Best Rolling Pins of 2020
Of the ten rolling pins we tested, the Ultra Cuisine Professional French Rolling Pin proved to be the best overall rolling pin. Its simple shape and unique material make it hard to beat. It is easily storable in any kitchen drawer as it is not excessively long or thick, and it is super easy to clean. You can even stick it in the dishwasher if you feel the need. The slight taper on either side of the pin makes it easily maneuverable, and dough has a hard time sticking to the stainless steel surface, especially after it has been chilled in the freezer or fridge.
If you are looking for a rolling pin with a more traditional appearance, the Ultra Cuisine Professional French Rolling Pin might have a foreign aesthetic. The stainless steel doesn't have the same homey feel that a wooden one might, but the material is also what makes it so fantastically versatile and effective.
The Bamber Wood Rolling Pin is the best overall wood rolling pin. We believe that the secret to this pin's success is in its simplicity. The Bamber Pin did not outshine the rest with any single feature, but saw its success in working well across the board. It is long enough to transport pie dough, and thin enough not to be too cumbersome or to take up too much room in a kitchen drawer. It is made beautifully and is easy to clean with a quick rinse in the sink. Whether you are a frequent cookie baker or the once in a blue moon tart maker, this pin will work for you.
When we tested the Bamber Wood Rolling Pin on pie dough, the stickiest dough we used, it wasn't perfect. It did stick more than we wanted it to. However, with a touch more flour the Bamber pin was back on top. Aside from the need for a decent amount of flour, this pin is a great option for any home baking you could hope to get into.
Even though the Karryoung French Tapered Rolling Pin is the most affordable of all the pins we tested, it outperforms rolling pins more than twice its price. This little dowel has a lovely tapered shape, making it easy to use. It is long enough to roll a pie crust, but doesn't take up too much room in a kitchen drawer. This pin is also one of the least sticky pins we tested and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. If you're looking for something good for everything at a reasonable price, look no further.
The Karryoung French Tapered Rolling Pin is on the thinner side, which can make transferring pie dough somewhat of a challenge, but certainly not impossible. If you're not ready to commit to a ten-plus dollar rolling pin, this one is a great all-around option that will get the job done.
If you are an avid pie maker on the hunt for the perfect pin, look no further. The J.K. Adams Dowel Rolling Pin won the attention of the New York Times, and the Food Network with its beautiful and functional USA made simplicity. This Pin was one of our favorites as well. It has an unfinished surface texture to keep super sticky pie dough under control -making it the least sticky pin- and the 2" by 19" Dowel is perfect for picking up a large and delicate pie crust. It was also surprisingly easy to maneuver, and we were able to wash off sticky dough easily with a quick rinse. With its length, width, and surface texture, we found no other model to parallel this pins pie dough finesse.
If the J.K. Adams Dowel Rolling Pin wasn't so big, it certainly would have taken the top spot. Although it fits in a kitchen drawer, it does take up a bit of space, and in small kitchens, space is of the utmost importance. If you prefer baking cookies or have limited space, this pin's girth and length would probably be unnecessary. However, if you have space, and frequently enjoy a good pie bake, this pin is perfect.
The best rolling pin with handles was the J.K. Adams Maple Wood Gourmet Rolling Pin. This pin has self-lubricating bearings to keep it rolling smoothly, an unfinished surface to keep from sticking, is a good size and weight for rolling and moving pie dough, and is beautiful to boot. Similar to the J.K. Adams dowel, the unfinished surface texture helps to keep the stickiest of doughs under control, making it a contender for best pie pin. If you prefer handles on your pie pin, this is a decent choice. The handles are sturdy, and we found that there was enough space between the countertop and the handles that we could wrap our fingers all the way around.
The main drawback of this model is that it is one of the least storable rolling pins. Its length and depth of the dowel make it difficult to fit in a shallow drawer, and even in deeper drawers, it still takes up a lot of space. That being said, if you would prefer to display this beauty on your countertop or have space to spare, this pin is a great choice.
If you need your cookies all to be the same size, the Quellance Stainless Steel Adjustable Rolling Pin is the rolling pin for you. It has a great adjustable feature with which you can choose the depth of your dough. Just choose the correct ring size and bam! All your sugar cookies will be exactly as the recipe asks, ΒΌ and inch thick. Our favorite part about this feature is that there is virtually no chance you will roll your dough too thin and have to start over. This pin has easy to use screws with four different size rings, that can all go in the dishwasher when you're done. It even comes with a silicone mat with measurements and conversions so that when you are done making your perfect sugar cookies, you can easily pick up the mess. This rolling pin can make the baking process fun, engaging, and it could keep your kitchen clean at the same time.
We found that this model could be on the sticky side when working with pie dough, and was not easily maneuverable. Because of the adjustment rings at the end of the pin, the size of the piece of dough you roll out is limited. It also could be hard to keep track of all the pieces if you don't keep them all together.
The Farberware Classic Wood Rolling Pin is a solid choice if you want a pin with handles that stores fairly easily. It has no issues rolling and works well with the less sticky dough. We love that this pin has a hole in one of the handles, so it can easily be hung instead of stuffed in a drawer. This unique feature makes this pin one of the more storable rolling pins.
Right out of the box, we had our doubts about the Farberware Classic Wood Rolling Pin. We immediately noticed a pungent smell of chemicals, and that the rod that runs through the center of the barrel and attaches to the handles was slightly bent, leading us to believe that if you need a workhorse of a rolling pin, you should avoid this one. The pin also advertises 17.5 inches, but this includes the handles. The actual barrel is only 10 inches, making it one of the shorter rolling pins we tested. The smell did fade after a day, and the pin rolled smoothly despite the bent rod. Overall, this pin ended up performing decently well.
We found that the pin best for kids was the Nasnaioll Silicone Rolling Pin, not only because it is colorful, but because it is small and light. This pin did a great job rolling out less sticky dough, and easily fits into any drawer. Another reason this rolling pin is a great pick for kids is that it can be placed on the top shelf of a dishwasher for a quick and easy clean up.
Although the Nasnaioll Silicone Rolling Pin is easy to store and works great rolling out cookies, we would not recommend trying to do any pie baking with this little guy. When trying to roll out pie dough, this pin was one of the most challenging as it seemed there was no way to keep the dough from gluing to the sides. This rolling pin would be great fun as a kids' toy or if you are only planning on making sugar cookies with it.
The K BASIX Beech Wood Adjustable Rolling Pin is fun, innovative and does the job, but not nearly as well as its stainless steel competitor. This pin performed decently well with the three different doughs and certainly wasn't the stickiest rolling pin, but proved challenging to use.
The K BASIX Beech Wood Adjustable Rolling Pin ended up at the bottom of the list. The screws that allow you to adjust the depth of your roll are so hard to remove and to tighten that it is easier to remove the rings altogether and use it as a regular dowel than to try to use it as intended. This pin has all the challenges of an adjustable rolling pin with the added challenge of it being difficult to adjust.
What originally drew us to test the Fox Run 3834 Marble Rolling Pin was its beautiful and unique marble barrel. It looks great in its personal rolling pin stand on the counter, but you wouldn't want to throw it in a drawer for fear it might crack the barrel or break the handles.
Not only was the Fox Run 3834 Marble Rolling Pin the most expensive pin, but it worked the worst. It advertises a self lubricating bearing, but we found that no matter what we were rolling out, it just wouldn't roll. The rod seemed to be sticking to the inside of the pin. The combination of the inability to roll and how incredibly heavy the pin is makes this pin the stickiest and least maneuverable of the ones we tested.
Why You Should Trust Us
Lead tester Daniel Dolan has been baking ever since he discovered the wonder of cookie dough in his early pre-teen years. After discovering the fun and delicious pass time he slowly started to expand his baking horizons from cookies to cheesecakes to to pie. Daniel's favorite dessert is pie, and although he would argue that cheesecake is his favorite pie, he has spent a fair amount of time perfecting his strawberry rhubarb and peach blueberry pies for his friends and family. Daniel is always excited to use his baking prowess to help you decipher the good from the bad and find the best tools for your baking experience.
We started the review process by searching for the rolling pins most frequently purchased and the rolling pins most highly recommended and chose the top ten contenders to battle it out on a field composed of pie dough, cookie dough, and dumpling wrappers. We tested each of the rolling pins for stickiness on each of the three different doughs. We considered maneuverability and how easy they are to use. We made sure to assess how easy they are to clean and store, and lastly, we scrutinized how aesthetically pleasing each of these rolling pin are. Using the data we collected we are able to organize these top contenders from the best overall, to the best at one application, the to worst.
Analysis and Test Results
We made sure to test the rolling pins on different types of dough in order to accurately reveal each pin's strengths and weaknesses. Our testing also included a judgment on each pin's appearance, ease of use, and how storable they were.
Stickiness
In considering what is the most important quality of a good rolling pin, we found stickiness to be number one. During our testing we discovered that no matter how pretty the pin was, or how unique it seemed, if the dough stuck, it was no fun to use. Of the doughs we used to test the rolling pins, the pie dough was by far the stickiest and was, for most part, the determining factor of stickiness.
The two rolling pins that were the best at mitigating doughy adhesion were the J.K. Adams Dowel Rolling Pin PRP-2 and the J.K. Adams Maple Wood Gourmet Rolling Pin. J.K. Adams makes their rolling pins with an unfinished surface which made a noticeable difference when working with the stickiest doughs.
Ease of Use
Ease of use is a close second to stickiness as it takes into account things like maneuverability and functionality. We found the easiest pins to use were the Karryoung French Tapered Rolling Pin and the Ultra Cuisine Professional French Rolling Pin. The French rolling pins were the easiest to use because of their shape and simplicity. The slight taper at the end of the barrels allows for plenty of maneuverability, and their simple one-piece design keeps things from getting complicated.
Cleaning
Because most rolling pins are made with wood, they usually are required to be hand washed. We wanted to make sure that if you are working with sticky dough, it's easy enough to wash off in the sink. Although all the rolling pins turned out to do well in this category, some rolling pins have a distinct advantage here. The Ultra Cuisine Professional French Rolling Pin took first place not only because dough slides off of it with ease, but also because you can stick it in the dishwasher if you so desire. The Bamber Wood Rolling Pin was also easy to clean due to its smooth hard surface texture.
Size
Depending on what you want out of your rolling pin, size preferences may vary. Bigger rolling pins tend to be better at rolling out pie dough, whereas smaller pins fit seamlessly into a drawer. When we looked at the size of the rolling pins we decided to take into account the length and width, the weight, and ultimately how easily it can be stored without compromising the effectiveness of the pin. The rolling pins that topped out this metric are the Farberware Classic Wood Rolling Pin, The Bamber Wood Rolling Pin, and the Ultra Cuisine Professional French Rolling Pin. These rolling pins fit easily into a kitchen drawer or utensil stand without compromising the functionality of the pin.
Aesthetic
The last thing we considered for each rolling pin was aesthetic. Because let's face it, if you like the way your rolling pin looks, you'll probably like your rolling pin that much more. The way we tested this quality did not rely so much on science as it did on general opinion. The prettiest rolling pins according to our team were the J.K. Adams Maple Wood Gourmet Rolling Pin, the Fox Run 3834 Marble Rolling Pin and the Bamber Wood Rolling Pin. These rolling pins had the cleanest and most beautiful builds.
Conclusion
Throughout the testing we found that most rolling pins excelled in their own niche, making it hard to decipher any one winner, and making it clear knowing as much as possible about what you want out of your next pin is very important. We did the testing and comparisons to help you discover crucial aspects of each pin, and to give you a better picture of which pin would best fit your baking and cooking style. We hope that this review has been helpful in your search for the best rolling pin for your lifestyle.
— Daniel Dolan