The best Thanksgiving baking tips from Ina Garten, Erin McDowell, and more pro bakers

It’s the most wonderful baking season of the year, and to help you bake your best, we have top tips from some of the country’s best bakers, pulled from conversations on the Things Bakers Know podcast. Below, you’ll find Thanksgiving strategies from upcoming podcast guests Ina Garten (episode dropping November 23!) and King Arthur’s Martin Philip (find his episode November 16), as well as guests from previously aired episodes, including Erin McDowell, Helen Goh, and many more of our baking friends.

Photography and food styling by Liz Neily

Ina Garten warns against quadrupling a recipe, even if you’re baking for a lot of people 

“The one thing I think people think they can do is multiply a recipe times four and think it’s going to come out fine, which it won’t,” Ina shared on her forthcoming podcast episode. Instead of taking one recipe and just multiplying by three or four, she suggests either baking the original recipe multiple times, or doubling it and baking two or three times, depending on how many people you’re feeding. Just don’t multiply more than once! If you do, the leavening and flavoring starts to get thrown off. 

If you’re baking for a lot of people, Ina also suggests making recipes scaled for a baking sheet. As she explains, “It’s easier to bake, and it’s easier to cut.” We’d recommend Slab Chocolate Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Cake Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting, or Walnut and Oat Slab Pie. 

Another tip from Ina: Don’t make a recipe for the first time! 

While you may be excited to try out a show-stopping recipe from a brand-new cookbook, Ina recommends resisting temptation. “You don’t want to test something you haven’t made a million times,” she cautions. “Even for me, it adds enormous stress.” Instead of turning to a first-time recipe, Ina highly recommends that you “do the things you know will come out perfectly every time.” And if you do want to make a new-to-you recipe this Thanksgiving, consider baking it once or twice in the weeks leading up to the holiday, so you have the chance to practice and work out any kinks (like figuring out make-ahead components or fridge storage) before hosting on the big day.

Erin McDowell says that to avoid a soggy bottom, precook your apple pie filling

No one wants a soggy bottom on their pie, especially a super-juicy one like apple pie. Erin McDowell has lots of tips to avoid a soggy bottom, but her biggest one is to precook your apple filling before assembling your pie. “We can't necessarily predict how juicy any given fruit is, so even if you're using the same apple … each time, they are going to be a little bit different,” she explained on our podcast episode all about apples. Precooking the filling allows you to adjust based on the juiciness of the fruit you’re using that day. “If you're dealing with not-very-juicy apples, you may not have to cook it as long. If they're really juicy, you may have to cook it longer, but the process is the same.”

Stacey Mei Yan Fong wants you to know your fridge is your best friend

Pie crust can be incredibly intimidating for some bakers. But pie queen Stacey Mei Yan Fong says the key to success is sometimes to chill out, figuratively and literally. “The best thing you can do is just chill, as in calm down. You're not doing brain surgery,” she reminded Jessica in our Thanksgiving pie episode. “And also use your fridge!” As she points out, “the minute things start getting too wet or things start getting too warm, that's when people panic.” So take a moment to chill the dough and make it easier to work with. If the butter's getting soft or your pie dough is getting difficult to work with, just put it in the fridge to cool down for 10 to 15 minutes.  

It’s not just the fridge, either — your freezer can also be incredibly helpful. Stacey likes to freeze her pies before baking, which she says helps the crimping hold its shape as it bakes. And remember that, as Stacey points out, “Pie is kind of a lesson in patience.”

Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

Make sure your apple pie filling bubbles, says King Arthur Baking School’s Amber Eisler   

On our special Holiday Q+A Extravaganza dropping November 23, King Arthur’s Director of Baking Education Amber Eisler has a crucial tip for avoiding runny apple pies — make sure you see your pie filling actively bubbling through the vents in your pie crust. As she explains, “It means the filling has boiled and bubbled, so the starches in the filling are actually thickening, which is a super important part of [avoiding a soupy pie].”

Guard the rolls! says King Arthur Baking Ambassador Martin Philip  

There’s a lot of cooking and baking happening around Thanksgiving, which means your oven can get pretty crowded, pretty quickly. But be wary of overfilling it. Even though your oven may have up to three racks inside, Martin Philips cautions against using them all at the same time. “Don’t make the mistake of crowding the oven when it comes to rolls. Let bread have its moment,” he says. Bake your pies the day before to save oven space; a turkey, too will stay hot out of the oven for hours. When baking rolls, you want “top and bottom heat, use your convection setting, make sure that air is moving,” says Martin. “Guard the rolls, y’all!”

Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

Helen Goh has a gentle remember to enjoy the process  

Cookbook author and professional psychologist Helen Goh believes in the power of baking to bring meaning and fulfillment to our lives. During this busy holiday season, full of messy kitchens, family squabbles, lengthy to-do lists, and lots of hosting, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. But baking can actually be a calming, comforting activity right now. “Some people say baking makes them nervous because you have to focus,” says Helen. But part of the therapeutic effect of baking comes from forcing us to focus on a single task at hand. As she points out, “that takes you away from all that white noise about what you did yesterday or what's going to happen tomorrow,” and instead allows you to live mindfully in the moment.  

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at King Arthur. If you run into baking troubles or just need a little support in the kitchen, our Baker’s Hotline is here to help. 

Cover photo by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.