Uneven pastry is one of those problems you don’t notice until it’s too late. The middle of your mince pie lids are thin enough to read through, the edges are thick and stodgy, and half the gingerbread men come out pale and soft while their neighbours are nearly burnt. Nine times out of ten, the oven isn’t the issue. The dough just wasn’t rolled to the same thickness all over.
How the Joseph Joseph rolling pin fixes it
The Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin is a normal wooden rolling pin with removable discs that slot on at each end. The discs lift the pin off the worktop by a set amount, so once they’re touching the surface you physically can’t roll the dough any thinner. There are four colour-coded pairs:
- 2mm, for very thin pastry and lasagne sheets
- 4mm, about right for most biscuits and pie tops
- 6mm, for thicker cut-out biscuits and shortbread
- 10mm, for scones and thick pizza bases
There are also measurements printed along the pin itself, so you can check you’ve rolled a circle wide enough for your tin without fishing out a ruler.
Does it actually make a difference?
For anything where you’re cutting lots of shapes from one sheet, yes, a big one. Christmas biscuits, gingerbread, jam tarts, mince pie lids. When every piece is the same thickness, every piece bakes in the same time, and you stop picking burnt ones off the edge of the tray.
It matters less for a single big pastry case, where most people get it roughly right by eye anyway.
A couple of things to know
The discs set the minimum thickness, so you still need to roll evenly. If your dough is wider than the gap between the discs, they end up sitting on the dough instead of the worktop and won’t do their job. At 43.4cm long it’s a decent size, but very large sheets are better rolled in two halves.
It’s wood, so hand wash it and dry it straight away rather than leaving it to soak. The coloured discs pull off for washing separately.
If you only bake now and then, a normal rolling pin is fine. If December means tray after tray of biscuits, this is one of the simplest upgrades you can make to your baking kit, and probably the one you’ll notice most.
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