillings also benefit from a tighter spiral thanks to the confines of the Pullman loaf pan. And that’s just when the Pullman pan is used for bread. 

Luxurious pound cakes and dense quick breads can also be baked in a Pullman pan (sans lid). These baked goods will be longer, taller, and skinnier than what your typical 9-by-5-inch loaf pan would turn out, which will give them an elegant look with a no-less decadent taste. Shopping wise, I recommend USA Pan Bakeware Pullman Loaf Pan with Cover, a sturdy version made with aluminized steel and a nonstick coating. 

Lots of fancy equipment goes into professionally decorated cakes, but one of the most basic is the rotating cake stand with a heavy base (often cast iron). Why does it spin? For perfectly smooth buttercream, pastry chefs will rotate their cakes while applying even pressure with an offset spatula or bench scraper. Most arms simply can’t rotate with the same type of stability and finesse, even if the arm is attached to a professional acrobat. Instead, the cake stand moves for you.

If you want one that ticks all the boxes and is also simply stylish, try Ateco’s Cast Iron and Non-Slip Pad Cake Stand. That cast iron base is an essential detail, as a flimsier plastic rotating cake stand can’t often handle the weight of a thickly-frosted layer cake. If you’re the type who likes to transfer your finished cake to a prettier dish, consider investing in cardboard cake rounds, which will help you move your cake from station to station. 

Ever feel like the muffins at the bakery are always so much bigger than the ones at home? They are. A lot of commercial bakeries or coffee shops will use a jumbo muffin tin to make muffins that are larger than life. Usually featuring six wells, a jumbo muffin is roughly over twice the size of a regular-sized muffin.When adapting a muffin recipe to use in the jumbo pan rather than the regular, the only thing that will change is the bake time (it’ll be longer, as it’s baking more batter per well) and the yield (i.e., six jumbo muffins versus 12 regular muffins).  

Obviously, these pans are great for making bakery-style muffins, but that’s exploiting only a fraction of their usefulness. These pans also help bakers make yeasted breakfast items, like swirling morning buns, cinnamon rolls, or old-fashioned yeasted coffee cakes. The deep wells allow bakers to properly proof the bread in the dish, instead of having to clumsily transfer it between dishes. They also work wonders for creating popovers or Yorkshire puddings, if you can’t bear to buy a dedicated popover pan. If you want to start baking these big boys at home, invest in the USA Pan Jumbo Texas Muffin Pan, which again comes in aluminized steel with a nonstick coating. 

If you’re a fan of Milk Bar’s cakes, you might think that those multi-layered beauties are courtesy of a springform or traditional cake pan. In reality, Christina Tosi and many other professional bakers bake their cakes on a massive rimmed baking sheet, sometimes called a jelly roll pan (not a 9-by-13-inch casserole pan, but the 1-inch tall sheet pans you might use to roast veggies), which cooks them faster and more evenly. Then, they use 6- to 8-inch round cutters to cut out individual layers. In a pinch, a 6- to 8-inch wide plate will work as an outline, while a sharp knife can cut around the edges. 

There are several practical reasons that you should start baking cakes like this, not the least of which because you will have flatter layers with identical texture and color. It also leaves behind some cake scraps that you can easily turn into cake pops, trifles, and an elegant crumb coating. If you want to make something more rectangular, you can also use this pan to make a version of Hungarian Dobos torte, French opera cake, or a glorious Russian honey cake. A good pan to start with is Nordic Ware’s Natural Jelly Roll Pan, which features uncoated aluminum. While you’re at it, consider brushing your baked cake layers with a homemade rendition of Milk Bar’s infamous cereal milk, which should keep it moist and just lightly sweeter. 

It’s gone fairly mainstream in recent years, but a bench scraper is still very useful in the professional bakery. Used as an icer, dough mover, butter divider, and more, a bench scraper can serve so many functions as to make it the Swiss army knife of baking utensils. Only, it’s better than a knife, because all that scraping would make your knife dull. This isn’t a new culinary tool either, as you can find an early wrought iron model at the Colonial Williamsburg Museum dating from the 1780s to 1830s.

In our more modern times, the bench scraper has become a wide, flat stainless steel blade with a wooden, metal, or plastic handle. It should be big enough to help you frost an 8-inch cake but not so unwieldly as to feel like a shovel. The old-fashioned side of me likes my bench scraper with a warm wooden handle, like the Bench Knife I got from the King Arthur Baking Company, but I can also praise the benefits of the more utilitarian OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Bench Scraper and Chopper. This bench scraper has a sturdy plastic handle and a measuring section on the blade, helping you make more exacting cuts.  

Much like Christina Tosi’s sheet pan-based cakes, you might be surprised to learn that many bakeries also eschew your standard round cake pan for making layer cakes. While the home baker may use two 8- or 9-inch cake pans with 2-inch-tall sides to make a layer cake, professionals often rely on cake pans that have at least 3-inch tall sides. Think of the height of a springform pan without the removable ring or base. Why invest in the height? This helps bakers get three magic qualities: a lighter, blonder cake, a flatter top, and a moister interior. 

You can bake your layer cake all in this one deep-sided pan, then use a cake leveler (more on that later) to divide it into equal, flat pieces. Alternatively, it makes an impressive, lofty one-layer cake too. True, the 3-inch-tall cake pan is hard to find at basic stores, as most people just use a springform pan and call it a day. Luckily, Fat Daddio makes numerous cake pans that are all 3 inches tall and readily available on Amazon, including my personal favorite, the 8-by-3-inch PRD-83 Anodized Aluminum Round Cake Pan.

In a brick and mortar bakery, precision is key. Another baking virtue? No waste. The batter dispenser helps bakers accomplish both of these tasks with it’s easy to use funnel shape, which features a nozzle that can open and close with a squeeze of your hand. These are excellent for portioning out runny batters perfectly, from crepes to pancakes to crumpets. It can also help you fill cheesecakes, pies, and danishes with particularly loose custard fillings. You may see these beauties at the carnival, too, as they can be used to release thin streams of batter in a deep fryer, transforming them into funnel cakes. Heck, you can even use it as a fuss-free glazing tool over cinnamon rolls, coffee cakes, or pastries. Or as a way to make quick Jell-O shots. It’s your call.

Of course, bakeries often use industrial-sized batter dispensers, but there are plenty of smaller ones that home bakers can use. OXO Good Grips Precision Batter Dispenser has an easy-to-use, squeezable handle and holds a manageable amount of batter. 

Although it can seem like one of the more intimidating pieces of equipment on this list, a kitchen torch is much too convenient and easy to use to be ruled out. If you only ever rely on your broiler to get caramelized sears on your baked goods, you’re missing out on the precision and speed that a kitchen torch can bring you. 

Sure, it works as a quick way to brûlée sugar on a custard dish and toast meringue on a mile-high pie, but professional bakers also use the kitchen torch to quickly warm up too-cold frosting (particularly dense butter-based ones that have been chilling in the fridge) and to quickly sear or melt sweet garnishes, like marshmallows and chocolate chunks. The Tencoz Blow Torch is a good brand to start your kitchen torch journey with, as it comes with a lock and an adjustable flame level.

Oven thermometers and perfectly calibrated ovens are all nice to have, but for a true baker, nothing beats an instant read thermometer. Especially useful when testing your bread’s level of doneness, the thermometer will guarantee that your dough is baked through, avoiding any later disappointment. It also works on cakes and quick breads, and any type of meat you’d even remotely be interested in temping. 

Instant read thermometers can range from the dirt cheap to the outrageously pricey. The ThermoPro TP19H Digital Thermometer is an excellent inexpensive option, though I’m partial to my sleek all-white Thermapen ONE, which has a steeper price tag. Admittedly, if you really only spend your time baking cakes or quick breads, you may want to invest in the cheaper, low tech cake tester, which is a long metal pick (7 inches at least) with an easy-to-grip plastic handle. These simple skewers show you whether your batter is still wet or appropriately tender. Ateco’s Stainless Steel Cake Testers come in an affordable three-bundle pack.

This is a must have for bread bakers and those stuck with sticky clean-up duty. Shaped like a bench scraper, only smaller and typically made of a nonstick material like silicone or plastic, the bowl scraper helps remove any sticky remnants of yeasted dough from your mixing bowl, work surface, or cutting board. It also works wonders maneuvering tacky confections, like still warm nougat or caramel, into a pan. Even a batch of gooey marshmallow rice crispy treats can benefit from the nonstick powers of a bowl scraper. 

In the pastry world, you can see professionals use these little blades in the process of macaronage as well. A crucial step in making macarons, macaronage is the fine process of blending and folding the meringue in with the dry ingredients (sugar, ground almonds, and maybe some flour), until it becomes a shiny batter. This requires much maneuvering in a bowl, and meringue is notoriously sticky. The bowl scraper makes this infinitely easier, and it’s better at scooping and folding than a typical offset spatula. Try SAPID’s Silicone Bowl Scraper, which has a nonstick silicone exterior matched with a strong steel interior.  

While plenty of home bakers probably have a bowl-shaped sieve or an old-fashioned handle-run sifter, the pros tend to rely on the big and fuss-free drum sieve for sifting cocoa powder, dusting surfaces with flour, and applying a beautiful snowy coat of confectioners’ sugar to the top of cakes. Also known as a tamis, the drum sieve helps you see what’s clumping in your flour or leaveners and gives you more control when straining fruit purees or mashes. 

Altough pastry chefs certainly get a ton of use out of the drum sieve, cooks get even more. You’ll love this tool when it comes time to rinsing your fine grains, creating an extra smooth batch of mashed potatoes, or making a batch of soft pasta, like Italian gnocchi or German spaetzle. You could buy a drum sieve that’s almost 16 inches wide, but I find the 8-inch diameter LABALPHA 5 Mesh Lab Sieve to be a more compact fit for the kitchen. 

Don’t get me wrong. Professional bakers love parchment paper as much as the next guy, but when they need something for more finicky work, they often turn to a silicone baking mat. These are especially useful for bakeries that specialize in making macarons, as egg-white based macaron dough can be notoriously sticky. Pastry chefs also prize the silicone baking mat for its even distribution of heat. Better yet, silicone baking mats are easy to clean and reusable, so they cut back on waste in the professional kitchen. The only caveat to using a silicone baking mat is that, unlike parchment paper, it doesn’t absorb excess fat or moisture, making certain buttery cookies have a greasier texture. Conversely, this lack of absorption helps make much prettier lace cookies and florentines.  

A silicone baking mat is very cost effective for the frequent home baker using it as a baking surface, but they are just as handy as a nonstick work base for rolling out incredibly sticky doughs, like pie dough. When I first got into pie making, a silicone mat saved my bacon, helping me transfer that sticky weave from fridge to pie plate. It also doubled as a great surface to mold and set chocolate decorations. When it comes to baking mats, your options are endless, with many featuring helpful stencils and measuring charts, but a good option is the classic Silpat The Original Perfect Macaron Non-Stick Baking Mat.

If you thought those perfect cake layers were impossible to achieve at home, think again. This tool is how many professionals create even, level cake layers that seem like digital copies. This tool mainly serves two great purposes. The first is that it can help you remove any pesky domes that your cake may have developed in the oven. Second, it can split a one large cake layer into two to three evenly spaced cake layers. Both of these can aid you in creating a truly stable and flat cake. Sure, you can try to eyeball it and use a serrated knife, but when perfection is easily accomplished by buying one simple tool, it’s more practical to just buy it and call it a day.

Many cake levelers look like a particularly non-threatening hack saw, with super thin blades or wires attached to a long handle. I like the ones made with thin serrated blades rather than the wires, as the wires can struggle to cut through a particularly thick or close-crumbed cake. It’s also nice to grab one that lets you adjust and remove the saw blades as needed, so that you can get custom cake levels. Gugxiom Adjustable Cake Leveler fits the bill on all of those fronts. 

Measuring cups and spoons are not the way most professional bakers make their doughs, batters, or fillings. Instead, a scale is what they use, as baking by weight ensures perfection and even distribution each time. For a home baker, using a kitchen scale is as close to a baking guarantee as you’ll ever get. This is especially true if you’re using a cookbook that was tested and formulated almost exclusively with weight-measured ingredients. That’s most of them, by the way. 

Need another reason to get a kitchen scale? These are also great for people looking to split up bulk frozen items, so you can break up a 5-pound pack of ground beef into exact 5-pound packages. For shopping, I like it when they’re able to handle some light rinsing in water (sometimes I’ll need to wipe smears off) and give both gram and ounce measurements (aka metric and standard systems). I personally use the KitchenAid KQ909 Dual Platform Digital Scale, which has all those features plus an extra sensitive small scale for my salt, spice, and herb measurements. The larger scale has an 11-pound reading capacity, while the small one can read up to 16 ounces.