19 Must-Have Cookie Baking Essentials That I Swear By

You guys all know that I am the BIGGEST Cookie Monster! I LOVE cookies! I love creating cookie recipes, baking cookies, eating cookies, and sharing cookies! Cookies make the world a better place. FACT! I love them so much that I wrote a cookie cookbook!!

Some of my favorite cookie recipes include chocolate chip, peanut butter, monster, snickerdoodles, peanut butter oatmeal, kitchen sink, triple chip chocolate, easy sugar cookies, and MORE!

I always get asked what I use to bake cookies, so today I am sharing my cookie baking essentials! All of the items you need to make PERFECT cookies! These are my tried and true items that I use every time I bake cookies…which is almost every day:)

And if you are looking for cookie recipes, I've got you covered! You can find all of my favorite COOKIE RECIPES HERE! Happy cookie baking!

My Favorite Cookie Baking Essentials

1. Best Stand Mixer: KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer

I LOVE my KitchenAid Mixers! It's my favorite kitchen appliance! I use it almost every day to make cookies and other baked goods! It makes mixing batter SO easy and it's gorgeous and comes in SO many different colors (I LOVE my lime green one). It's a bit pricey but you can find it on sale sometimes and I think it's totally worth the investment because it will last you a lifetime — and many MANY cookies!!

2. Best Cookie Sheets: Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Pro Nonstick Half Sheet

I LOVE Williams Sonoma's Gold Touch Baking Sheets. The half-sheet pans are my favorite cookie sheets! They are made with commercial-grade aluminized steel that distributes heat quickly and evenly for consistent baking results. Never use dark pans or your cookies will burn!

For a more affordable option, I also like these aluminum Nordic Ware Commercial Baker's Half Sheets.

3. Best Silicone Baking Mat: Silpat Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat

I love using Silpat baking mats! There's easy clean up, and the mats help the cookies bake evenly and they prevent spreading. They are reusable, easy to clean, and come in different sizes to fit your cookie sheet. I use them A LOT:)

I will also use parchment paper to ensure there's no burning or sticking to the pans. They're not reusable, but you can just toss them out after for easy cleanup — which is much needed after HOURS of baking!

4. Best Cookie Scoop: Restaurantware Met Lux Scoop

These cookie scoops from Restaurantware come in a ton of sizes, which is good for baking different-sized cookies! They are the best cookie scoops I've ever used and each size is a different color, so it's easy to know which is which in your baking drawer. Dough releases easily so I can scoop quickly and get my cookies into the oven ASAP.

5. Best Cookie Cookbook: Let's Eat Cookies: A Collection of the Best Cookie Recipes

I couldn't make a list of cookie essentials without mentioning my NEW cookie cookbook! You'll find 70 cookie recipes with pretty cookie photos as well as even MORE tips for baking cookies, storing cookies, shipping cookies, and entertaining with cookies. I think every cookie lover should own it, and if you need more cookie inspo, you can check out my other cookie recipes HERE. I hope you LOVE it, and I hope you're inspired to use some of the recipes with all my favorite baking tools!

6. Best Measuring Cups: Hudson Essentials Stainless Steel Measuring Cups

You need a good set of measuring cups to perfectly measure out flour and sugar to add to your sugary creations. I LOVE these stainless steel measuring cups. They come in all the sizes you need and look really pretty!

7. Best Measuring Spoons: Spring Chef Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons

These are essential for measuring out salt, vanilla, baking soda, and cinnamon perfectly. I love this stainless steel set that comes with ⅛ tsp, ¼ tsp, ½ tsp, ¾ tsp, 1 tsp, 1 Tbsp, and a leveler. The square, rounded corners also allow them to fit in most spice containers!

8. Best Mixing Bowls: Cook With Color Mixing Bowls

I use mixing bowls for whisking dry ingredients together before adding them to my stand mixer. I love this set! It comes in different sizes that are great for small and large batches and it has a pour spout, meaning there's less spillage when I pour it into my mixer.

9. Best Whisk: OXO Good Grips 11-Inch Balloon Whisk

This is the whisk I use to whisk my dry ingredients together. The handle is ergonomic and the whisk is large so it's easy to clean between the cracks. It's also dishwasher safe if you don't want to handwash it!

10. Best Spatulas: Open Kitchen by Williams Sonoma Silicone Wood Spatulas

I love the different sizes in this set. They are great for scraping down the mixing bowl because they're so flexible, but the wooden handles keep them sturdy! It comes with 2 large spatulas and 3 mini ones with different shaped heads to help you with all kinds of cookie projects. I also love these spatulas because they are for a great cause and so fun!

11. Best Cookie Spatula: OXO Good Grips Silicone Cookie Spatula

These spatulas are perfect for lifting cookies off of the baking sheet. I find that they don't cause soft cookies to break — so long as they've cooled off a little! They're flexible and have rounded corners that make it easy to scrape the sticky dough out of spoons too.

12. Best Oven Thermometer: Rubbermaid Stainless Steel Oven Thermometer

It's always good to check the temperature of your oven because they are usually off a few degrees, which can impact your baking time. This little thermometer goes right inside the oven and is accurate. I always double-check mine before I put my first batch in the oven and adjust my oven temperature as necessary!

13. Best Oven Mitt: Williams Sonoma Oven Mitt

Everyone needs a good oven mitt! I like this one from Williams Sonoma because it's sturdy, durable, and makes it easy to grip the cookie sheet without squashing any of the goods! They come in plenty of colors too!

14. Best Cooling Rack: Wilton Excelle Elite 3-Tier Cooling Rack

I like this cooling rack because it has 3 tiers to hold a TON of cookies and doesn't take up a lot of space. It folds down compactly for storage, and you can either stack the racks or put them side by side depending on your preference.

15. Best Glass Storage Containers: Anchor Glass Canister with Glass Lid

I prefer to store my flour, oats, and sugar in glass containers rather than keeping them in their original packaging. It creates less mess when scooping and they're so pretty! And because they're clear I can see exactly how much I have left.

16. Best Gifting Boxes & Bags: Moretoes Cookie Boxes and Cellophane Treat Bags

The only thing better than eating cookies is gifting them to friends and family! I like using these cardboard boxes and cellophane bags for packing up goodies for the holidays or bake sales. They're pretty cheap and are easy to pull out when needed. They come in white too!

Get the Moretoes Cookie Boxes, 32 Pieces:

Get the Cellophane Treat Bags, 100 Pieces:

17. Best Sea Salt: Maldon Sea Salt Flakes

This is my favorite sea salt for sprinkling on my cookies. The flaky salt brings out the best flavor and it totally makes a difference!

18. Best Chocolate Chips: Guittard Chocolate Chips

This is my favorite brand of chocolate chips! I like semi-sweet chocolate chips in my cookies, but if you are a milk chocolate fan, their milk chocolate chips are good too!

19. Dutch Process Cocoa: Guittard Cocoa Powder

I like to use Dutch Process Cocoa over cocoa powder in my chocolatey cookie recipes. The flavor is so rich and chocolaty! Once you start using it, you will never go back! I also like using this unsweetened powder from Guittard that also has a strong chocolate flavor that I LOVE.

Prices were accurate at time of publishing.