This Multi-Tiered Cooling Rack Is a Must-Have for Home Bakers

We're always looking for ways to make baking at home easier, more efficient, and all-around sweeter. While a sturdy cookie sheet, nonstick Silpat baking mat, and a fabulous cookie recipe can all help, there's another tool that we highly recommend adding to your baking tool kit: a Baker's Cooling Rack ($23.95, crateandbarrel.com). This four-tiered stand can hold large cookie sheets weighing up to ten pounds each that are hot and fresh out of the oven, which will help to keep your countertops clear and let the cookies cool faster. Once you're done using it, it folds flat for easy storage inside a cabinet. When it's fully assembled, the rack measures 10 inches in width by 13 inches in height and 10.25 inches deep.

Cooling any type of baked good—whether it's cookies, brownies, cakes, or muffins—is an extremely important part of the baking process. "This allows baking pans and trays full of baked goods to cool properly by setting them on a wire rack. It also helps air to circulate underneath and around the pan, cooling the baked goods properly and slowing down any carryover cooking after being pulled out of the oven," says Michelle Lopez, a baker and food blogger of Hummingbird High.

Shop Now: Crate & Barrel Baker's Cooling Rack, $23.95, crateandbarrel.com.

Lopez is a fan of this particular cooling rack because it allows any home baker to stack several baking trays in a small kitchen that is limited on space. In addition to its space-saving benefits, this cooling rack will also protect your countertops: Certain materials, such as quartz and marble, are extremely susceptible to damage from both metal trays and hot pans, and direct, sustained heat from a pan can eventually lead to cracking. Elevating the hot trays off the countertop will prevent long-term wear and tear, and this rack gets the job done.

Home bakers agree that this tool is a must-have. One review calls it "a great tool for a small kitchen" and another notes that it "makes it much easier to keep a somewhat clean and tidy kitchen while baking large batches of cookies."