As foodies and loving bakers, we’ve been up close and personal with all manner of the best rolling pins. There has been an elegant marble number that remained beautifully chic but was heavy enough to double as a barbell; a finely patinated modern beauty that turned out to be more beautiful than practical, and a precious French nylon roller pin that we thought would magically convert us into master pâtissiers. There is a dizzying variety of types to choose from with such an elemental instrument.
To give specifics, we assembled a line of 10 readily available and very well-made roller pins on the market to keep them through a round of frenzied donut making and biscuit making to find one that could impress both beginner bakers and pastry obsessors respectively. As our tests have demonstrated, the best roller pin works wonderfully, is made of sturdy hardwood, can last a lifetime, and is a model of economy and discipline.
If you’re a sucker for beauty or want to reward yourself, there’s a terrific enhancement pick that costs just a couple of bucks extra. Read on for the best rolling pin of 2021. Continue reading down the page for descriptions of how we checked them and what to look for in a rolling pin.
What have we tested?
To begin with, we recorded the measurement and weight of each roller pin to see if it was balanced and straightforward to control and manage. We tested to determine the materials used in the products, their suitability for the dishwasher, and whether the vendors made any clear statements. Then, we assessed their food efficiency.
Using each roller of springy pizza dough and soft-baked cookie dough, we tested whether they stuck to the dough when dry or dusted with flour, how uniformly they rolled out the dough, and how easy they were to use.
J.K. Adams Maple Wood Medium Gourmet Rolling Pin
Our pick
This sort of best roller pin, also called a baker’s or American roller pin, is most definitely the one you’re familiar with. It has a wooden barrel that rotates around a dowel tied to two sticks, typically made of wood as well. This is by far the most traditional style you’re going to see in home kitchens.
The 12-inch roller pin, made of pure maple in Vermont, features a waxed barrel to prevent sticking as you roll out the dough. Thanks to the steel axle that runs across the center, the roller pin is easy to care for. Scrape off as much dough as you can, then spray it with warm soapy water and dry it quickly.
The only criticism from customers was that J.K. Adams places a sticker on the roller pin, which can make it difficult to clear all the residue. Luckily, any vegetable oil or an adhesive remover like GooGone can take care of it. If something goes wrong with your rolling pin, you’ll be glad to hear a lifetime warranty protects it.
Ateco 19176 Maple Wood Rolling Pin, 19-Inch, Solid
Our pick
There are no rings and whistles here: only a beautifully simple, attractive, excellently Maple Dowel in America that executes wonderfully over a variety of baking tasks and has the elementary style and durable heft to serve you through with a lifetime of kitchen work.
Weighing in at a substantial 1.6 lbs and extending to a generous 19 inches, this rolling pin was designed to handle huge slabs of cookie dough, roll them cleanly, and maintain even thickness without straining our arms or requiring excessive grinding and overwork. It’s unfinished, Matt’s surface kept the flour dust well, fending off any problems with stickiness or tearing.
Its basic shape allows for quick fitting with generic surfaces, enabling precise and even dough rolling. Widely available and priced at a point that looks affordable even to the most entry-level baker, this pin seems like an excellent bargain. This success is validated by hundreds of glowing Amazon reviews, where customers label it one of the most significant kitchenware purchases ever made, and report that it’s still going strong after 20 years.
Though it lacked some of the versatility of tapered pins when fine-tuning pie crusts and forming round edges, it still handled the job well and created perfectly rounded crusts even more reliably. We think you’re more likely to do better overall in terms of results, toughness, and value.
French Rolling Pin for Baking Pizza Dough, Pie & Cookie in wood
Our pick
You might be surprised to find that our suggested pins don’t have handles. When most people think of a rolling pin, they conjure up the idea of a wooden one with two handles. Still, the experts we consulted and the novices we studied decided that a pin without handles would provide a better sense of the dough and would be a stronger method if you bake for hours. And our 10-year-old tester has come to prefer them. If you just like a pin to be treated, we’ve tried a couple.
The hand-finished Brazier, a curved French-style pin, not only performed better than the manufactured versions, but it also proved superior to the similarly formed mass-produced pins while costing a fraction of what hand-turned pins sell for. Its long, tapered form makes it suitable for rolling circles of pie crusts and more oblong shapes for cookies.
Farberware Professional French Wood Rolling Pin
Our pick
All in all, “fancy” rolling pins don’t make their keep in the kitchen. Hand-finished with elaborate works in the wood and a satiny sheen, they look like a million bucks, but they fail to manage pastry dough even with thick flour dust.
That’s why we were happily delighted by the French rolling pin Whetstone Woodenware. With its elegant Indiana Rock Maple body and handcrafted good looks, it looks a little more luxurious than our all-around pick from JK Adams, but thankfully, the extra elegance doesn’t come at a loss of substance. Its 23-inch length is the most generous of all the roller pins we’ve reviewed, making it suitable for large designs, even though it may be a little tricky to stash away in compact quarters.
The company also manufactures a much more storable 19-inch edition. It’s also a little thicker and weightier than the competition, not too much to make a big difference in customer interface, but enough to inspire confidence as you stare down a slice of chilly dough right out of the refrigerator. Working on sugar cookies, the surface of the cookie dough was skimmed in flat, firm strokes and quickly rolled into a uniform thickness.
Whether you’re a dedicated maker, treating yourself, or gifting to someone you love, a realistic, beautiful baking tool that brings you years of enjoyment is a fantastic commodity and a serious benefit. But don’t just take our word for it: a happy consumer on the Whetstone website sums it up succinctly. Beautifully built, smooth as silk, it acts like a charm.
Fox Run Polished Marble Rolling Pin with Wooden
Our pick
Apart from being aesthetically appealing, a marble rolling pin has a few significant advantages. Unlike wood, a marble pin can be cooled in a refrigerator or freezer, making it ideal for handling temperature-sensitive doughs like puff pastry or pie crust. Second, marble pins are usually thicker than their wooden equivalent, so they can help to flatten a rigid dough effectively.
This Fox-run model has a 10-inch pin and a 4-inch wooden handle on each end. It also features a similar wooden foundation, making it easier to store in a cabinet or on open shelving. Don’t dream about a giant 5-pound marble pin falling off the shelf and onto your toes.
As with all our best rolling pin picks, this should be washed by hand with soapy ethanol and filtered immediately. Fox Run also makes a variant of black marble, but it’s more than twice the price of white marble.
Matfer Bourgeat Nylon Best Rolling Pin
Our pick
This French-made dowel-style pin, made of cream-coloured nylon, is the personal favourite of the baker, Dean Biblia Friedman. After a few days in the kitchen with it, we could see why. Heavy but not oppressively so, with an outstanding balance in his hand, he made the spinning sugar cookie dough a delight, delivering even sheets a single time, and tackled the discs of buttery puff pastry without tearing or sticking.
Like the Kalyan Collins dowel, the simple silhouette was flexible to the generic spacers, and the nylon surface was cool to the touch and easy to clean. Because nylon is non-porous, without wood, this pin can be even more capable of adapting to other extremely messy kitchen tasks requiring the brute force of something significant, such as crushing meat, nuts, or spices, without any regard for staining or contamination.
It’s sort of damn handsome to boot. Our central reservations about this pin stem from the price; it’s not a small investment, and considering the cost, it doesn’t deliver four times the efficiency of the JK Adams pin. That said, whether you’re trying to reward yourself or someone you love with a special kitchen gadget, this is a keeper who can earn more than enough by turning out decades’ worth of gorgeous cookies, pies, tarts, and more.
Good Cook Classic Wood Rolling Pin
Our pick
For someone who wants the best rolling pin once a year to make Thanksgiving pie crusts, a budget style like this one from Good Cook is going to do just fine.
This model is pretty simple. It is made of a single piece of hardwood, although the form is not specified, and has Nylon bearings that allow the rolling pin to slide smoothly and prevent rusting. And then, the best rolling pin can always be cleaned by hand and dried instantly.
The biggest complaint with this style is that the sticker, which is almost as wide as the barrel itself, is attached straight to the wood and is a little tricky to detach. You’ll need some elbow grease and possibly some cooking oil to remove the residue thoroughly.
French Rolling Pin (17 Inches) WoodenRoll Pin for Fondant, Pie Crust
Our pick
The Robinson 17-inch Wooden Rolling Dowel is not ideal for rolling pie crust rolls, but its long dowel shape makes it easy to roll out a vast sheet of cookie dough that is perfectly smooth. A generic range of spacers (mainly rubber bands of different thicknesses), which would not fit on a tapered pin, will help beginner bakers roll up to a particular thickness and stop making one section thinner than the other.
Its weight was close to that of our top pick: small enough not to break or dent delicate dough, but strong enough to help work efficiently with less muscle. The JK Adams dowel is readily available at an inexpensive price.
Fletchers’ Mill 20″ French Best Rolling Pin
Our pick
This trimmed maple pin was loved by many of the pro bakers we spoke to, and its clear lines and sleek finish are appealing, particularly when attempting to turn pastry into small, delicate circles. But at the end of the day, the lighter weight and slim silhouette appear to be best suited to niche work with appropriate level and cut-to-size doughs, whereas the dowel pins sound like most other workhorses.
While the narrower sides allowed for graceful pivoting when forming the rounded corners of a double-crust pastry, we considered them to be a stumbling block rather than an aid when attempting to achieve even thickness with cookie dough sheets, not to mention that the tapered design eliminates the option of using spacers. That being said, if you’re baking a ton of pies, it may be worth giving this choice a chance—or, if you’re a dedicated maker, having both a tapered pin because it’s not too pricey to spend.
Mrs. Anderson’s Baking Children’s Rolling Pin
Our pick
Instill in your children a love of baking by making it easy for them to join. An adult rolling pin can be challenging for little hands to maneuver, so a child-size alternative is a worthwhile investment. Plus, it’s going to be useful for adults when making mini pies or rolling out personal pizza crusts.
This kid’s best rolling pin provides 7 inches of rolling space and weighs just over 11 1⁄2 inches, making it easy to hold. It’s made of solid oak, making it remarkably light to handle. That’s fine for kids, but it also means you won’t be able to use a pin to help flatten the dough. It’s better to use this pin with a dough that’s warmed up a little before trying to roll it out.
Reviewers had this pin for children as young as three and said it was a success. As with all the pins on our list, hand-wash this one after usage to maximize its lifetime.
