Baking

Mixing bowls are one of those kitchen items you don’t think about until you’re holding a too-small bowl with one hand while ingredients drip off the counter. The right set makes cooking easier. Big enough to toss a salad without launching leaves across the kitchen. Heavy enough that it doesn’t spin when you whisk. Stable enough that it doesn’t tip over. We tested 7 mixing bowl sets, from cheap sets to premium stainless steel, glass nesting sets, and ceramic mixing bowls. We looked at weight, stability, ease of cleaning, nesting efficiency, and how well each set holds up to daily use. ...

A good baking sheet is the most-used pan in most kitchens. You roast vegetables on it. You bake cookies. You toast nuts. You reheat leftovers. You catch drips under pies. It’s the kitchen workhorse that nobody thinks about until the cookies burn on one side because the pan warped in the oven. We tested 6 baking sheets and sheet pans across the major categories: half-sheets for cookies and sheet cakes, quarter-sheets for smaller portions, rimmed pans for roasting that requires a juice catch, nonstick for delicate pastries, and heavy-gauge aluminum for even heat distribution. Here are the ones worth buying. ...

I used to measure flour by volume until I made three different batches of bread dough in one afternoon and got three different textures. Same recipe, same scoop, wildly different results. That’s when I bought a kitchen scale and found out my “cup” of flour varied by as much as 30 grams depending on how I scooped. A good digital kitchen scale fixes that. It’s also the gadget I reach for more than anything else — for coffee brewing, portion control, and following recipes that come from countries where they don’t measure in cups. We tested 7 digital kitchen scales in 2025 across different price points and use cases, from $15 basics to precision lab-grade models. ...

A stand mixer changes what you can cook. Knead bread dough without exhausting your arms. Whip egg whites to stiff peaks while you measure the next ingredient. Mix cookie dough, shred chicken, and with the right attachments roll pasta, grind meat, spiralize vegetables. Without one, some recipes just aren’t worth the arm workout. In 2025, the stand mixer market runs from $80 budget models to $700 Italian design icons. KitchenAid, Bosch, Cuisinart, Smeg — each brings something different to the counter. We tested six popular stand mixers across the price range to find the ones that earn their spot. ...

There’s nothing quite like waking up to the smell of fresh-baked bread. And with a bread maker, you don’t need to be a master baker to make it happen. Dump in the ingredients, press a button, and let the machine do the work. But you don’t need to spend $200+ to get a great bread maker. In 2025, several models under $100 deliver excellent results. We’ve tested and compared the top contenders to help you pick the right one. ...