notbob wrote:
>
> My baking education is coming along swimingly. I haven't really needed
> a rolling pin yet, but see one in my future. I'd like to try my own
> pie crusts. In Julia's 2nd Art/French book, she discussed rolling
> pins, prefering the basic French style or the huge US ball bearing
> version. On this website:
>
> http://www.fantes.com/rolling-pins.html
>
> ....I see more variations than I ever imagined. SS, marble, silpat,
> etc. All those different materials make me think about a rolling
> surface, too. I have a basic Formica-type counter, now. Should I be
> considering something else? Matching silpat, chillable marble, etc,
> pin/surface pair? So many choices.
>
> What say the baking brethren?
>
> nb

Stick with laminate counters, they're inexpensive to replace to update
your kitchen without a full remodel, durable, look pretty good with a
wide selection of styles, and they are somewhat resilient, protecting
stuff you drop on them as well as not making a hideous racket when you
put anything down on them.

For a dough work surface, find your local granite countertop fabricator
and get one of their stove cutouts ~2' square nicely finished for cheap.
I have such a cutout, a leftover from a friends granite kitchen remodel
where the fabricator nicely polished and radiused the edges and cut hand
relief's on the bottom for lifting. My friend decided it was too heavy
to use for a portable work surface, so I took it. It now has a permanent
location on my laminate counter and is my primary work area. If I want
it chilled in the winter months I can just put it out on the porch for
an hour.

For a rolling pin I have one of the non-stick Oxxo ones that works fine
for the relatively small amount of rolled stuff I do.