The #1 Baking Mistake You’re Probably Making, According to Claire Saffitz

You know her, you love her: renowned baker and cookbook author Claire Saffitz is here to save the day with all of her baking tips and tricks this holiday season. Through a fitting partnership with Stasher, we were given the incredible opportunity to talk to the social media personality about what she’s up to and her best baking advice.

Want to know how to fix what Saffitz notes as the most common baking mistake? Read on to find out more—plus her top pantry staples she thinks every level of baker should have in their kitchen.

EatingWell: In your opinion, what’s the most common mistake people make when baking a dessert, especially during the holiday season, and what’s a way to fix it?

Saffitz: I would say 90% of the time it boils down to an issue with time management and being pressed for time. Rushing or not anticipating how long something is going to take leads you to make mistakes because you're trying to cut corners. I think a lot of it is time management, which is something I struggle with myself, but as a baker, I've learned over time how long things are going to take me. I still find myself sometimes up at 2 o'clock in the morning in the kitchen, trying to finish a cake or a baking project. I would just say really plan out the amount of time that you need, try—as much as you can—to do everything a day ahead of time so that you're not stuck decorating cookies as you're trying to walk out the door for a holiday party—which I have done, that has happened to me!

EatingWell: How do you keep your ingredients and baked goods fresh for as long as possible?

Saffitz: So this year, I think more than any other year, I truly feel like I am practicing what I preach because I am hosting the holidays. We always do it at my parents' house where there's more space in a bigger kitchen. So I've had to employ all of the tips that I made with Stasher that are published in our Stress-Free Holiday Baking guide. All of the herbs that I had in my fridge for Thanksgiving were in Stasher bags that I organized and consolidated—the small ones are the perfect size for herbs. You could put a bundle of sage or a bundle of thyme in those. I have a lot of my cheese stored in Stasher bags. I feel like cheese storage is one of those things where you always have odds and ends, and it's so easy to just put one in all the different sizes of Stasher bags. I have frozen cookie dough in my freezer, I have frozen breadcrumbs in Stasher bags waiting for their moment. They're all over the place and it does really help save a lot of space because they pack flat. 

Rather than having a clumsy plastic clamshell that something’s packed in from the store, I'm always transferring to a Stasher bag. I think they're really good, not only for keeping things fresh, but for space management and maximizing fridge capacity because I think a lot of times, that's one of my biggest challenges.

EatingWell: What are some of your favorite baking tools?

Saffitz: My favorite tool for baking, hands down, is the small offset spatula, which is just really versatile. I like it because the size makes it very utilitarian and very handy for things, not just for frosting something but also for taking cookies off of a baking sheet or loosening a cake from around the sides of the pan. I'm always grabbing my small offset spatula, so that's a big favorite. 

I also really like a heatproof flexible spatula for folding ingredients. In the vein of flexible spatulas, the Cake Land spatula is my new favorite tool. I ordered it from a Japanese website when I first saw Japanese bakers using it, but it is a flexible spatula that’s really good for scraping a bowl instead of having to maneuver sideways to scrape it. It's weirdly handy as a scraper and just in general.

EatingWell: What are your top pantry staples that you always have stocked and ready?

Saffitz: As far as slightly more specialty items that are a good idea to have, especially for the holidays, I would say a high-quality vanilla paste or even beans because they can really elevate super-simple desserts. Good-quality cinnamon, sort of a cut above your average grocery store cinnamon, something like a Vietnamese cinnamon or a Mexican cinnamon are really nice because so many holiday baked goods have cinnamon in them. Having something really high-quality, which is going to taste so much more intense and different and better than your average supermarket cinnamon, I think is really good. Flaky sea salt is also really great for baked goods. If you're making a chocolate cake or a custard pie or chocolate chip cookies—or any cookie, really—a little sprinkle of flaky salt on top is really nice and it feels a little bit fancier than your average baked good. And a high-quality cocoa powder. I keep all of those ingredients in my kitchen all of the time. If you're a less active baker, I think it's good to make sure that those are around for the holidays.

EatingWell: What’s your favorite classic dessert to make during the holidays, and how do you make it your own?

Saffitz: I'm bringing back the Yule log this year because I like decorating it. It’s just fun and it's kind of kitschy because I make meringue mushrooms to go on top. For some reason I associate chocolate desserts with the holidays. I much prefer a fruit dessert, which is why I love Thanksgiving because we have all the pies, but for Christmas or New Year's, there’s something really special to me about a Yule log. 

I make a buttercream and a chocolate sponge and sometimes I'll play around with different filling flavors, like a chestnut filling or a mocha filling or just plain vanilla. It's just really fun and it's a lot of steps, but it's not that hard. It's the kind of thing where a lot of things can go wrong, but then at the end you can fix them all with a little bit of buttercream and powdered sugar. It’s a very playful, fun baking project. 

EatingWell: Favorite comfort meal? 

Saffitz: I love French onion soup. To me, anything that's a soup or a stew that simmers for a long time is a really special, delicious comfort meal. Just the other day, I made a batch of French onion soup because I'm having my family over. I started with making a little beef stock and simmering it for the entire day and adding aromatics toward the end. And then I strained the onions. That's a really delicious meal, plus the assembly makes it like 10 times more delicious with some crusty bread and Gruyère and Parm on top, under the broiler.

I also love, as a comfort meal just for myself, either matzo ball soup or beet-and-cabbage borscht, which is a recipe that my mom makes that my grandma used to make. That's a special one, and I think I like it more than anyone else, so I make it mostly for myself. I love having it around. The best part of those types of meals is that you can freeze it and thaw it out, you could freeze it in pint containers and take out single servings. I think my favorite eating season is summer because you get all the summer produce, but my favorite cooking season is the fall and winter because to me, those are the most fun kinds of things to make. Let it bubble away on the stove for four hours kinds of meals!

EatingWell: Any food hot takes?

Saffitz: I generally stay away from microwave cooking hacks. It's just not my thing. I actually think there's a lot of interesting microwave cooking you can do, but it's just not something that I'm going to devote a lot of my time to and practice myself. I think it's a great tool for people that are in a dorm setting or have a really tiny kitchen or live alone, but it's just not my thing personally.

EatingWell: What does “eating well” mean to you?

Saffitz: Eating well to me will always mean intuitive eating, which is something I've tried to practice over the last five-plus years. It’s about letting my body tell me what it wants and then feeding it that thing. I don't believe in restriction, and I don't believe in dieting, frankly. I think once I let go of a mindset of restriction, I realized that I truly prefer foods that make me feel good. I'm a dessert person, which is always how I describe myself, but I feel like by eating intuitively and giving my body the thing that it's wanting, I eat really well. And I think if you eat well, then you live well. That's really at the core of my philosophy.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.