Why a Danish Dough Whisk Is My Go-To Baking Tool

If I were asked to pick my “favorite” kitchen tool, it would have to be my Danish dough whisk. I make bread and pizza doughs at least a couple of times a week, and have done so for years—both for myself and for the various publications I contribute to, including this one—and my dough whisk is always nearby.

A stiff, stainless-steel “at sign” mounted on the end of a wooden rod, this simple, funny-looking tool is the perfect mashup of a wooden spoon and a balloon whisk, and far superior to both when it comes to mixing bread doughs and batters of all kinds. Unlike a wooden spoon, which doesn’t agitate particularly efficiently, or a balloon whisk, which agitates just fine but quickly gets glommed up when working with thick mixtures, a dough whisk makes quick work of stirring dough without getting your hands messy.

As the name suggests, the tool is from Denmark, where it's known as a “brodpisker," which translates to “bread whipper." (I’ve occasionally seen it referred to as a “Polish” dough whisk, but I believe that’s because many of them are made in Poland, despite the tool’s Danish origins.)

The Best Danish Dough Whisk

Zulay Kitchen Danish Dough Whisk Large Hand Mixer

$10 $7 at Amazon $13 at Walmart

Because a dough whisk is made from rigid wire only a few millimeters in diameter, its limited surface area means that thick doughs cannot gain much purchase on it, so they pass right through the loops. The whisk’s three-dimensional, asymmetrically-looped design agitates efficiently, bringing together just about any mixture both gently and quickly. The compact size of the dough whisk’s “head” means you can exert a lot of force when mixing without the flexing that occurs with a long-tined classic whisk, and its long, sturdy handle allows you to change up your grip to accommodate different tasks or mixtures of just about any consistency, from loose, high-hydration doughs and batters to thick, stiff ones. (With very stiff doughs, however, a dough whisk will help get you most of the way there, after which it’s usually necessary to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.)

The dough whisk has a couple of features that don’t become apparent until you work with one a while. For one thing, because the loop is so stiff, it can also be turned on its edge and used like a knife to “cut” into stiff doughs. This is especially useful when you want to incorporate dry, solid ingredients—like salt, after an autolyse, or stir-ins like nuts or raisins—into a dough. Its round, smooth outline means it hugs tightly to the inner surface of a bowl to help pull dough away from it easily and to get at those pesky pockets of dry flour.

How to Use a Danish Dough Whisk

And while the dough whisk was designed for mixing bread doughs, it’s equally effective when mixing all sorts of thick doughs or batters, including those for cakes, muffins, pancakes, crêpes, and soufflés, because it's one of the best tools to use for folding. When incorporating stiffly beaten egg whites into a cake or soufflé batter, the goal is to do so quickly but gently, to avoid deflation. A rubber spatula, which is what is usually called for, will work, but it takes time to mix two batters together evenly. A balloon whisk is faster, but it agitates the mixture pretty forcefully. Once again, the dough whisk sits at the midpoint between two other, not-quite-ideal tools.

You can even use a dough whisk in hot preparations. It’s great for stirring and eliminating lumps from pots of porridge, grits, polenta, and even thick soups, especially since its round shape and flat profile can get into the corners of pots better than a balloon whisk.

What Can You Use Instead of a Danish Dough Whisk?

However, as wonderful and useful as a dough whisk is, it’s not a replacement for a classic balloon whisk. There's no advantage to using it to mix small volumes of ingredients, as its entire head must be immersed in whatever it's mixing in order to work properly. And it doesn’t effectively incorporate air into mixtures, so it's not for whipping cream or egg whites.

If you only make bread once in a while and/or you usually use a stand mixer to mix your ingredients, then maybe a dough whisk isn't worth the space it takes up in your utensil crock. On the other hand, it’s an inexpensive and compact tool that is useful for so many recipes beyond bread that I’d encourage you to at least consider picking one up if you have the room.

I’ve been using the same dough whisk for years, and I haven’t thought much about its design, since it worked and worked well. I assumed the three-loop, single “eye” version I had was the standard, the zenith of dough whisk innovation. Clearly, others felt otherwise: If you do a search for dough whisks on the web, you'll find all manner of styles (I counted at least eight unique designs): some with two and three “eyes” in various orientations, some sporting wider, concentrically-aligned rings, and some that are flat versus others that are more spherical in shape. I have no idea whether any of these represent true improvements to the original Danish dough whisk design, or are just clever ploys to stand out in an otherwise crowded market. I might try another style one of these days, but I'm happy with the model I have, and that's the one I recommend you get as well.

FAQs

What is a Danish dough whisk for?

The open, stiff loops of a Danish dough whisk are designed to mix flour into water for bread dough, but it can also be used for folding batter, or stirring porridges or grits. Because the loops are big and open, batter and dough can move between them easily and won't stick. And with the thick wire gauge of the loops, they're stiff enough to cut into doughs when it's time to mix in the salt.

Does a Danish dough whisk knead dough?

While a dough whisk is stiff enough to do some kneading, you'll still have to knead by hand in order to build enough gluten strength in the dough itself. Ideally, a dough whisk is used to bring everything together in the mixing stages until it's fully mixed and saturated, so that the dough is less sticky and more pliable for the kneading stage.

How do you clean a Danish dough whisk?

The best way to clean a dough whisk is with soap, warm water, and a nylon scouring pad—and make sure you start to clean it before the dough hardens. Once bits of dough harden on the dough whisk's loops, it might require soaking.

Why We're the Experts

• Andrew Janjigian is a Serious Eats contributor and formerly worked at Cook's Illustrated.
• Andrew is a baking instructor and teaches at King Arthur Flour, and has been leading classes for over 10 years.