As foodies and loving bakers, we’ve been up close and personal with all manner of the best rolling pin. There has been an elegant marble number that remained beautifully chic but was heavy sufficient 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 really 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 roller pins on the market to keep them through a round of frenzied donut making and biscuit to find one who 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 really 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 keep reading down the page for descriptions of how we checked them about what to look for in a rolling pin.
What We Have tested?
To begin with, we recorded the measurement and weight of each roller pin, to see if it was balanced and simple to control and manage. We tested to see what products they were made of, whether they were suitable 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 to see whether they were sticking to the dough 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 is made of pure maple in Vermont, and the barrel is waxed to avoid sticking as you roll out the dough. Thanks to the steel axel 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, and often it can be tough to clear all the residue. Luckily, any vegetable oil or an adhesive remover like GooGone can take care of it. If something goes horribly wrong with your rolling pin, you’ll be glad to hear it’s protected by a lifetime warranty.
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.
Going to weigh in at a substantial 1.6 lbs and extending to a generous 19 inches, this rolling pin was used to handle huge slabs of cookie dough, to roll and roll cleanly, and to sustain even thickness without straining our arms or needing grinding and overwork. Its unfinished, matt surface kept the flour dust well, fending off any problems with stickiness or tearing.
Its basic shape meant that it can be quickly fitted with generic surfaces that allow you to roll dough precisely and even thickly. Widely available and priced at a point that looks affordable even to the most entry-level baker, this pin seems like an excellent bargain, a success that is validated by hundreds of bright Amazon reviews in which customers label it one of the greatest 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, in fact, created perfectly rounded crusts even more reliably. We think you’re more likely to do any better for all-around results, toughness, and bang for your buck.
French Rolling Pin for Baking Pizza Dough, Pie & Cookie in wood
Our pick
You might be shocked not to see handles on any of our suggested pins. When most people believe of a rolling pin, they conjure up the idea of a wooden one with two handles, but 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, it proved superior to the similarly formed mass-produced pins while costing a fraction of what hand-turned pins sell for its long, the 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 and 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 definitely 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 difficult 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, strong strokes and quickly rolled into a uniform thickness.
Whether you’re a dedicated maker, or just feel like you’re treating yourself, or anyone you love, a baking tool that’s realistic, beautiful, and brings you enjoyment for years to come, it’s a fantastic commodity and a serious benefit. But don’t only take our word for it: it’s summed up succinctly by a happy consumer on the Whetstone website. 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 big advantages. In the first instance, unlike wood, a marble pin may be cooled in a refrigerator or freezer, which is perfect for dealing with temperature-sensitive doughs such as 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 comes with a similar wooden foundation to make life easier to store in a cabinet or on open shelving. Don’t dream about a huge 5-pound marble pin falling off the shelf and 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 a wonderful 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 large, such as crushing meat or crushing nuts or spices, without any regard for staining or contamination.
It’s sort of damn handsome to boot. At the end of the day, our big reservations about this pin come down to 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 just wants a best rolling pin once a year to make Thanksgiving pie crusts, a budget style like this one from Good Cook is definitely 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 difficult to detach. You’re going to need some elbow grease and maybe even some cooking oil to absolutely extract the residue.
French Rolling Pin (17 Inches) WoodenRoll Pin for Fondant, Pie Crust
Our pick
The Robinson 17-inch Wooden Rolling Dowel is not as ideal for rolling pie crust rolls, but its long dowel shape makes it easy to roll out a wide 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 definitely 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 tonne 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 allows you 7 inches of rolling space and weighs just over 11 1⁄2 inches to hold. It’s made of solid oak, so it’s also extremely light to handle. That’s fine for kids, but it also means you’re not going to have the weight of a pin to help flatten the dough. So it’s better to use this pin with a dough that’s warmed up a little before you try 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 washes this one after usage to maximize its lifetime.
