Lately no matter how good I flour my wooden rolling pin, my dough seems to stick when I'm rolling it out. I was wondering, instead of having to keep adding flour, does a marble rolling pin work any better? I apologize if this already has a thread. I looked and looked and could not find it discussed. Hoping I didn't overlook something.
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A marble pin might help prevent sticking insofar as, if you chill it, it will retain coolness longer and, thus, keep the dough from warming up and getting sticky as fast as it might if working with a wooden pin. But, I never use marble pins, I find them to be too heavy and a little harder to control (if I press too hard, I suddenly have a dent in the dough). But that may be just me/personal preference.
I rarely have trouble with dough sticking to my wooden pins though - I wonder if your dough is softer than usual, i.e., if the issue has more to do with your dough formulation or how well chilled it is to start rather than the pin?
I always roll my dough between two pieces of parchment. There is no sticking, no flour necessary, and no pre-chilling required. Just plop the dough directly from the mixer onto the parchment, top with another piece of parchment, then roll. A pin with guides is helpful so you don't have to peek under the parchment to assess the thickness. Then I slide the parchment and dough onto the back of a half sheet pan and freeze it before cutting.
I put parchment paper on the top and plastic wrap on top. It helps with seeing the dough. My favorite rolling pin has built in guides that I can remove or add. I use the Joseph Joseph and it's on sale at William Sonoma for $15.96
Econlady posted:I put parchment paper on the top and plastic wrap on top. It helps with seeing the dough. My favorite rolling pin has built in guides that I can remove or add. I use the Joseph Joseph and it's on sale at William Sonoma for $15.96
Thank you. I will try the parchment and also look into the Joseph Joseph rolling pin. I have an unused gift card from William Sonoma!
Julia M. Usher posted:A marble pin might help prevent sticking insofar as, if you chill it, it will retain coolness longer and, thus, keep the dough from warming up and getting sticky as fast as it might if working with a wooden pin. But, I never use marble pins, I find them to be too heavy and a little harder to control (if I press too hard, I suddenly have a dent in the dough). But that may be just me/personal preference.
I rarely have trouble with dough sticking to my wooden pins though - I wonder if your dough is softer than usual, i.e., if the issue has more to do with your dough formulation or how well chilled it is to start rather than the pin?
I haven't tried chilling my dough. I tend to shy away from that for space reasons(side by side fridge, because I HAD to have one, but it is significantly smaller than old fridge. Now regret it). I am trying to think if I had AC on or windows open the last two times I baked. Heat and humidity could have had something to do with it. I is possible that I was so focused on the task at hand that I didn't put the two together.
Don't turn on the oven until all the cookies are cut out and in the freezer. That'll help keep the room's temp down which is important when you're rolling out cookie dough. I like to bake the cookies frozen and cut them out frozen because they keep their shape better when baking and there's no worry about them becoming misshaped as they're transfered onto the cookie sheet.
I have a side by side refridgerator too, but here's what I've learned to do in order to use the least amount of freezer space. I picked this tip up from Lisa, The Bearfoot Baker. She recomends using the 'Flexible Cutting Mats' found at WalMart to roll out cookie dough. There's 3 to a package in red, lime green and orange. They measure 12" x 15" and they're inexpensive. Lisa wasn't necessarily trying to save freezer space, she wanted to show a great way to roll and cut out cookies. BUT, the width of those mats fit perfectly in my freezer.
Ok, back to Lisa's method, don't chill your cookie dough after you've made it. Divide it into 3 equal amounts, lightly dust the mats with flour and roll out the dough with a piece of parchment paper on top to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin. Each portion of dough will fill the cutting mat. Stack the mats putting a piece of wax paper, parchment or plastic wrap on top of each sheet of dough and put them in the freezer. When the dough is frozen, cut the cookies out, and keeping them on the mats, remove the excess dough and put cut outs back into the freezer. You can get one more mat of cookies from the remaining dough and you've only re-rolled the dough once, so you're cookies will stay tender and not toughen from having handled the dough too much.
I used to chill my dough, but three or four passes across the unchilled dough using the parchment paper has helped me speed up the process and that means more time for decorating
Regarding a rolling pin, I've read very good reviews on the Joseph Joseph rolling pin with the built in guides. I had a rolling pin and didn't want to buy another, so I use @Hani/Haniela's paint stick trick to get an even thickness to the dough. You can learn about it on her website. You can see Lisa's tutorial on rolling out cookie dough at The Bearfoot Baker
Once you get a rolling pin that you're happy with, you'll figure out what works best for you.
As far as freezer space goes "take it to the mat"! ;-)
Recently I started putting my dough in 3 or 4 disks, wrapping them in plastic and stick them in refrigerator and get ready to rolll out dough. When ready I pull out the first disk and start rollling. When I have a small amount left, I stick in the refrigerator and pull out the next disk. It just helps keep it cool without the dough getting hard. I chill my my cutout dough in like the dough is stiff. Let me add that I don't use flour on my cookie cutters, I use an even mixture of flour and powdered sugar. The dough won't dry out as fast.
I have always used a wooden rolling pin. When it was new, I used to add a little flour, so the dough doesn't stick. But, with the use and time, the grease of the butter created a "wax film" on my rolling pin. Now, I never add flour, no matter how sticky or soft my dough is.
