The holidays are filled with delicious baked goods as gifts and as beautifully plated snacks for when family and friends come over to visit. Your oven will be getting more of a workout over the holidays than it probably does throughout the rest of the year. Even if you are an experienced baker, the stress of pleasing your guests and getting everything finished in time can lead to some common holiday baking blunders, and while some of them are salvageable, there is usually no turning back. Instead, prevent disaster entirely with these tips on how to prevent common holiday baking mistakes.

Burnt Cookie Bottoms

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell, but even a few minutes too long in the oven can lead to blackened cookie bottoms and a not-so-festive taste. Always keep an eye on the oven when you’re baking cookies, especially if you’re working with an oven you’re not used to. Keep in mind that cookies tend to harden slightly after they’ve cooled, so you may be able to take them out of the oven just before they appear completely done. Keep the pan in the middle shelf of the oven. Positioning the pan lower in the oven can prevent the tops of the cookies from burning, but it makes the bottoms cook faster, so your best bet is to position it as much in the middle as you can. Use parchment paper, a cookie mat, or an insulated cookie sheet to block some of the extra heat. If you do burn the cookies, you may be able to save them by dipping them in a chocolate coating or creating sandwich cookies and using the cream frosting middle to cover the burnt taste (keep in mind, this does not work for severely burnt cookies).

Overflowing Batter

Nothing ruins a baking adventure quite like batter overflowing the pan and burning at the bottom of the oven. Always keep in mind that dough rises. When you fill your muffin, cake, or loaf pan with batter, never fill it more than three-quarters of the way full. Keep an eye on the oven as your baked goods begin to rise. If it seems like they’re dangerously close to spilling over, put a cookie sheet on the rack below to catch any drips (this will save the bottom of your oven). Then, once your baked goods are done, trim any unsightly edges that resulted from the overflow and use frosting or a coating to smooth it out.

Your Cut-Outs Spread Too Much While Baking and Lose Shape

We’ve all experienced this problem. You place your adorable cut out cookies on the cookie sheet and stick them in the oven, but by the time they’re done baking, they have spread and become distorted blobs that somewhat resemble the cookie cutter shape, but mostly look like they’ve gained a coupled holiday pounds themselves. The reason for this? Your butter was too warm. When you bake with cold butter, it takes on air as it heats and that’s what gives your cookies that fluffy texture but also helps them maintain structure. You have to keep your butter cold until it goes in the oven. This means keeping your butter cold as you add it to the flour mixture (cut it in or use a cheese grater) AND as you roll it out and shape it. Your dough should always be chilled just before you roll out the dough, but cutting out cookies can take time and the more you roll it, the warmer it becomes. Don’t be afraid to take a break from cookie cutting to set your dough in the refrigerator for a little bit and regain its chill. Never let the dough get warmer than 65 degrees Fahrenheit before it goes into the oven. And, don’t put your cut out cookies on a hot pan. Wait for the pan to cool to room temperature from the previous batch if you don’t want blobby cookies.

You Overheat (and Burn) the Chocolate

Many holiday recipes contain some variation of a step that includes heating chocolate (or white chocolate, or peppermint bark, etc.) over the stovetop. Simple enough? Not so much. This step requires careful attention, and if you’ve ever burnt chocolate, you’ll understand why (hint: it’s not pretty and it doesn’t smell good either). While the best way to melt chocolate is over a stovetop, you never want to expose it directly to the heat source. Instead use a double broiler, or fill a pan halfway full with water and bring the water to a simmer (not a boil) while placing a metal mixing bowl that fits in the pan enough so that the water touches the bottom of the bowl but it is not completely submerged in water. This way, the hot water is actually what heats the bowl that contains the chocolate, not the harsh stove heat. This also allows your chocolate to melt more gradually. You should be stirring the chocolate often to ensure that it melts evenly and it doesn’t burn.

Your Blueberries or Chocolate Chips Sink to the Bottom

Nothing’s better in a muffin or loaf like the addition of blueberries, cranberries, or for the sweet-tooth, chocolate chips, but if you’ve ever taken a bite of your finished creation only to find that these morsels have sunk to the bottom, you may be reconsidering making this treat to impress your guests. The problem? Your batter is too thin and the fruit or chocolate pieces are heavier than the batter they’re supposed to be suspended in. Over-stirring your batter can lead to a too-thin consistency. Be sure to mix ingredients only until they are well incorporated. If a recipe tells you that there may be lumps in your batter, let the lumps be! If you’re adding fruit to the batter, before mixing the wet ingredients with the dry, toss the fruit in the flour mixture enough to coat them, then remove and add them at the appropriate step the recipes calls for. The flour coating will help the fruit stick to the batter and stay in that position, but only use flour that is already part of the recipe or you might make the batter too dry. If your batter seems too thin, sprinkle the fruit or chocolate on top of the batter just before placing it in the oven. That way, the morsels will sink into the batter but hopefully get caught in the middle where they should be during the baking process.

What holiday baking mistakes are your biggest problems? Share your tips on how to avoid baking mishaps in the comments section below.