My favorite tools

 Let's start with the very basics and work our way up to bigger and more expensive items: 

One piece silicone spatulas - I prefer one piece spatulas for a bunch of reasons but the big two are that the heads don't randomly fall off when the adhesive inevitably gives out and germs can't work their way into that gap where the handle and head meet up. I have these in blue, red & green (for dairy, meat and parve).  

Whisks - I don't know why I love whisks so much, but I really do. In addition to that one, I have this smaller whisk and these mini whisks which are great for salad dressings. I have a set for meat, a set for dairy and a set for baking. 

Glass Mixing Bowls - I find these very useful for lots of things. The biggest bowl is my go-to for one-bowl cakes (like the Spontaneous Chocolate Cake) or cookies 

Measuring Cups and Spoon Set - I like this set because I can have sets in green (parve), blue (dairy), and meat. I also like that they're metal. I've got a drawer full of plastic measuring cups where the measurement marker has worn off so I can't remember if it's 2/3 cup or 1/2 cup anymore or the handle has snapped off the cup. For these, the handle isn't snapping off (might bend but I can live with that) and the measurement is engraved so it's not rubbing off. 

Kitchen Scale - I prefer to bake by weight whenever possible. It's more accurate than the scoop-and-sweep method and it means fewer things (measuring cups, etc.) to wash after. 

PANS! I love cake pans. The quirkier the better!  But learn from my mistakes: invest in good basic pans. That cool looking car-shaped cake pan will sit unused in the cabinet, taking up valuable real estate and at best you'll use it twice. At best! And that's only if the cake comes out of the pan neatly the first time you use it. Got it? 

So, we're in agreement. Good basic pans. I like to have 8-inch or 9-inch square pans, 8-inch or 9-inch round pans, 9x13 pans, muffin pans, mini muffin pans, loaf pans and several (at least 10 between meat, dairy and parve) half-sized sheet pans.  

If your main baking task is challah with 5-lbs of challah, I highly recommend the Bosch Universal Mixer, However, if you do a lot of different kinds of baking or you regularly make smaller batches of anything, I've found the KitchenAid mixer series. The 5-quart tilt head is their classic workhorse. I have their 7-quart because I like doubling recipes whenever I can. I find it can just barely, sometimes almost hold a full 5 lb challah but I've also had flour go flying everywhere if I'm not careful.  I have so many of the attachments for this mixer.  I can review individual ones if there's any interest but here's a short list of what's in my cabinet: 

- The Spiralizer Attachment

- The Food Grinder (my husband likes grinding his own meat for hamburgers)

- The Pasta Roller & Cutter

- The Pasta Extruder (my husband bought this during the pandemic when he thought he would be into making pasta from scratch regularly) 

I also like using handheld mixers for some tasks. I like the KitchenAid Handheld. It's a little pricey so I bought a cheaper one for my kids to use. It gets the job done and if they accidentally love it to death, I won't be annoyed.