Baking Legend Claire Saffitz Shares Her Favorite Store-Bought Shortcuts

Even the best of bakers use premade ingredients.

When it comes to baking advice, Claire Saffitz is one of the internet’s top go-tos. She’s the bestselling author of “Dessert Person: Recipes and Guidance for Baking with Confidence,” and a recipe developer and video host who won over our hearts while making our favorite childhood snacks and candies from scratch on Bon Appetit’s YouTube series “Gourmet Makes.” Oh, and she graduated from Harvard, has a master’s degree in culinary history from McGill University in Montreal and studied pastry in Paris at École Grégoire-Ferrandi. She’s kind of a big deal.

Saffitz’s latest project is a cookbook, “What’s for Dessert: Simple Recipes for Dessert People,” which comes out on Nov. 8. In the book, she demonstrates that you don’t need fancy kitchen equipment or even a celebratory occasion to enjoy a homemade dessert. The book is filled with more than 100 approachable recipes for home bakers at every skill level, and one of her favorite ways to simplify and expedite a recipe is by using store-bought ingredients.