When planning any baking session, it’s important to not only think about your ingredients, but also your equipment. Even the bowls you choose can impact your product. For that reason, I like to keep a set of plastic, stainless steel, and glass mixing bowls around. To help you avoid microwave disasters or a metallic tasting treat, let me break it down for you.
First, Plastic. These KitchenAid bowls are my go-to mixing bowls. There are enough sizes to pre-measure my ingredients, and the pour spout and non-slip bottom keep messes to a minimum.
Next, Stainless Steel. These bowls are great for mixing too, but I mainly use these bowls when I’m making bread or cinnamon rolls or things that require a dough to rise. They retain heat better than plastic, giving you a better rise. While stainless steel is technically non-reactive, I do not recommend using stainless steel bowls when marinating or mixing with acidic ingredients, such as vinegar or citrus juices. They can make your food taste tinny, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. Speaking of safety, neither plastic or stainless steel bowls can be used in the microwave, which leads me to...
Glass! Glass bowls are great for mixing hot ingredients, or if you need to melt butter or chocolate, warm milk, things like that, in the microwave. They can also do everything that plastic and stainless steel bowls can do, making them a jill of all trades. The only thing that keeps them from being my go-to is the noise and little brain rattle I get when using my hand mixer in the glass bowls. That being said, if you only have space or a budget for one set of bowls, let them be glass.
