Ina Garten's Favorite Creation Is A 'Simple And Elegant' Dessert Recipe

Known as much for her warm, inviting hostess persona as her culinary prowess, iconic celebrity chef, TV host, and author Ina Garten is one of our go-to sources for classic comfort food recipes. Over her decades-long career, Garten has developed and perfected tons of recipes, ranging from her easy, three-ingredient chicken to a bevy of delicious and decadent desserts.

Rather than chase fleeting trends or gatekeep gourmet techniques, Garten has built her reputation on teaching regular home cooks how to make hearty, timeless, seriously tasty food with no fuss. This year, with the release of her 2024 memoir, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens," Garten has publicly reflected on her straightforward culinary philosophy, including the "three-flavor rule" she uses when developing recipes. It's no surprise, then, that the dish she cites as her favorite invention is the French Apple Tart she called "simple and elegant."

In an interview with TODAY, Garten said the autumnal dessert is the thing she's made the most over her career. "It's got a crisp crust and sweet apples and butter and sugar, and it's easy to make," she added. What's not to love?

There's been a lot of debate over the difference between tarts and tortes, and tarts and galettes, all of which are deliciously crusty treats with sweet fillings. Though it's true that these definitions can overlap, Ina Garten's French Apple Tart recipe is a classic example of its category: an open-faced dessert with a puff pastry crust, juicy apple filling, and sweet glaze, that you can slice and eat out of the palm of your hand.

Though you can simplify your apple tart baking process with two store-bought ingredients, if you want to make Garten's prized recipe precisely like she does, be prepared to make the dough from scratch. Once it's ready, the tart is fairly easy to assemble. Garten uses sliced Granny Smith apples, sugar, and butter for the filling, then once the tart is sufficiently baked, brushes the entire pastry with a glaze made from sweet apricot jelly and Calvados, an apple brandy. For easy reference, you can find the detailed recipe on her website.

As the name implies, Garten's apple tart has its roots in French cooking — no surprise, given her well-documented affinity for the cuisine and for Julia Child, its iconic American representative. What's more surprising, however, is that, while Garten loves her own apple tart recipe, she's also a fan of Trader Joe's French-inspired apple tart, which she upgrades with a few special touches. So if you're leaning more towards a store-bought rather than homemade dessert, rest assured that Garten would still approve. After all, "store-bought is fine" is one of her most famous mantras.