In my mind part of the idea behind having a cooling rack or cutting board is that it allows you to move your baked goods out of a communal kitchen into a dorm room. I was assuming she doesn’t have a kitchen in her room and won’t want to have to sit in the kitchen watching her baking cool. Other options would work if your goods are staying put. I’d do an inexpensive Tupperware-type container because she can use it for other foods when she doesn’t need it for cookies.
Maybe add a pack of toothpicks for the doneness test?
Do you know if the kitchen is already equipped with anything? She may not need much in the way of spatulas and mixing spoons if the kitchen already has a bunch.
I bake a lot and could not live without my mixer and my silicone sheets (for cookies). I use parchment paper for other things, but not cookies. If you buy a high quality baking sheet, parchment paper can be an okay substitute. I am not wild about silicone muffin tons, etc., but particularly without a cooling rack, the ability to move a batch of cookies off the (hot) baking sheet by simply lifting off the silpat is a godsend!
Good measures are important. And yes to a rubber spatula.
Honestly though, for a dorm room, this is getting pretty involved. First apartment? Super idea. For one year of college in a "public " kitchen – ehhh…
I couldn’t get by without my silicone baking mats and silicone pans. The baking mats save so much money over parchment paper, cookies come out just as good as on parchment, they roll right up and don’t take much storage space, and - best of all - I can throw them in the dishwasher. I have one for meat, two for baking, plus four silicone pans, and I think they’re all great.
My D’s university has a “Bakery Science Club.” D got to bake huge quantities of cookies (etc.) in a professional style kitchen. Maybe there is a baking club at your D’s school?
^^ Following that line of thought, my D2’s honors program did bread baking about 6 times a year to raise $$ for charity. They had a set bread menu with one “special” each time. They sent out order forms to all the school staff (smaller private school) and students could order as well. It was one of the things that “warmed” my D up to the school.
All quick breads like pumpkin, cinnamon, banana, pumpkin chocolate chip - there was a savory one too that was DELICIOUS.
I’m definitely doing this, just for a dorm room, lol.
Parchment paper can be used for other stuff in a way that silicone can’t. I think she will love trying to use it in different ways.
Maybe I should get a spatula, plus a silicone spatula for scraping bowls, and a wooden spoon. She’s not getting a mixer. I have baked many things using just a fork and if it was good enough for me, it will be good enough for her, darn it! During the summer, she was in a furnished apartment. Only had a fork and a mixing spoon, made plenty of stuff.
She did go to cooking club a few days ago. She wants to bake stuff for her bf and friends. If she only does it twice, the things will still prove useful somewhere down the road. I’ve got a couple of weeks to solidify the plan. I’ll update after her birthday. I think she will LOVE this gift.
I still have the $10 one from Kmart we got when we moved into our first family apartment! It is quite compact and can be helpful when making frostings.
One item I thought of - those mini scoops. Not a necessity but super handy for making cookies or mini cupcakes (and one a bigger one for regular cupcakes). Might be a good add on in a care package or stocking stuffer at a later time.
Not getting her a mixer. It’s not the cost, but the bulk. It’s good exercise too, lol.
I like the idea of parchment because it eliminates the need to grease things, and means one less thing to wash. My D is an expert origami folder. I guarantee she will find a way to make baking containers out of parchment paper. We are a family that likes workarounds. Hence the evolution of our backyard bbq bakery.
No doubt plenty of people do this, but one of our favorite baking tricks is to look at whatever ingredients we have lying around the house and find something to make. For example, she had a small bag of sticky rice flour because she had made a Japanese mochi cake. (I didn’t love that cake, though my son did. You have to like mochi, and I don’t.) She had plenty left over, so she made to die for chewy almond cookies using some sticky rice flour as a sub for some of the regular flour. We also had a random jar of black sesame seeds and she sprinkled them all over the top. They were spectacular. She also made tahini cookies that disappeared in minutes with a jar of tahini that had been sitting in the cupboard for ages.
Anyway, we’ve watched every episode of Bake Off that we can get our hands on. She’s thinking about writing in to suggest they explore more Asian baked good. She’s a big fan of Asian flavors.
The issue here is…this is going to be in a dorm where there is already limited storage space. Like I said upstream, I have a lot of baking “stuff” as listed above, but I also have a large kitchen with plenty of storage for these things.
I’d go with “less is more”. If you keep adding to the list, she is going to need to annex the room next door to hers to use as a pantry.
I have lived without Silicon mats most of my life. They are nice, but certainly not essential.
Make sure she has cleaning supplies…because even with Silicon mats or parchment paper, she will need to wash her baking items.
@thumper1 , I’m on board with the minimalist approach. I think we all have our preferences of what’s essential, depending on what we cook and how we cook. I’m thinking of what items I use over and over and what takes up less space, which is why I suggested the bar pan, also called a sheet pan because it can be used for bar cookies, brownies and cooking. A cooling rack that fits in the bar pan doesn’t add any storage room and is, like I said, an essential for me. Silpat mats would be stored flat and also take up less room than parchment rolls.
The college has dish soap and sponges in the kitchen, if I recall.
She actually has a big room this year with two large closets, one of which is mostly empty. I’m more worried about her being able to keep all the supplies in one box so she can move it to and from the kitchen easily, and also about getting it all in the car when she comes back home.
If I add anything else, it will be a very small cooling rack I have here at home. I’ll throw it in if there’s room. Otherwise she can use chopsticks and will enjoy doing so.
I know space is at a premium, but if she has a totally empty closet…why not get one of those milk crate things on wheels with a handle…store the stuff in that…and it can be wheeled wherever she wants to use it.
Of course…mailing one of those would be challenging…but I bet amazon could do it!
The wheeled carts fold up to take very little space because they collapse and the handle retracts. I know because I have several at work and they help me deliver 30,000 books yearly in our medical community.