Best Baking Spatulas

When we set out to evaluate spatulas from best-selling brands like Gir and All-Clad, we realized quickly that “spatula” and “spoonula” are used interchangeably by some brands. Spatulas have an angled tip that is slightly flexible and ideal for mixing heavier doughs and scraping the sides of bowls with precision. Spoonulas, or spatula spoons, also have a somewhat flexible tip, but they are shaped more like a spoon. Spoonulas are great at handling more delicate batters and are better for scooping and flipping baked goods.

If there’s a more perfect spatula than this one, we have yet to meet it. This pick by Gir is made from platinum-grade silicone, which is a purer silicone than food-grade silicone because it goes through a curing process that uses platinum instead of more-cost-effective peroxide. As a result, it doesn’t contain fillers and is strong and durable. This spatula has a slight bend to it, but its handle feels solid and its head is sturdy enough to mix thick cookie dough fairly well (but not as well as the Coukre Silicone Spatula Set spoonula, below). 

Spatulas and spoonulas are designed in one of two ways: Those with unibody designs are made from one material that runs continuously throughout the tool, and those with two-piece designs consist of a handle and head that are two separate pieces joined together. This one-piece spatula features smooth silicone throughout, which made its handle feel comfortable to hold. It was excellent at breaking up turkey meat in a nonstick skillet, allowing it to brown without much effort, and it excelled at flipping omelets and scraping the sides of my bowl when I whipped up chocolate pudding. It was the only spatula on this list that did a decent job with mixing heavier chocolate-chip cookie dough, but I found that the spoonulas were better at this task.

Cleaning it is a dream. Sticky dough and pudding were rinsed off with warm water and a little soap, and because it is designed in one piece, there are no crevices for ingredients to stick to or hide inside. It is dishwasher-safe and cleaned well in my dishwasher. The handle has a hole at its tip in case you want to hang it for storage. 

We also evaluated King Arthur’s Spectacular Spatula, a rebrand of the Gir Spatula in a stylish shade of red offered only by King Arthur. It costs a few dollars more than the Gir Spatula, but we found that it performed as exceptionally well as the Gir, so if you’re a fan of this color, it’s worth purchasing. The Gir spatula also comes in multiple sizes and colors.

The Coukre Silicone Spatula Set came with five pieces, including two spoonulas, a jar spatula, and mini spatulas. We evaluated only the larger spoonula so that we could fairly compare it with the other spatulas and spoonulas on our list. It surpassed our expectations when mixing heavy chocolate chip cookie dough, and in fact, the spoonula emerged from our bowl with barely any dough sticking to it. When it came time to scoop dough into small balls to place on our cookie sheet, it proved itself as a multitasking dynamo that could do this well. We were even able to use it to transfer cookies from a cookie sheet to a plate. 

However, it had some limitations. It didn’t scrape ingredients from the sides of our bowl as well as the Gir Spatula, and it felt clumsier to maneuver when mixing pudding and omelets. Its rounded tip also made it a poor choice for breaking up ground turkey. 

This is a two-piece spoonula with a rubber handle and a food-grade silicone head. The handle is comfortable to hold but more slippery than the Gir Spatula’s silicone handle, which had a grippier feel. It has a hole at the tip for hanging. This pick is dishwasher-safe and emerged from the dishwasher looking brand new, but there is a small crevice between the handle and head where dough might get caught. I was able to wash it fairly easily with a sponge and dish soap.

Mainstays Silicone Spatula (the larger of the two that come in a set) weighs 1.2 ounces (according to CR’s measurements), making it the lightest in our picks (All-Clad Spoonula, below, one of two tools in the All-Clad set that we evaluated, was our heaviest at 3.4 ounces, which was also weighed independently). This more compact spatula stands out for its extremely flexible silicone head. It did a good job at mixing pudding and tossing omelets in a nonstick pan, plus we felt confident that its softer head would not scrape nonstick pots and pans. This isn’t the spatula you’ll pull out for thick doughs or breaking up ground turkey, though—it works best with soft ingredients. 

This is a two-piece spatula with a plastic handle that features a hole for hanging. Because the handle is shorter than the others, I found it helpful for more precise mixing, and I appreciate how the silicone head detaches from the handle for easy cleaning (it’s dishwasher-safe and emerged in fine shape from the dishwasher, but I was able to easily clean it with soap and water, as well). It comes in a set of two with one smaller spatula, as well. According to the manufacturer, it is heat-resistant, but a maximum temperature is not listed.

At the time of publication, this two-piece spatula set was sold out at Walmart (we were able to find it on Amazon). This similar set of four colorful spatulas from Walmart features silicone heads and wooden handles.

We appreciate this spatula from All-Clad for its high heat resistance and length, which makes it a great choice for breaking up ground meat that you’re cooking in a taller pot. It has a sturdy food-grade silicone head that handled mixing thicker chocolate chip cookie dough fairly well, and it did a commendable job of scraping the sides of bowls. But we have mixed feelings about its two-piece design, which features a stainless steel handle that can get hot if left resting by a pot or hot skillet. 

On the one hand, if stainless steel is your preferred cooking tool material, this spatula won’t disappoint. However, the handle’s more square shape, coupled with its stainless steel body, made it feel bulkier and more slippery in hand than the spatulas with silicone or rubber handles. The handle lacks a hole for hanging it, and the separation between the head and handle is more pronounced than the other two-piece models, leaving us with more concerns about ingredients getting stuck inside this crevice. It is dishwasher-safe and cleaned well in the dishwasher and by hand using soapy water.

Similar to the large All-Clad Spatula, this spoonula from the same collection is lengthy and useful when stirring ingredients in taller pots, but it was even less helpful than the All-Clad spatula when mixing thick chocolate chip cookie dough. Its food-grade silicone head was smaller than the Coukre spoonula and didn’t mix as efficiently. Its smaller head is also the reason we didn’t select it as the one true spoonula workhorse you need to complete myriad baking tasks, including flipping cookies and transferring them from cookie sheet to plate. It has the same stainless steel handle with a more square design that wasn’t as comfortable to hold, and the separation between its handle and head is abrupt and seems more likely to trap ingredients within it.