What do you get for the person who has everything this Christmas? If they’re interested in cooking, Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten has some holiday gift ideas, including one she said most people don’t have but she uses “all the time.” Bonus, it’s super inexpensive and makes a great stocking stuffer.
Ina Garten shares her recommendation for the perfect Christmas gift
During a Dec. 11 chat with Katie Couric, fans asked the Food Network host a number of questions. Since she’s well-versed in all things kitchen and cooking-related, one fan wondered if she had any gift recommendations.
“What are some of your favorite kitchen products — someone is looking for gifts to give — who love to cook,” Couric asked Garten.
The Barefoot Contessa had some ideas that you might not have thought of. “You know, there are two things that everybody … that very few people have in their kitchen that I use all the time. And I think they would be a great gift to give to somebody who is a cook.”
“One is a ruler,” Garten shared. “Most people don’t have a ruler in their kitchen.” She explained, for example, how a ruler can assist with measuring a pan or cutting things to a certain size.
“I’m always using a ruler. And also, a recipe says to dice something a half-inch and I just always want to check and make sure I’m doing it right,” she added.
Along those same lines, Garten said a scale is helpful so you can be precise if a recipe calls for a pound or half pound. “If you have a batter that makes two cakes, it’s nice to know it’s evenly decided between two cakes,” Garten noted.
She offered up a third gift idea — a microplane for zesting citrus. “I always think that the peel of the citrus has so much more flavor than the juice,” she said.
Ina Garten revealed her favorite Christmas cookie
In keeping with the holidays, Garten was asked about the Christmas cookies she likes and she had a fabulous suggestion for a dough that makes a variety of different cookie options, including her favorite.
Garten uses her basic shortbread dough recipe to make multiple cookies, cutting it into different shapes. Her favorite is linzer cookies, which sandwich raspberry jam between two shortbreads.
“I make these linzer cookies that are shortbread with raspberry jam in the middle, I make thumbprint cookies that have jam in the thumbprint … that’s my favorite combination.” she shared.
Garten added, “Actually what I do is I take that one basic dough, the shortbread cookies … from one dough, you can make all different kinds of cookies.”
During a Dec. 14 appearance on the Today show, Garten shared why she loves the linzer variety best. “That’s my particular favorite. There’s something about shortbread and raspberries together that I just think is incredibly delicious. Simple but really good.”
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