Make a Sweet Treat. A melon baller is the perfect tool for making confections such as our Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles or Halloween Themed Cake Pops! Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet, and pop each watermelon ball down, making sure not to let them touch. Put the tray in the freezer for a couple of hours Core Fruits & Vegetables. The size and shape of a melon baller is ideal for removing seeds and cores from many fruits and veggies like pears, apples, cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers. We set out to test as many of the different melon baller options as we could! We researched, shopped for, and physically tested the following 10 different melon baller tools:

Though the versatility offered by this set is unmatched, no one tool from this melon baller set stood out in terms of functionality. While the round melon baller did make large, nicely sized melon rounds, we found the depth of the scooping cup to be too shallow to easily get them to be perfectly spherical. The tools for shaping decorative balls did not turn out perfectly either, almost as if those sharp edges were not quite sharp enough for seamless shaping. Your melon baller should have a really comfortable handle, preferably one with a bit of texture to it so you can better grip it. Nothing is worse than slipping with a melon baller and gouging out something you didn't plan on. On the downside, the cutting edge of this melon baller is so sharp, we actually found our melon scooping efforts to have punched through the rind on several different occasions. This means that when you’re at the point in your melon balling that you’re getting close to the melon skin, you have to be extremely careful so as not to wind up with tough bits of rind on one edge of your perfect melon spheres like we did. Pros: Watermelon is a big fruit and some people/families can't get through a whole one, so any leftovers I suggest freezing!

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This melon baller is shaped like a small shovel. It has a blunt edge and no sharp point. It is made from plastic or stainless steel. The scraper melon baller is best for: The name of this tool doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story! In addition to balling melon (and other fruits), you can use your melon baller for a number of different culinary tasks and creations. I like having one baller that I can use for many different things. I usually use the regular size for making melon balls, but like to use the mini size to remove the tops of cherry tomatoes. We can substitute melon ballers with metal measuring spoons if they have sharp edges. For example, make fancy dessert garnish and we need to make melon balls without a scooper. Measuring spoons not easy to use instead of a melon baller for every task but if we need we can, especially for soft fruits as watermelon and melon. What I like about this melon baller substitute, they come in a few sizes. With these measuring spoons and we can make different size balls to garnish desserts or other dishes. I tried to use to scoop core from the apple and it works fine. I can use it to make a few balls garnishes. However, my measuring spoons not design for this task and bent so easily. Another downside, missing the hole on the spoon. The hole on the melon baller is important if we make balls from watermelon as an example. The juice escapes from the hole and we can make easy perfectly shaped watermelon balls. That small hole that is in the cup of a melon baller is actually very crucial to the design of the tool! In addition to allowing excess juices to drain away from the fruit as you scoop, this hole also allows air to pass through, thereby preventing suction. Without the hole (or if the hole is too small, as noted in our review of the Norpro Grip-EZ Melon Baller) the suction that develops during scooping makes it difficult to remove the fruit from the deep cup. What Sizes Do Melon Ballers Come In?

I don't just use it for fruit, I use it a lot for frozen ice, sherbet and ice cream like the article mentioned. I made and decorated an ice cream cake with it once.

Having the potential of 2 different size melon balls available in the same tool offers excellent versatility, as creating a variety of sizes can really amp up the interest factor when it comes to making dishes like our Watermelon Arugula Salad or Fresh Watermelon Fruit Salad. It’s most definitely not just for watermelon though, as this OXO Melon Baller worked just as well on our cantaloupe and honeydew melons as well. The most obvious downside here is that since this tool makes smaller-sized melon balls, it will certainly take you longer to get the job done. Like, a lot longer. We don’t recommend using this wee little melon baller if you’re trying to make a dish large enough for a crowd. Wow, I am another one of those people that has never actually used their melon baller for balling melons. I actually use mine on all sorts of fruit, and mostly for some kind preparation work.

Heard of the Mini Supoon from Dreamfarm? Dreamed up down under in Australia, this super spoon comes to the rescue for those difficult household tasks. It has a built-in spoon rest to protect your surfaces, can reach into spice jars, can easily scrape the last dregs in jars (designed to eke the last bit of Vegemite from the jar) and give you an accurate 5ml measure too. They’re also heat resistant and dishwasher safe. Talk about a super spoon! Scoop it up! As with most things, shorter is better when it comes to melon ballers. Long handles prevent your hands from getting dirty but make it harder to scoop out the flesh of a melon. If you’re going to be using your baller with large melons, then you’ll want to make sure that the handle is at least 12 inches long. If you’re using a small melon, then a shorter handle will work just fine. Length and width Freeze Tomato Paste. This one sounds like an oddball, but a melon baller is actually the perfect tool for freezing tomato paste and other similarly textured purees! Ballers are usually made from one of two materials: stainless steel or plastic. Stainless steel ballers are more durable and can be used with many different types of melons. Plastic ballers are much cheaper, but they can’t be used with certain kinds of melons, like cantaloupes. The length of the handleIt’s also worth noting that though the product listing indicates that this melon baller is dishwasher safe, some folks report that doing so results in some damage to the finish of the handle, so you may want to hand-wash this one to be safe. Pros: Our main complaint with this melon baller is that the hole in the bottom of the cup is too small, thereby creating suction as you’re scooping melon. Where the melon balls released easily from many of the other tools we tested, this one required an extra hand to remove the spheres after each scoop. Can you really beat a classic wooden spoon? Not if you ask us… Wooden spoons are go-to kitchen items to stir anything from curries, soups and pasta sauces, and everything else in between. In addition to being spring loaded via a ratchet mechanism between the handles, the scooping of this melon baller also features a slider mechanism that sweeps the cup after each and every squeeze. This helps the melon balls (or whatever you happen to be scooping) to release easily from the cup as well as reduces the strain on hands and wrists since the tool is doing much of the work itself. Folks with wrist mobility issues, this one’s for you! One of the great things about a melon baller is that it can be used for multiple purposes. You can use a melon baller for everything from removing fruit to shaping mashed potatoes. This also makes them great if you want to give out small gifts, like favors for a wedding or baby shower. You can even use them to make small snowmen out of sugar. What Are the Most Commonly Used Types of Melon Ballers?

All the melon ballers out there work by way of a similar same scoop-and-twist action, but they do come in a few different styles. Some melon ballers are straightforward, with just a handle and a single scooping cup while others feature scooping cups of different sizes on either end. Firstly, chop a small slice off one side, this creates a flat bottom to keep the watermelon steady whilst you are balling it. Give your fruit salads and desserts a professional finish with this double-headed melon baller from KitchenCraft.

Learn Everything You Need to Know About Melon Ballers Here

We cut triangles into the melon to create a cool effect. Use a sharp knife to cut the watermelon skin. You can experiment and do whatever you like! Next time I do it I will do something else! There are two common types of handles: straight and offset. A straight-handled baller will make it easy to scoop out the flesh of the melon. An offset-handled baller will make it easier to scoop out balls at an angle (which is more common when using a round melon). The material