The Store-Bought Ingredient That Ina Loves

She uses it to make her all-time favorite dessert.

Host Ina Garten with Chocolate Banana Pie, as seen on Food Network's Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics, Season 13.

Host Ina Garten with Chocolate Banana Pie, as seen on Food Network's Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics, Season 13.

In the new season premiere of Barefoot Contessa: Cook Like a Pro, Ina focuses on dishes that combine an expensive element and a basic ingredient. She enhances her potato and celery root puree with a little bit of store-bought truffle butter. Truffle butter is one of her store-bought secrets for elevating simple ingredients. “I order like six of these, keep them in the freezer and they're really inexpensive.” While Ina is known for her amazing homemade food, she does use a few key store-bought shortcuts to make everyday entertaining accessible.


One of Ina's favorites is frozen puff pastry. She makes a number of delicious recipes with it including amazing palmier cookies. “Believe me if you had to make it yourself, you would never make palmiers,” Ina says. Her Easy Sticky Buns and all-time favorite dessert, Apple Galettes, also make use of this shortcut ingredient.

Palmiers
These cookies are so easy you could probably make them in your sleep. Ina takes just three ingredients – puff pastry, sugar and salt – and turns them into a crispy pastry, perfect when served with coffee. The best part is they bake beautifully straight out of the freezer.

EASY STICKY BUNS, Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa/Barefoot Classics, Food Network,
Unsalted Butter, Light Brown Sugar, Pecans, Frozen Puff Pastry, Cinnamon, Raisins

EASY STICKY BUNS, Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa/Barefoot Classics, Food Network,Unsalted Butter, Light Brown Sugar, Pecans, Frozen Puff Pastry, Cinnamon, Raisins,EASY STICKY BUNS, Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa/Barefoot Classics, Food Network, Unsalted Butter, Light Brown Sugar, Pecans, Frozen Puff Pastry, Cinnamon, Raisins

Photo by: Matt Armendariz ©2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved

Matt Armendariz, 2014, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved

Easy Sticky Buns
When Ina used to make sticky buns at her store Barefoot Contessa, they were made with a yeast dough that had to rise in the oven overnight, “Who has time for that?” she asks. To save time, she developed a recipe around frozen puff pastry that take about 10 minutes to prepare. Her clever technique involves assembling the pastries upside down inside a muffin tin so she can just flip them over once they are out of the oven. “I was hoping it was going to be as good as the original … it’s even better,” Ina gushes.

French Apple Galettes
Finally, Ina uses frozen puff pastry to make a classic treat. “I don’t think there’s a French pastry shop or French bistro that doesn’t serve an apple tart and the truth is, it’s a real simple thing. It’s just pastry, apple butter and sugar. And it’s my all-time favorite dessert,” she says. “How do you say, ‘How easy is that in French?’”

Watch the premiere of Barefoot Contessa: Cook Like a Pro Sunday at 12:30|11:30c.

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