Every year, TIME's editors and correspondents work together to compile a collection of the most interesting and groundbreaking new products and innovations for the Best Inventions list. As holiday season approaches, the TIME team has pulled out a selection of 10 best food and drink items from the list that would make a perfect gift for the food connoisseurs and cooking enthusiasts in your life. To save her hobby and help other bakers, she and friend, cofounder, and fellow sourdough enthusiast Alexis Dalinka set out to solve the sticky problem of cleaning dough and sourdough starter off of surfaces and tools.
The gel uses amylase, a starch-targeting enzyme, and plant-based soap nut powder to help get baking gear clean after a 10-minute soak. The combo liquifies leftover dough, letting it rinse easily off of starter jars and mixing bowls—and helps protect your plumbing. _—Nina Elder_ This countertop nugget ice maker features a patented AI NoiseGuard system that detects and resolves noise-causing issues autonomously, keeping sound levels at around 40 dB. It can deliver soft, chewable ice in as little as 6 minutes, and up to 60 lbs. per day._—TIME Staff_ The difference between doughy homemade pizza and a restaurant-quality slice isn’t necessarily fresh ingredients or a passed-down family recipe—it’s temperature.
Ooni’s Volt 2, an electric countertop pizza oven, solves that problem, reaching commercial temperatures of up to 850 degrees Fahrenheit safely. Ooni founder Kristian Tapaninaho says customer feedback led to new features in the company’s second-generation Volt. The Volt 2 is 30% smaller than its predecessor, but has the same size cooking chamber.
It’s also equipped with Ooni’s Pizza Intelligence system, which adjusts the oven’s temperature in real time based on the pizza style you select. _—Derek Rose_ After releasing wireless meat thermometers, smart kitchen appliance company Typhur Robotics has added that technology to the oven itself: its Sync model is the first countertop oven with a built-in wireless probe that provides real-time temperature updates as your food cooks. Users simply stick the probe into meat or seafood, set a target temperature, and wait for the Sync Oven to turn off automatically when the food reaches the desired doneness. But now schedules are tighter.
Leaven CEO Cameron Martino and fellow microbiologist James Gaffney spent three years developing the world’s first powdered, shelf-stable sourdough starter, that—when mixed with flour, water, and salt—provides the signature taste and health benefits of a traditional starter without the hassle of tending to a ravenous creature bubbling inside a glass jar. According to Martino, Leaven’s proprietary process could be applied to other fermented foods like coffee, chocolate, and yogurt. Its new Tablì machine brews single, double, and lungo shots using compressed coffee pucks that arrive by the dozen in plant-based packaging between two sheets of thin plastic film, rather than individually packaged pods.
The pucks, about $1 each, reportedly stay fresh for about 14 days after opening. The espresso itself, brewed with the push of a button in about 35 seconds, tastes pleasantly complex and features a satisfyingly heady layer of crema. —_Sal Vaglica_ Charcoal grills are the benchmark for high-heat cooking, but _smoking_ barbecue requires fussing over vents to maintain a steady temperature for hours. The Weber Kettle Smart Ring, a removable metal collar, uses a fan to regulate airflow, adding the option for predictable heat to the manual charcoal grill millions already own.
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