I need a new rolling pin, and wonder if there have been great advances in the technology. I hear about Teflon, about silicone, about marble, about old-fashioned maple.
I use mine to roll pie crust, and rolled cookies twice a year or so. No laminated pastry. But pie crust sticking to the rolling pin is a problem I want to avoid.
What should I put on my Christmas list?
Tupperware makes a good one for the purposes you list. It cleans well, is lightweight and easy to hold. I have found the marble, while handsome, is just too heavy and tires my hands, it’s also difficult to keep the light touch biscuits and pie crust needs. I love my heirloom, vintage turned maple rolling pins, so wood is my choice, but that is more ‘sticky’ than the utilitarian Tupperware one I also use. Wooden ones have to be cared for more persnicketively than does the Tupperware one that can go in the dishwasher. Ease of care is a positive point about stainless steel rolling pins but they can get heavy and some can’t go in the dishwasher.
Wooden ones can be fun to find at farmer’s markets and craft shows. I have found some great ones at estate sales and thrift shops for pittances. A few months ago a poster mentioned a company here, based on the east coast I think, that did gorgeous turned wooden rolling pins, even custom matching adult and child ones. Maybe they will see this thread and post that web site again.
I have one of the teflon ones, that I got to replace the one that had belonged to my great-grandmother, which I had loved. I thought, “Yeah, taking advantage of technology” as well, but the darned thing doesn’t work as well as my great-grandmother’s. Turns out you want a little traction between the surface of the pin and the dough. I end up having to press harder with the teflon one than I did with the antique one (which I loved).
I thought about checking flea markets for a replacement for my great-grandmother’s, but the idea that I’d have to pack it away for a year to kasher it (you can’t hot-water kasher wood) made me change my mind.
I decided to get a plain old pasty rolling pin (sometimes called French-style), and see how it worked, and I love it. I use it for everything now.
It cost about $6. The teflon one was more like $25.
ETA: Can’t get link to work. See one here:
That is exactly the style my wife likes.
Fixed link for you in your post too.
Thanks to What_Exit for fixing that for me! I don’t know if I did something wrong, or if there was a glitch at the time I tried to post it.
You’re welcome. Amazingly hard to find a smallish picture of a French Style Rolling Pin to insert into the thread.
Yeah. I was first told I was not permitted to insert pictures in posts, after trying that route.
Amazing price on the pin, too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything for less than $30 at Bed, Bath and Beyond. If they’re $11.99 there, you know they’ll be about 60% of that at Walmart.
Hey! I nailed that, almost exactly-- the cheapest one at Walmart.com is $7.34.
I should mention, the French Style Rolling Pin is so easy to clean. My mom had the classic style and that was probably 5 times harder to get clean. (Not that it was really all that hard, but the French style is just that easy.)
Yep, I seem to do a lot of dishwashing. Only fair as I’m a crappy cook.
The only reason to use marble is if you need your roller to be and stay chilled. If I ever make puff pastry from scratch again, I’ll probably pull out my marble rolling pin.
I have a set of silicone rolling pins that I actually use for pretty much everything. Something like this.
Agree with all of you. Rolling pins are about the phrase “different strokes for different folks”.
I love baking, vintage utensils and heirlooms, so I have about 6 rolling pins in 3 styles. The nice thing is I used to have more but as my kids fledged the nest and established their own kitchen I could give one of them two different types of rolling pins, always one of which used to be their grandmother’s. They treasure those.
A heavy glass straight-sided wine bottle, with the label soaked off, makes a pretty good rolling pin MacGyver in a pinch, especially if you need a rolling pin only a few times a year. Can even be chilled in the fridge.
I never knew any of my grandmothers or aunts in the mid-South to have anything but the classic American “cartoon chasing the husband” rolling pin, so I was a little taken aback by the French style ones universally used on the Great British Baking Show. I wonder if the big thick ones were better for pushing down biscuit dough—or if it’s just what the hardware stores of the region sold.
Can anyone speak to the advantages of the French (one piece, small diameter) vs. the American (large diameter with handles) for rolling pie crusts out thin—but unbroken?
Strictly personal preference. Speaking as an ex-pastry chef.
French style is easier to clean-- no water in the axle to dribble out later.
In addition to the cleaning issue as mentioned by @RivkahChaya, I find that the French style gives a better feel for how the dough is rolling out. I always used the “classic” style with the handles as a kid and young adult, it wasn’t until I went to culinary school that I was introduced to the French style.
At first I thought it a bit weird, but once I got used to it, I found it much more responsive. They also tend to have tapers on the edges that can be used to smooth out little lumps without having to stretch the whole thing. Sometimes over or under rotating the roller as you roll out the dough can also have some benefits to how well it comes out.
I suppose the biggest advantage of the handles style is that you are not touching the food contact area as much, but if you are working with dough, you should probably have clean hands anyway, and you are going to need to clean up afterwards either way.
It’s largely a preference thing, but IME, professional chefs tend to prefer the French style.
They pivot without your having to lift them up, which makes them faster to use, and gives them a “streamlined” feeling. Rolling a ball of dough into a square is much easier. Saving a few minutes here and there on occasional home baking isn’t that big a deal, I guess, but probably saving them on several batches a day, every day, as a professional would, really adds up.
Also, something a professional would be more likely to use is these plastic or rubber, I guess, grommets, or something that fit on the ends of them, so you can measure off dough that is an exact, and uniform thickness.
I don’t normally use them, but I use them when I make sufganiyot, which need to be pretty thick, so it’s easy to over-roll them.
A professional doesn’t need them - they’re like training wheels. Also, they constrict the area footprint of the dough mass to quite a bit smaller than a professional would be likely to want.
French-style is nice for small pieces of dough, but for large pieces, a standard pin with handles is much better for my wrists.
I’ve seen some pretty long ones. But yeah, now that I think about it, a professional wouldn’t need the grommets. Or whatever they’re called.
I have both a “Standard” rolling pin and a French one, but the last couple of times I used one I reached for a wine bottle. And then I used it as a rolling pin.
Wait. . .you roll your biscuit dough? That’s just so. . .wrong. 
There are so many cool, different rolling pins. I’m almost glad that I’m gluten intolerant …