The Best Rolling Pins

We’ve recommended this rolling pin for years—and it remains the best dowel-style model on the market. Dowel pins’ long, flat barrels make them a great choice for larger jobs such as rolling dough for slab pies or croissants. It’s 19 inches long, giving plenty of space to roll out doughs of all sizes. At 1.4 lbs, it was heavy enough to help us as we rolled, but not so heavy that it crushed the dough underneath. Because the wood is slightly rough, it held onto a dusting of flour and dough never stuck to it. The wood also gripped the dough more than pins made from smoother materials, helping the dough respond to our movements more efficiently so we never overworked it. It’s also sold by King Arthur Baking Company as the King Arthur Straight Rolling Pin.

Tapered rolling pins are slightly lighter, narrower, and more maneuverable than dowels, and this model is the best we tested. It tapered gently at each end and has the most usable flat surface area, 9.5 inches, of all the tapered rolling pins we tested, so it was easier to form dough into rounds. The rough wood gave the dough something to cling to, so it responded efficiently to the movements of the pin. There was no sticking because a fine dusting of flour clung to the pin nicely.

This simple wooden dowel was a pleasure to use. Its 19.4-inch barrel was plenty long enough to roll out dough of all sizes. The wood is slightly rough, so it holds flour well. Rolling felt easier because the dough and parchment had something to cling to, compared to rolling pins made with slicker materials. This pin is just a hair lighter and longer than our winning dowel and also has a slightly smaller circumference. The smaller circumference required just a bit more effort on our part and a few more spins to achieve the same results as the larger pin.

This model has a gradual taper, leaving 8.5 inches of usable flat surface on which to roll, 1 inch less than our winning tapered rolling pin. Nothing stuck to this pin during testing. Weighing just under 1 pound, it was heavy enough to help us roll but light enough to maneuver easily. This model was a bit smoother than our winning rolling pins and didn’t feel as secure under our hands when rolling out dough.

We appreciated that the long barrel gave us plenty of room to roll out dough and we liked that nothing stuck to it. It’s the second-heaviest rolling pin in our lineup, so it’s a bit too cumbersome for some home bakers. Its handles were comfortable to hold; however, we still experienced the same challenges as we did with other rolling pins with handles. It’s hard to know what’s going on with the dough underneath the pin. We had to work very hard to roll out cookie dough between two sheets of parchment. The barrel was easy to clean, but we worried about flour, dough, and water getting stuck in the space where the handles attach.

This wooden tapered rolling pin got the job done but was designed in a way that made it harder to use. At only 8.6 ounces, it was too dainty to provide sufficient assistance while we rolled. Its dramatic taper left only 5.2 inches of flat rolling space. This meant that we easily created hills and valleys when rolling and struggled to produce even rounds of dough. It was simply less easy to use than tapered rolling pins with more flat space.

This rolling pin came with a set of removable rings designed to help novice bakers roll dough to uniform thickness. There are 4 rings in total, from 1/16 to 3/8 inch, that screw on to either side of the barrel. We appreciated that it took the guesswork out of rolling dough to a precise, perfectly even thickness. However, this rolling pin fell short in two places. First, the 13.6-inch barrel was simply . . . too short. We were able to roll out a 12-inch pie dough circle, but it left indents in the larger pizza and cookie doughs. Secondly, when we rested our hands on the ends of the pin, they landed directly on top of the rings, which pushed uncomfortably into our palms. When we removed the rings to replace them with another size we noticed flour was caught in between the barrel and the ring, making it harder to clean.

We were intrigued by the idea of a nonstick-coated rolling pin, but flour didn’t cling to the supersmooth surface and dough stuck as a result. Its 11.5-inch barrel left indentations in the dough. Like all models with handles, it struggled to roll out cookie dough between parchment paper. The handles are angled slightly for comfort, but we found them unintuitive and had to think about whether we were holding them correctly. Lastly, flour and dough can get stuck in the nooks and crannies where the handles meet the pin.

As soon as we started rolling out pie dough, we noticed dough sticking to the barrel. Those small pieces of dough left pockmarks across the dough as we rolled. We needed to use extra flour to prevent more sticking because the smooth surface couldn’t hold a dusting of flour. The pin is big enough to roll out a 12-inch pie dough circle, but it was small when we rolled out our larger pizza and cookie doughs. In order to have enough rolling space on this small pin, our hands were uncomfortably half off the barrel.

While this rolling pin was beautiful, it didn’t perform well and was not easy to use. At 4.6 pounds, it was the heaviest pin in our lineup. It was uncomfortable to hold with one hand, so we sometimes had to set down the pin on the counter each time we rotated or flipped our dough, which slowed us down. And we watched with dismay as the weight of the pin crushed the air bubbles from our pizza dough. Dough stuck to the pin and we had to keep adding more flour. When we rolled out cookie dough between parchment, the pin pushed the parchment back and forth on the counter instead of smoothing out the dough. The barrel was only 9.7 inches long and the edges of the pin left noticeable indentations on the doughs during testing.