This Is Ina Garten’s Favorite Recipe She Ever Created

When Ina Garten speaks, we’re happy to listen. The celebrity cook puts home cooks at ease and inspires us to try new things in the kitchen. Whether it’s making a beef stew that’s baked, taking simple cornbread up a notch, or letting us know she’s okay with throwing together a store-bought dessert, the Barefoot Contessa gives us plenty of reasons to get in the kitchen.

Ina recently published a memoir and is doing the usual interviews authors do to promote a book. In an interview with Today, she revealed that she’d rather cook at home than dine out and that her go-to comfort food is butternut squash and apple soup (yum!). 

She was also asked what her favorite recipe was that she had developed. You might expect it to be something involved, like her version of beef bourguignon, but she went with a classic dessert that is now on our must-make list for this fall.

Ina Garten’s French Apple Tart

“I think the thing that I’ve made the most is the French Apple Tart,” Ina told Today. How timely, right? It’s peak apple season right now, and the cooler weather means we’re no longer deciding if it’s worth heating up the whole kitchen just by turning on the oven.

Ina said her French Apple Tart is “easy to make,” and it is. It does take planning, though, because you have to make the tart dough—which comes together quickly in a food processor—and let it chill for at least an hour before you can roll it out. For the dough, you’ll need flour, kosher salt, sugar, unsalted butter, and ice water—all very common ingredients for tart or pie crust dough.

After you’ve rolled out your tart crust, you’ll thinly slice granny smith apples, arrange them on the dough, sprinkle with sugar, and dot with butter. Then bake. When you take it out of the oven, you’ll brush on a mixture of warm apricot jelly with a bit of Calvados (a French apple brandy) then wait for it to cool. You can serve it warm or at room temperature. 

Ina’s tart is similar to Julia Child’s Tart aux Pommes, but Julia’s adds cinnamon and lemon juice to the apple mixture. For the detailed recipe for Ina’s version, head to her Barefoot Contessa website.

Ina told Today this dessert is “just simple, and elegant, which I love.”

We love it, too—and just realized that we laid out the menu for a fantastic fall feast here, all courtesy of Ina Garten. Beef stew with a side of cornbread and a French apple tart for dessert? We’re making our grocery shopping list to buy all the ingredients needed right now!