These Are the Grocery Store Cookies Ina Swears By

When Ina Garten says to do something, you do it. For example, if Ina suggests buying a certain type of good vanilla extract, off to Williams Sonoma you go! If Ina Instagrams her method of effortlessly arranging flowers before entertaining a swath of Hamptons neighbors, you run to the florist. If Ina recommends using a very specific brand of canned San Marzano tomatoes, you use them — and don’t ask too many questions.

Let me put it this way: If we all had to hunker down and make roast chicken and drink whiskey sours every Friday night for the rest of eternity, in hopes of becoming just a little bit more like Ina, would that really be so bad? Especially if that meant we all had to save a little room for dessert.

In search of a post-dinner treat that epitomizes Ina’s essence, it’s hard to name just one. The archives of Ina’s cookbooks are filled with dessert recipes, but there’s only one grocery store treat that Ina swears by (and you can enjoy them without having to lift a finger): Tate’s Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Buy: Tate’s Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies, $42 for six, seven-ounce bags

Of course Ina likes these cookies. For one thing, the cookies (now mass produced) were once the result of a small mom-and-pop specialty food store in Southhampton — Ina even recommends visiting the flagship shop on her website. And secondly, like most of Ina’s favorite foods, Tate’s chocolate chip cookies are “classic with a twist.” They are buttery, loaded with chocolate chips, and are pleasantly salty, but instead of being soft, chewy, or thick, like other chocolate chip cookies, Tate’s are thin and extremely crispy. They’re the equivalent of cookie chips — and they’re ridiculously good.

Because Tate’s cookies are so crispy, they are ideal for dunking in a nice cold glass of milk. But, as with most things, Ina will take that glass of milk, and raise you an ice box cake. Her famous mocha chocolate ice box cake is the perfect example of the unrivaled potential of these crispy cookies. When layered (five stories deep) in a springform pan and covered with mocha whipped cream, these cookies soak in all the sweet goodness and (as all of us aspire to do one day) reach Peak Ina Nirvana.

Have you tried these cookies? Did you love them as much as Ina does?