Food - Drink
Why You Need Lint-Free Towels For Baking
By MOLLY HARRIS
From cleaning spills and drying dishes to picking up hot pans and covering bread as it proofs, hand towels are the unsung do-it-all hero of many kitchens. Pro baker Pippa Allen believes in having far more clean kitchen towels than you think you need, and she uses lint-free towels specifically for a very good reason.
Allen uses towels that don't form lint to ensure that her bread dough and other baked goods are free of unwanted debris. Lint shed by towels can also attract other debris, such as crumbs and bits of other food that could be lingering on your countertops, and if these fall into your dough, it will obviously compromise your end product.
Though they might be more expensive, using towels made from linen or tightly-woven cotton — which usually don’t shed fibers — are worth the investment for worry-free baking. It’s best to avoid towels made of loosely knitted fabrics such as wool, polyester, or other synthetic fibers, which are better for non-kitchen purposes.