I Tested 12 Rolling Pins to Find the Best Ones for Pie Crust and Sugar Cookies

When I meet new folks, it usually comes up that I bake a lot. The first thing they ask (besides “what’s the best bakery in the city?”—an answer that requires a lot of long-winded conditions and explanations) is what my favorite thing to bake is. Hands down, it’s pies. I’ve won blue ribbons and first-place awards for my pies. And I have a whole chapter on pies in my cookbook, which was one of my favorite sections to write. I’ve been baking them for over 30 years, and I have strong opinions on everything about them.

That means I have thoughts about the best rolling pins. And yes, I have my own preferred style of rolling pin at home. But when I travel and bake in other cooks’ homes, I use whatever they have on hand, even if that’s just a wine bottle. So I set out to discover if the rolling pin that I use most often is actually the best by testing 12 different rolling pins. I found four that are versatile enough for rolling out pie crusts, sugar cookies, and laminated dough.

The Winners, at a Glance

The Best Rolling Pin

J.K. Adams FRP-1 Maple French Rolling Pin

$24 at Amazon

$32

$28 at Wayfair

This French wooden rolling pin has a tapered end that allows the user to handle and manipulate stiff, cold pie dough and soft sugar cookie dough. It is made of solid, unfinished maple wood, making it easy to coat with flour to keep the dough from sticking. 

The Best Dowel Rolling Pin

J.K. Adams Dowel Rolling Pin

$40

$25 at Amazon View on Bed Bath & Beyond View on Breadtopia.com

This wide, non-tapered rolling pin is an excellent choice if you roll out a lot of stiff pie dough or prefer a dowel-style pin for even sheets of pastry.

The Best Rolling Pin With Handles

J.K. Adams Maple Wood Medium Gourmet Rolling Pin

$35 at Amazon

If you roll out softer cookie dough or prefer a rolling pin with handles, JK Adams makes a wide rolling pin that rolls super smoothly. The larger pin means less effort and an even, flat surface. 

The Best Splurge Rolling Pin

Earlywood French Rolling Pin

$58 at Amazon

This slim French rolling pin has a silky-smooth surface, with just enough grain to allow it to be coated with flour. The tapered, rounded edges felt great in my hands, and it easily rolled out stiff or soft dough.

The Tests

• Pie Dough Test: I rolled out 45°F chilled pie dough using each rolling pin that had been dusted with flour. I took note of how comfortable the pin was under my hand, how easily it could roll out cold, stiff dough, and how difficult it was for the pie crust to be manipulated into a 12-inch round sheet. Once the dough was rolled out, I used the pin to transfer the crust to a pie pan.
• Sugar Cookie Test: I took 65°F room-temperature sugar cookie dough and rolled it out to see how smoothly the pins could roll out soft dough. I then used a cookie cutter to see how even the dough really was. 
• Cold Butter Test: I took a stick of 45°F cold butter directly from the fridge and used the rolling pin to flatten the butter between sheets of parchment paper, a step in making traditional laminated dough like croissants or puff pastry.
• Cleanup Test: After each test, I cleaned the pin, taking note of how difficult it was to clean.
  

What We Learned

Unfinished Wood Was the Best Material

I much preferred unfinished wood over other materials like metal or marble. Solid wood had a heft that made it easier to roll out stiff dough, without being too heavy for softer dough. A heavy marble rolling pin, like the Fox Run Marble Rolling Pin looked pretty and stayed cool, but it was so heavy that it was hard to smoothly roll out cookie dough without leaving indentations in it. And it was challenging to flatten butter by pounding it, as the handles felt like they were going to snap off. Lighter-weight metal rolling pins like the Ultra Cuisine French Rolling Pin required more effort to roll cold dough, and they had the potential to warm up too much in a hot kitchen.

Unfinished wood also allowed me to dust the rolling pin with a thin coating of flour, which helped prevent the dough from sticking to the pin. Flour didn’t adhere to finished wood, marble, metal, or the nonstick coating of the OXO rolling pin. In testing, the cookie dough actually did, in fact, stick to the “nonstick” pin, ruining all my effort to make a flat and even dough sheet.

Tapered Pins Were the Most Versatile 

The classic French rolling pin is tapered at the ends and wider in the middle. It’s the preferred shape for many pastry chefs for a reason. The tapered edges give your fingers more room to comfortably wrap around the rolling pin as you use it. Dowel rolling pins require you to press down on the top of the pin with your hand, which is slightly less comfortable. And handles, despite being the most comfortable to hold, require more effort to roll because they have ball bearings on the inside to allow the pin to free spin. This means you need to exert more energy downward on the handles to transfer that energy to the dough below it. 

I didn’t have to apply as much pressure and to roll out cold pie dough with a French pin. The angle of the pin meant the pressure was more concentrated in the middle, giving me more leverage and weight. This slight taper also meant pie dough tended to roll into a circular shape, spreading out from the center. The downside of a tapered rolling pin is that it has a steeper learning curve. Tilting the rolling pin helps create a level surface to the table, but it does take practice. Still, with minimal effort, you can make a level surface quicker with less effort.

Handled Rolling Pins Were Good for Cookie Dough but Not Much Else

All of the above doesn’t mean that handled rolling pins aren’t useful. I prefer the versatility of a French rolling pin, but handled rolling pins were better for rolling out softer doughs. The ball bearings in the handles allow the pin to roll freely with minimal effort. 

Another reason that handled pins are better for cookies than pie is that the free-spinning body causes the dough to unwrap when you move it from the counter to the pan. With a dowel-style or tapered rolling pin, I always had control over the pie dough. Handled rolling pins were also the worst at flattening butter. The thin handles rarely felt strong enough to support the force of whacking the butter. I had to hold onto the body or both handles of the pin to flatten the butter, which wasn’t efficient.

Dowel Rolling Pins Were Best for Evenly Rolled Dough

On the other hand, dowel rolling pins are better suited for rolling out even dough, especially for beginners. French pins have a thicker center and tapered ends, which creates leverage to roll out stiff dough, but the dough tends to roll out unevenly unless you angle the pin. That takes practice. Dowel pins are consistent across their entire shaft, leading to evenly thick sheets of dough. Heavier dowel-style rolling pins are optimal for thicker dough, as the weight gives you leverage. The GIR pin was a great option in this respect; it functions as a dowel rolling pin, but once I added the rings, I was almost guaranteed an even sheet of dough. 

The downside of large dowel pins is that they can often be unwieldy, especially for delicate tasks like flattening butter or creating smooth sheets.

Longer Rolling Pins Were More Useful

In a classic episode of The French Chef, where Julia Child makes croissants, she tried using a short, handled rolling pin. The dough doesn’t move much as she tries to roll it. She calls it “silly,” then throws it away. This is because shorter rolling pins don’t give you as much leverage. The longer the rolling pin, the more leverage you have, which in turn means the less energy you need to exert in rolling. 

Longer rolling pins also gave me more room to roll out large sheets of dough. Smaller rolling pins, like the 10-inch GoodCook Everyday Rolling Pin, couldn’t reach the edge of the pie crust as it got larger. And when I wrapped the pie crust over the body of the rolling pin to transfer it to the pie pan, the crust didn’t fit, falling onto the handle and tearing.

Adjustable Pins Require Know-How

I tested two adjustable pins, the GIR Rolling Pin and the Quellance Rolling Pin. The GIR was the best one, with easy-to-slip-on-and-off silicone rings. The Quellance rolling pin required me to screw on the rings using a plastic bolt that was tedious to use.

But one thing to note about adjustable pins: They seem like a great idea, especially if you are a beginner or a stickler for even thickness. But they aren’t necessary. Once you get the hang of rolling dough, you intuitively pick up how thick and even the dough is. 

The best way to use an adjustable rolling pin is to use it without the rings first. The rings will get in the way of your hands, and if you accidentally roll the rings over the dough they will leave an impression. Once the dough is close to the thickness you want, add the appropriate thickness guides to the rolling pin and finish rolling the dough to the proper thickness.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Rolling Pin

For the most versatile pin, select a French rolling pin with tapered ends. The best rolling pins are made of unfinished wood that’s easy to dust with flour. Larger rolling pins, both in width and in diameter, are easier to work with and give you more room for rolling out dough and transferring it to a pie pan. If you strive for absolutely even slabs of cookie dough and pie crust, opt for a large dowel-style rolling pin, preferably one that has adjustable thickness guides.

Our Favorite Rolling Pins

The Best Rolling Pin

J.K. Adams FRP-1 Maple French Rolling Pin

$24 at Amazon

$32

$28 at Wayfair

What we liked: The JK Adams French rolling pin is a long and tapered rolling pin that made it easy to roll out stiff pie dough. The unfinished hard maple wood allowed a fine coating of flour, which meant dough didn’t stick to the surface.

This shape was more comfortable to hold and easier to maneuver than a dowel-style pin. The taper also meant that less force and energy were needed as I rolled out stiff dough. The longer size (over 20 inches) made it easy to roll up and drape the pie crust, transferring it to the pie pan. 

What we didn’t like: All tapered rolling pins require practice to figure out how to roll a flat, even sheet of dough. The JK Adams one is no different. Beyond that, the unfinished wood means the pin needs to be hand-washed, dried, and occasionally seasoned with neutral oil.

Key Specs

• Material: Maple wood
• Style: French
• Dimension: 20.5 x 1.75 inches
• Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Care instructions: Hand-wash and dry thoroughly. Apply mineral oil or beeswax wood conditioner once a week, or when the pin feels dry.

The Best Dowel Rolling Pin

J.K. Adams Dowel Rolling Pin

$40

$25 at Amazon View on Bed Bath & Beyond View on Breadtopia.com

What we liked: This large and hefty rolling pin helped me roll out even crust and cookie dough. The heavier weight of the pin meant dough flattened with less effort, and the wide diameter meant I didn’t need to roll as much. Because it’s wide, I could easily drape the rolled-out crust over the pin and transfer it to a pan with minimal tearing or damage.

What we didn’t like: This rolling pin created an evenly thick dough but was harder to grip because the ends aren’t tapered. Picking up the rolling pin with one hand to pound butter flat for making laminated dough was less comfortable. Like the other JK Adams pins, this one requires hand-washing, drying, and conditioning. 

Key Specs

• Material: Maple wood
• Style: Dowel
• Dimension: 19 x 2 inches
• Weight: 1 pound, 11.5 ounces
• Care instructions: Hand-wash and dry thoroughly. Apply mineral oil or beeswax wood conditioner once a week, or when the pin feels dry.

Best Rolling Pin with Handles

J.K. Adams Maple Wood Medium Gourmet Rolling Pin

$35 at Amazon

What we liked: If you prefer a more classic American-style rolling pin with handles, this JK Adams rolling pin was the best one I tested. It features comfortable handles and a body that spins easily. Typically, pressing down on handled rolling pins requires more effort, as the ball bearing hinders some of the energy from being transferred to the dough. The weight and wide diameter of this pin helped to compensate for that, flattening chilled pie dough more easily than other handled rolling pins. 

What we didn’t like: It’s one of the largest rolling pins tested, making it difficult to store. 

Key Specs

• Material: Maple wood
• Style: Handle
• Dimension: 21 x 2.5 inches
• Weight: 2 pounds, 0.75 ounces
• Care instructions: Hand-wash and dry thoroughly. Apply mineral oil or beeswax wood conditioner once a week, or when the pin feels dry.

The Best Splurge Rolling Pin

Earlywood French Rolling Pin

$58 at Amazon

What we liked: This beautiful French rolling pin felt luscious in my hands. The three different colored woods had a velvet polish finish that held a thin coating of flour, making it easy to roll out pie crust or soft cookie dough. The tapered ends made holding the pin easier and comfortable when pounding cold butter. And the long length of the pin meant I could roll the pie crust sheet over and still have enough rolling pin to hold onto as I moved it to the pan.

What we didn’t like: This pin is thinner than the JK Adams French rolling pin, which meant I needed a little more effort to roll out dough. It’s also twice as expensive. The unfinished wood also requires hand-washing, drying, and conditioning.

Key Specs

• Material: Jatoba, ebony, and maple wood
• Style: French
• Dimension: 20.25 x 1.5 inches
• Weight: 13 ounces
• Care instructions: Hand-wash only

The Competition 

• GIR Adjustable Rolling Pin: I named this a winner, but it went out of stock shortly after testing.
• Made In Rolling Pin: This is an excellent French rolling pin that is nearly identical to the winning JK Adams Maple Wood Rolling in shape, size, and weight. But it costs more money without any added benefit.
• Ultra Cuisine French Rolling Pin: The French-style metal rolling pin didn’t have the same heft as wood pins, making it harder to roll out pie crust. Flour didn’t stick to the surface of the pin, which meant softer cookie dough stuck to it. The shorter length also made it harder to transfer dough to the pie pan.  
• Fox Run Marble Rolling Pin: This marble rolling pin was beautiful and stayed cool. But it was heavy and awkward to use. Flour did not stick to it, but the soft cookie dough did.
• GoodCook Everyday Rolling Pin: This budget rolling pin was fine for rolling out small batches of soft cookie dough. But it was too small to handle pie crust or transfer it to a pan.
• Quellance Rolling Pin: The metal rolling pin was awkward and uncomfortable to use. Its shorter length made it less versatile. Adding and removing the measurement rings on the side was tedious, as it required screwing them onto the side with a long plastic bolt.
• OXO Good Grips Nonstick Steel Rolling Pin: This nonstick-coated steel rolling pin seemed like a good idea, but the nonstick surface meant I couldn’t coat the pin with flour, and cookie dough stuck to it.
• Karryyoung French Rolling Pin: This reasonably priced French rolling pin was too short to properly roll out pie dough. The wood had too slick of a finish that flour couldn’t stick to it.

FAQs

What is a French rolling pin?

A French rolling pin has tapered ends. This allows you to get a better grasp and roll out dough with less effort, as the pressure gets concentrated in the center. French rolling pins also create round pie sheets, as the wider center of the pin pushes the dough wider as it rolls from center to edge. They require practice to make a flat, even surface.

How do you use an adjustable rolling pin?

An adjustable rolling pin is a dowel-style rolling pin with removable rings on the ends. The rings  raise the pin up to a precise height. It’s best to first roll out the dough without the rings because they can get in the way. Once the dough is close to the desired thickness, place one ring on each end of the rolling pin and finish rolling the dough to that thickness.

What’s the best wooden rolling pin?

The J.K. Adams French rolling pin is the best wooden rolling pin I tested. It has tapered ends and a wider middle that naturally rolls chilled pie dough into a circle. It is also long enough to drape the pie crust over it and still have room at the ends for your hands to hold the pin.

Why We're the Experts

• Irvin Lin is a cookbook author, recipe developer, food writer, photographer, and blue-ribbon pie baker. 
• He’s tested and reviewed hundreds of kitchen items, including stand mixers and digital thermometers.
• For this review, Irvin tested 12 different rolling pins, rolling out multiple batches of pie crust and dozens of cut out sugar cookies. As a result, his freezer is currently packed with so much raw dough that it needs to be kept shut with painter’s tape.