A few weeks ago, I was attempting to reorganize some aspects of my kitchen when I realized that, over the years, I’ve accumulated a good number of rolling pins. As with most reorganization projects, noticing multiples of anything automatically begs the question, “Do I really need all these?” For me – and after genuine consideration – the answer was a resounding, “Well, yes I most certainly do!”
Okay, so maybe “need” isn’t precisely the right word. But I did ask myself if I use each of them – and when I use them, do they make whatever I’m working on easier? In other words, “Do these rolling pins matter?” And that’s where my “yes” came from. The four pictured above are the ones that serve me most, so I thought I would talk about them a bit and how I put them to good use.
The first one is my go-to, all-purpose rolling pin. Honestly, short of working with a really small dough, it can handle pretty much anything. It’s about 14” long and I’ve had it for so long that I no longer remember where or when I got it. I like that it’s an even diameter over the entire length. There is another style of “all-purpose” rolling pin, called a French rolling pin, that gently tapers at each end. But with the French rolling pin, I don’t feel like I have command of a dough that is wider than the center area. However, with this one, I can work with dough across the entire length of the pin. It really does come down to preference and, for me, this works. Notice the knob at the end. This allows me to hang the pin by attaching a loop of kitchen string over the knob. I suppose I could get fancier, but kitchen string does the trick! Here’s a fun fact: Hanging your wooden rolling pin will help keep it from warping, since gravity is pulling on it vertically instead of horizontally. I call it natural kitchen décor!
The next rolling pin is a very long one, known as a “mattarello”. Mine has about 30” of usable pin and it’s used for rolling out pasta dough by hand. You can see that this one also has the hanging knob at one end. I find hand-rolling pasta dough very “zen” – plus I get a free upper body workout in the process!
I got this one in early 2021 when I decided I wanted to learn how to roll a “sfoglia” (a hand-rolled sheet of pasta) and took a series of Zoom pasta classes from a chef in Italy. To manage the technique correctly, I really needed a long pin and so this mattarello was added to my collection. Here’s a little video I resurrected that shows a final sfoglia being rolled off my pin. I think this may have been my first one, so I can see where it needs improvement, but I was so excited. Don’t blink – it’s a quick one!
This next one definitely holds the most sentimental value of any of my rolling pins.
This little guy is only about 12” long and, as you can see, he’s certainly had a life! When we lived in China – nearly 30 years ago, at this point – I tried to absorb as much as I could about how to prepare some of my favorite dishes. If you’ve read some of my prior blog posts, you might have seen a few sprinkled along the way. Some of my fondest memories of our time there was helping a family we were particularly close to with their Chinese New Year festivities. We originally met him as he worked for my husband, and it was with his family that I learned how to make dumplings. When we left to return to the USA, he gave me this little rolling pin that was used to roll the dumpling wrappers – I had used it myself several times while there. It originally belonged to his grandfather, which made it quite old – and a very touching gift, indeed. I think about all the marks and scars on this little pin every time I use it, and all the history it holds! You can see that this pin is somewhat fashioned in that “French style” I mentioned earlier, where the ends taper off. In this case, that feature actually comes in handy, shaping the little balls of dough into dumpling wrappers.
While there is no knob at the end of this pin, it’s so small that I just store it upright in a cabinet and that seems to work out just fine. I think one has seen harsher circumstances!
The last rolling pin that I use consistently is this one that helps me maintain a consistent thickness to my dough.
The ends of this funny looking pin actually unscrew and all those colored pieces are disks of various thicknesses.
While each disk is marked in both inches and millimeters, they’re hard to see in the photo. From left to right, they are purple at 3/8” (10 mm), red at 1/4" (6 mm), orange at 1/6” (4 mm), and yellow at 1/16” (2 mm). The pin itself is about 14” long, and the disks are secured at each end by screwing the green end pieces through the holes. Here is how the red 1/4" disk looks once it’s in place.
I don’t use this for all doughs. I only use it when a uniform thickness and consistent baking is really important. I do a lot of cookie decorating, so an even surface is critical. In addition, rolled cookies of different thicknesses vary in baking time, so knowing they’re all the same thickness going into the oven makes my life a lot easier! And, finally, clients like consistency from cookie to cookie. This rolling pin helps with all of that. There are other ways of managing the thickness of your dough, but to have it all together as part of one rolling pin is so convenient!
You can see from the side view of these cute little “onesie” cookies that they are all the same thickness, thanks to this rolling pin! Oh, and while this pin doesn’t have an actual “knob” on one end, I’m still able to hang it because the stack of disks serves the same purpose!
I hope you found some helpful tips and tricks buried in here and had some fun helping me justify keeping all my rolling pins – because rolling pins matter!
If rolling out dough – either savory or sweet – is your thing, The Chopping Block features several opportunities in April. Take a look at our cooking classes, especially our hands-on Chicago Neighborhoods Tour, hands-on Dumplings Around the World, and hands-on Pasta and Gnocchi Workshop – just enough rolling and lots of fun!
