I'm often asked about the products I use in my recipes and the tools in my kitchen—well, here they are!
While I love keeping an eye out for intriguing new ingredients—or intriguing traditional ingredients that I haven't tasted yet—and tools to use in cooking and baking, there are tried and true favorites that I return to time and time again. And that's because they just work so well.
Below are links to my favorite kitchen tools and ingredients.
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Kitchen Tools
- Digital Kitchen Scale: A simple, two-button scale that measures in grams and ounces, and has a tare function as well.
- Digital Thermometer: I use it to check everything from cooked meats to baked loaves of bread.
- Zester: This tool makes the task of testing citrus so easy!
- Small mason jars: Keep these on hand to make mason jar desserts, cute margaritas, make salad dressing, or store food and dry ingredients.
- Stand Mixer: I use this KitchenAid Lift Stand Mixer with a 7-quart bowl, but the smaller models are also excellent. It's an appliance you'll have and use in your kitchen for years.
Baking Tools
- Tapered Rolling Pin: This is my favorite for rolling out pie crust dough and any kind of dough. It looks beautiful, it's light, and it makes rolling so easy.
- Bench Scraper: It's a must-have tool for pie making, but is also very handy when working with cookie and bread doughs. I like the wooden-handled bench scrapers for their sturdiness and good looks.
- Metal Measuring Cups: A good, heavy set of metal measuring cups is such a good, long-lasting investment!
- Pastry Guide: I love using this to make perfectly-sized, perfect circles of pie dough. There's something very satisfying about using it!
Favorite Ingredients
- King Arthur All-Purpose Flour: You can't go wrong with this high-quality flour. Plus, anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of Vermont's own King Arthur Baking Company.
- Nielsen-Massey Pure Vanilla Extract: Really good vanilla is a great investment, as it will elevate the flavor of everything you make with it.
- Runamok Vermont Maple Syrup: This company has the most incredible line of pure Vermont maple syrup in flavors like ginger root and merquen pepper—they're amazing in cocktails. For baking and recipes in general, I look for Grade A dark maple syrup from any of Vermont's network of sugar houses, like Butternut Farm.
- Odlum's Coarse Wholemeal Flour: I ALWAYS have a bag of this Irish flour stashed in my freezer: it's a must-have flour to make traditional Irish brown bread!
- Boiled Apple Cider: I always have a bottle of this on hand! It amps up the flavor of everything from apple pies to applesauce to marinades.