Norpro Stainless Steel Scoop, 39MM (1.5 Tablespoon), Silver

Endless Uses – Kitchen Essential
This one and a half teaspoon stainless steel scoop has endless uses. After it arrived, I gave the scoop a test run by preparing little flavored butter balls from softened butter and herbs. Once formed and slightly chilled I piled them on a small serving dish. The butter balls added a special touch to the dinner table. I ordered the scoop because I plan to make large ravioli for the holidays and it is the perfect size for the filling.Since ordering it I’ve also made truffles, something far easier accomplished using this implement than my previous tool — a melon baller. That utensil produced ganache balls of different sizes, some smaller, some bigger and required more hand rolling to get a genuine ball shape. Anyone who has hand rolled ganache, knows this is a messy proposition.This scoop is solid and the balls, whether cookie batter, ganache, butter, or homemade tiny cheese balls are all consistently sized without manipulation. Relatively solid items, like ice cream, butter or ganache are rolled within the scoop to form a ball. With batter, the scoop is dipped in and scraped against the bowl to form a consistent portion to drop on a cookie sheet, in a muffin tin, etc.The handle is comfortable in the hand and the quality of the material is evident. Because the scoop is constructed of stainless steel, it can be dipped in warm or cold water or gently chilled or heated (depending upon what is being created)to control temperature and ensure easy release.I own four larger sized scoops and they all have their special jobs but I keep reaching for this small one — and ideas for new uses keep flowing. A small scoop may not be the first kitchen utensil that comes to mind when thinking of basic tools, but it has quickly become much used in my kitchen and reinvigorated my love of cooking.

Good Quality
As a professional baker, I use cookie scoops several times a day. This is the only brand I will buy, as some other brands are made cheaply and break quickly. NorPro seems to hold up really well.

Didn’t Stand-up To Ice Cream…
The 56MM Norpro Stainless Steel Scoop appeared to be well made; it seemed sturdy and the spring mechanism operated smoothly. When used for portioning muffin or cupcake batter, the scoop allowed me to produce a uniform product and eliminated overflow caused by filling a standard sized muffin/cupcake tin’s individual cups with too much batter. The Norpro Stainless Steel Scoop was also excellent for making drop cookies; again the uniform amount of dough resulted in a better, more evenly baked finished product. The scoop was easy to hand wash. I also put it in the dishwasher on the energy-saver cycle and had no problems with the scoop’s integrity. I did allow it to completely air dry before storing it in a drawer.However, when the 56MM Norpro Stainless Steel Scoop was used to portion ice cream it failed. The sliding band “sprung” and instead of remaining in the scoop arched like a rainbow over it. All attempts to return the band to its original position failed. The ice cream was firm, but was not so hard that the scoop should have broken. It is for this reason that I have rated the 56MM Norpro Stainless Steel Scoop as deserving four stars. I did like it well enough that I will be purchasing another one.

This is the perfect size for cupcakes and cookies. I would also overfill my cupcakes and it was so frustrating this makes it ten times easier and they come out perfect ever single time. Not cheaply made either!