The Best Gifts for Bakers

The best scale for bakers

A cup of flour can weigh a lot more or a lot less depending on how it got into the cup, and weighing it ends that argument. This scale reads to 1 gram (or 0.05 ounce) and takes up to 11 pounds. TechGearLab had it read four calibrated test loads and it got all four right, and a Reviewed writer found that a three-year-old unit matched a new one exactly.

It's two buttons, a sealed panel you can wipe, and a body that slips into a drawer. Honestly, it's not a thrilling thing to unwrap. I'd still pick it for a new baker over almost anything else here.

The big Christmas baking gift

Tilt the head back, scrape down the bowl, add the eggs and you're mixing again. The 5-quart bowl handles about nine dozen cookies in a batch by KitchenAid's count, and the 10 speeds go from a slow stir up to whipped cream. The hub on the front takes attachments too, so a pasta roller or a meat grinder can come next year.

The color changes the price, sometimes by a lot. The same mixer ran from about $350 to about $500 on Amazon at last check, so see what's cheap before you decide what their kitchen needs. I don't think anyone has ever regretted a mixer that costs $150 less.

The best gift for sourdough bread bakers

Lowering a wobbly loaf into a deep, screaming-hot pot is the scary part of baking bread at home. The Challenger turns that upside down: the heavy lid is the tall part and the base is shallow, so the dough goes on a nearly flat surface. It was designed specifically for sourdough, it's long enough for a batard, and bakers buy it for how well it holds steam, which is what gives a loaf its rise and its crust.

At about $299 it's a pure treat, since a Dutch oven bakes a very good loaf for a lot less. If you want that route, I've covered the best Dutch ovens too. Measure their oven before you order, though: it's 15.5 inches long and 10.5 wide.

The best small sourdough gift

America's Test Kitchen names this its all-around favorite among lames, for comfort and for how easily it sets up. It's one solid piece of stainless steel, and a small screw holds the blade either curved, for the raised "ear" on a loaf, or straight, for fine patterns. It comes with six blades and a hard case, which matters if you've ever reached into a drawer with a loose one in it.

About $22 is a lot for a razor on a stick when $9 versions do the job. They won't buy it themselves.

The best gift for cookie bakers

Two spoons and a sticky hand give you a tray of big ones and small ones, and the small ones burn while the big ones finish. This scoop drops 1.5 tablespoons at a time, about a 2.75-inch cookie, so they all come out of the oven together. America's Test Kitchen rates it Highly Recommended, and it found that a squeeze handle like this one is easier on hands of different sizes than the kind you press with a thumb.

It's only about $17, so I'd pair it with something: the vanilla, say, or a box of good sheet pans if they're still using a dark, warped one.

The best gift for bread bakers

Ken Forkish's book won a James Beard Award for baking in 2013, and it's still the one I'd hand to someone who wants to make crusty bread at home. It takes you from a simple same-day dough up through preferments (a little flour and water you mix ahead for more flavor), then on to a sourdough starter, with pizza dough along the way. One reader called it almost the perfect book for a beginner, and it asks for a food scale and no mixer at all.

That makes the Escali the natural thing to wrap with it, and the two together come to about $55.

For the baker who has everything

I can't imagine a baker with too much good vanilla. It's about $19 for 4 ounces, more than most people pay for the bottle they grab at the supermarket, and it's the kind of thing a baker will use a teaspoon at a time in shortbread, custard and buttercream. The same company sells it as a paste for the same money, with the little black specks of the bean in it, and that's the one I'd choose for someone who makes a lot of vanilla cake.